eBay have announced some big changes which are already being rolled out on their US site and will be coming to the UK in 2013. These changes start up front and centre on the auction site’s home page and spread out over the entire site including search pages and each and every eBay listing.
By Chris Dawson, Tamebay
It’s no coincidence that eBay had already revealed a new logo for the Marketplace, and one that now differs from the corporate logo. eBay have a new management in place, led by Devin Wenig the new the eBay marketplaces President. For the first time in many years, eBay marketplaces have a full management team in place focused solely on the marketplaces business.
So why these changes, it’s all about personalisation, the auction site’s new team are empowering their buyers to personalise their eBay experience and see the products of interest to them, rather than eBay showing products that eBay think you may be interested in.
The biggest change coming in 2013 will be the site’s Home Page with the eBay Feed.
The Feed displays products based on keywords that you’ve told eBay are specifically of interest to you. It could be the band you follow or the fashion designer you love. At this time of year you could be looking for Halloween and Christmas decorations but later you may remove these interests from your feed, and your feed will naturally evolve as your tastes change.
eBay won’t just show you CDs and DVDs for your favourite band though, eBay know that you probably already their music, so there will be a breadth of products and merchandise related to the band to tempt and delight you – things that you may never have seen before.
In recent years eBay have focused heavily on attracting high street retailers to the site. They’ll continue to work with brands, retailers and designers to ensure the site is full of new fixed price goods at great prices. However the news that should excite smaller independent retailers is that the products from high street retailers will only be shown to the buyers who are interested in them.
If you’re a seller of antiques and collectables, stamps and postcards, or memorabilia then eBay will with the Feed start to showcase your products directly to those buyers.
Auctions will also feature highly in buyer’s Feeds, unless they’ve specifically indicated to the website that they only want to purchase in a fixed price format. Up until now eBay have struggled to surface the unique one off auction item as generally only a small subset of buyers would be interested in the item.
With the Feed and a highly personalised buying experience eBay are able to showcase different products to different buyers and yes, your items will be featured in to the buyers who want to purchase them.
eBay have a new logo, but that new logo is only an indication of what’s to come. The will be an entirely new eBay, a highly personalised eBay, and it’s an eBay which will connect sellers of the unusual, the unique and the desirable directly with the buyers looking to purchase.
It’s likely that more products from the site’s traditional base of sellers will be surfaced than those from high street brands and retailers.
2013 will be a new beginning for eBay. At the launch, Devin Wenig, eBay president said “Consumers want personal shopping experiences that are not intrusive but inspiring, experiences that don’t dictate but guide and assist, in ways that feel authentic and natural. That’s what eBay intends to deliver.”
Tamebay.com
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