eBay evolves the online shopping experience

 

Taking inspiration from Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, eBay in the US has launched its new look site that it believes will deliver a much more rewarding online shopping experience. The key elements of the new site are a new visual design, that relies heavily on rich imagery, and a more personalised offering, including recommendations based on a member's preferences, interests and previous purchases.

New features include a personalised home page with personalised recommendations, a Facebook style ‘News Feed’ and the ability to follow products or brands. The curated personalised homepage takes design cues from Pinterest and trends we’re seeing in aggregation apps such as Flipboard, Rockmelt and now even Windows 8, with a ‘tiled’ layout the relies heavily on rich images.
 

 

There are also functional improvements with members able to get to key product details faster and complete a purchase in as little as two clicks. In addition users can link their Facebook page and sellers have the opportunity to embed YouTube video.

In a signal that there is a need to improve the online shopping experience, eBay's chief technical officer Mark Carges said a lot of online shopping "killed most of the pleasure of shopping" and that "we are reintroducing all those elements."

Mobile remains an important element for eBay with executives citing that people in the US spend more time on the site from mobile than desktop. In fact, 10,000 vehicles are sold each day on eBay mobile in the US. 

The new design is due to hit ebay.com.au in November, with additional features slated for roll out in the New Year.

Find out more here http://www.ebay.com/new

 

Learnings for us: Despite the nation’s apparent appetite for taking up new technology and trends – social, mobile, tablet just to name a few – our big brands have been slow to take the lead on the online shopping front. As a result the online shopping experience is far from enjoyable, particularly compared to the offline experienced.

There’s an opportunity to follow eBay and lead the way on delivering an enjoyable online shopping expereince - beyond simply making products available for purchase online. The two key elements are visually rich and personalised. We have the opportunity to move beyond the functional, list and thumbnail layout of most online shops, to a layout that is more intuitive and visually stimulating. We can personalise the site for individual users in terms of content, products and recommendations, based on a users’ preferences, interests and behaviours. The reward for this investment would see people place greater value on the site and brand, meaning they’ll place more value on it, use it more often and be more open to the recommendations provided.