Amazonification of product pages with value box
by Chris Dawson
eBay announced in the Spring that they’d be testing and introducing an Amazon style buy box on eBay product pages and TameBay reader Jimbo has spotted them starting to appear on eBay UK.
The “Great savings from eBay sellers” box sits at the top of the product page and highlights an offering from one seller along with the discount compared to typical prices available on eBay. Although currently we don’t know the full criteria to appear in the value box doubtless it’ll increase sales and sellers will be competing to win the position on the page. Generally it’s expected that priority will be given to competitively priced products with free shipping and Top Rated Sellers.
The value box will appear for popular items in some categories like Music or Electronics. Rather than a basic page of search results buyers will be presented with a page that displays the products associated with their search terms. The product pages are likely to be expanded to more categories with pre-filled catalogue information used to match products.
eBay say that product pages have a higher sell-through rate than search results pages and that it’s not possible to buy the value box position, it’s awarded based on the value proposition each listing has to offer. In this example the 11th listing out of 15 was promoted with the value box.
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16 Responses on "Amazonification of product pages with value box"
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They don’t always show the best deals either, if you’re not a Powerseller or TRS forget it, even if you’re the cheapest. All the other listings are neatly hidden away on another tab.
Reason #4532 why I’m moving away from eBay.
Just wait for the next lot of changes, other sellers items on your listings, think it wont happen, just give it time.
The “Great savings from eBay sellers” box is just more clutter on an already crowed screen.
I have achieved this little green box on several listing and I can’t say that I have noticed any difference in sales.
What I find difficult to comprehend is even though one of my products is identified as a ‘Great Saving’ it is still placed below other items from sellers who do not have TRS status, which are more expensive or who charge postage by listing on ebay Eire.
Sort of makes the “Great savings from eBay sellers” box somewhat pointless.
It might make a bit more sense if ebay sorted out best match – yet another mixed message from ebay
With my buyers hat on I prefer the amazon buying experience. In certain categories they limit the type of sellers allowed to sell. Pages are uncluttered and homogenous. Fees are very high so this keeps prices at a sensible level. There are too many so called business Sellers on eBay not paying tax and trashing margins and not delivering on customer service. The move towards amazons style should also be matched with a streamlineing of business sellers and proper credenials being displayed.
I could comment on this latest desperate, bit of nonsensical clutter on the eBay search page, but why bother as you won’t publish my views!
How’s your pre-Xmas sales going Chris, better or worse than last year? I’ll put my money on them being worse than last year.
You see Chris if eBay management had even a clue about what they are doing and actually did anything about controlling the unscrupulous sellers that infest eBay auctions, the honest ones might still have a chance of making a living on eBay. Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen as eBay management can see no further ahead than the end of the current month, and eBay therefore inevitably continues its cruise down the sewer under the stewardship of the head turkey, “Noise” Donahoe.
Fixed price sales: have a look at the “completed listings” of any medium-sized seller and see the few islets of green in the oceans of red; eBay must almost have reached the point of making more money from listing fees than from FVFs. What a shame it is that the “big boys” are possibly not paying any listing fees.
I’m betting on a further reduction in staff, revenue and a further YoY devastation of profits in the December quarter. What do you think Chris? I look forward to your blog comments thereon shortly after 21 January …
Why eBay want to enter an already crowded market, I’ll never know.
eBay needs to go back to its roots. Seriously.
In these recessionary times it should be making money hand over fist with auctions. There must be loads of private sellers out there who have lost their jobs who would relish the opportunity to make money by clearing their attics, but won’t do so because of sky high fees, and the risk of not getting any exposure after paying them (best match tends to bury a lot of listings).
All ebay needed to do was invest in security and verify seller AND buyer credentials – rather like what a bank might do if you tried to open an account.
It is never going to win the battle with Amazon. Period.
The Daily Mail ran a story on eBay this week (I forget the headline) and it received so many negative comments by both buyers and sellers/ex-sellers (decrying the changes and urging the site to go back to what it once was) that it looks like eBay’s PR machine were successful in having the article pulled from the front page in less than 24 hours.
eBay is on the road to suicide. John Donahue has to go. The Glassdoor (a website where employees can anonymously comment on the company they work for) shows that he has a 20% approval rating from staff. Compare that with Amazon’s CEO’s 71% and Google’s CEO’s 87% and it demonstrates that not even his staff are behind him.
eBay will be a shadow of it’s former self it it continues down this route.
Wont work on ebay its all to do with the way the site works – you dont list iems on ebay with barcodes – SKU – PLU etc with the exeption of cds/dvds
Box does not work on amazon, so why wud ebay want to use something thats proven not to work
Mind u saying that thats right up ebays street – techy stuff that dont work = ebay
Is there eBayification of amazon going on as well? Was searching for a printer yesterday and it seemed to me like the search was beginning to be a bit clogged. I couldn’t find what I wanted with the buying and delivery options I wanted.
Bound to happen as more and more sellers join Amazon, thankfully it’s not yet the easy selling option that eBay is.
Is there a Tamebay for Amazon?
Is there a Tamebay for Amazon?
No, but we’ve long said there should be. If any Amazon sellers are interested in becoming TameBay correspondents, please gimme a shout. sue at tamebay dot com.
I think it could be a very quiet site news wise. Amazon just gets on with things and gets the job done right first time everytime. Being a proper retailer they’re unlikely to do anything stupid or newsworthy apart from making lots of money. Unlike eBay which is like a daily soap opera. always some news, gossip or daft change to argue over.
What Dick said.
Richard, agree – but there is *some* stuff. Which we’d like to cover. And as neither Chris nor myself sells on Amazon, I put it out there as a suggestion if anyone’s interested.
I’m really struggling to think of any news that affects anything greatly on Amazon this year from a sellers or buyers perspective. The only slight change to the way I’ve done a limited amount of business on their in the past couple of year is having to click to say I’ve sent an item before a customers card is charged. Other than scanning in a barcode and pasting in a line of text for each item there isn’t a lot to selling on Amazon, it’s just pick, pack, post, the way it should be. No NPB’s no combined P&P issues, no stupid questions, no worrying about what daft change they’ve made this week or what features they’ve broken, etc. I had a ten month gap in selling on Amazon and didn’t notice anything different when I went back, something I wouldn’t be able to say on eBay.
It does seem ridiculous how much eBay fiddles around with things compared to Amazon. We spend 4 or 5 times as much time dealing with eBay yet take twice as many orders on Amazon
Still, I’m sure there’s lots of important Amazon info I’m totally ignorant of.
Does anyone understand Asin Authority?
I put some products on Amazon about a year ago, maybe longer. We get an email to confirm an order, I sign in. Thats it.
Not once in all this time have we ever had the need to sign into amazon other than to get order details or mark as despatched. I can’t even remember what we have on it, and I won’t bother looking. I have never looked at a amazon message board/forum, don;t even know if they exist.
I am however putting the money we pay to amazon to better use next year and concentrating on adwords, amazon rob us on average of £100+ a bath in commission, that gives me chest pains
There are various things that could be discussed about Amazon. 3rd Party packages helping to manage listings and sales, the whole penny pinching issue and how to deal with it, Buy boxes, Seller Central / marketplace differences.
Granted it is a doddle compared to Ebay mind
Bryn