Friday, 12 October 2012

eBay's new home page and what it means for your business

By the end of the year, eBay will have switched over all eBay accounts so that they all contain the new home page layout. Currently the page is in the testing phase, with around 10% of all account currently having the new format. 

The new format will have an opt-in feature meaning an eBay user can choose to have the new layout or just keep the old eBay homepage. If they choose the new layout, they will have the eBay banner at the top of the page but then the rest of the page will be based on the new feed system. The feed system collects data from your account based on your own personal interests and some of the products you have viewed and purchased from eBay stores in the past. The feed then displays a stream of products within the eBay marketplace that they believe you will be interested in. However, should the feed contain products that you do not want to appear on your homepage, you can customise the layout so that the products appearing on the page are exactly what you would like. 

The real benefit of this will be for stores who sell products that are based within niche categories with less competition than some of the other major sectors. Users can not only filter their product results by category, but also by specific keywords within that category. The less products online stores within the category  the better the chance of your products appearing on a user's home page. This will not only make more people aware of a specific product in your store, it will increase traffic to your store and most likely result in increased sales.

The new layout also shifts the focus primarily to the product image. In the past, the image was just another aspect that entices the user along with the title and product description. Under the new feature, as the homepage will now just display images of various products you may be interested in, having the right picture is going to be incredibly important. If you have a product on someone's homepage that has a poor quality image in comparison to the other products near it, it stands to reason that a user is going to be less likely to select your product over one in another ecommerce store. 

Take a look at the new feed layout below.



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