Introducing the new eBay Feed
Yesterday, eBay announced The Feed. It’s live immediately for around 10% of users and will roll out to all users by the end of the year. At some point it’ll be coming to eBay UK and the rest of the world and this is kind of a big deal as it replaces the eBay homepage.
First thing to ask is, what’s it replacing? The answer is mainly advertising. That’s going to cost eBay a fair amount and while it won’t affect most sellers it’s going to hurt the Outlets used to having homepage takeovers.
Once you opt in to The Feed you’ll find a single banner at the top of the page but everything else is based on your interests. No two people’s eBay homepage will be the same – everyone gets their own personal view.
Get to know The Feed
If you want to have a preview of The Feed, then you can opt in by going to www.ebay.com/feed. You’ll see a bunch of suggestions with a feed set up by eBay, but as soon as you start picking your own interests, you’ll get your own custom Feed based on the things you like.
Why this matters to sellers is that it allows buyers to find what you have for sale. If your interests are hoodies; laptops; televisions; and ladies tops then you might see a fair proportion of items from Outlets. If however your interests are Dr Who; Startrek; Beethoven; and Monet you’re going to see a very different Feed.
Impact for Sellers
The Feed is going to be great news for sellers with unique inventory such as collectables, art and antiques. If you happen to be selling Kangxi Chinese porcelain your items will show up in the feed of any collectors who have added Kangxi to their Feed.
Images have always been crucial on eBay and they become even more so now because eBay will have image quality algorithms in place. White backgrounds are always preferable, but borders, watermarks and busy backgrounds may result in your products being dropped.
Use of catalogue and Item Specifics will ensure that as buyers filter their feed, your products are included. Currently filters are category, format, condition and price, but I’d expect these to be increased, especially for fashion to enable size filters.
What does it look like
That really depends upon what your interests are. The eBay homepage is transformed into an infinitely scrollable page – the only limit is when eBay run out of products that match your interests.
You may see some Daily Deals featured in your Feed. eBay are likely to experiment with products that could be enticing to you, but mostly your Feed is stuff you’ve expressed an interest in. The Feed will automatically notify you when there are new listings that match your interests and a cut down header floats at the top of the page with the basic navigation options.
The Feed
DBL says
3:04 pm on 11/10/2012
I like it, dare I say, it’s very Pinterest
Dan Wilson says
3:31 pm on October 11th, 2012
Yes, it is. But I think that’s the right kind of copying. ;O)
There’s no doubt that images are central to eBay/ecommerce and it makes sense to me that they should be pushed to the fore.
Gary says
3:14 pm on 11/10/2012
Something I do like. There is no way any of my buyers are going to be interested in the current home page content. Home page content that is more relevent to their interests should have the effect of increasing the number of return visits to ebay and possibly to my listings.
rick says
3:19 pm on 11/10/2012
if I were a collector of kangxi china I would not rely on the off chance ebays feed would show me it, I would simply enter and save a specific search
rick says
3:40 pm on 11/10/2012
fresh and glitzy now, I wonder if a buyer will know or care what was on their home page,in a few weeks time, it has every chance of becoming a pretty background collage thats ignored
Dan Wilson says
3:45 pm on October 11th, 2012
Well, perhaps. But don’t forget that it will change over time as listings expire etc. And also, I would hope that eBay will make the process less manual.
If it could learn what I like from what I buy or browse and present those ideas cleverly it should be a good “discovery engine”.
dw
Chris Dawson says
4:02 pm on October 11th, 2012
I’d be very surprised if there weren’t a whole host of additional features in the future and clever ways to add things to your feed.
Click to follow a seller
Click to follow a search
Click to follow an item (Not an item but if you’re viewing a black Dolce & Gabbana dress you’ll be able to instantly follow similar black Dolce & Gabbana dresses if that’s your thing.
More background information on how the feed was built and the inspiration behind it to come later…
Linda says
4:03 pm on October 11th, 2012
I thought this to be the most interesting of the changes. It has flaws in the detail but seems to welcome back to eBay those who are selling one/few of a kind items. It could bring back some vibrancy to eBay.
Having played with setting up the feeds I suspect casual site visitors might not bother with the effort. For the antiques/collection buyer who visits regularly it could be a good thing, especially if the software refines item inclusion based on real search/purchasing decisions.
Curious as to whether the feed data is ‘social’, a popular feed being promoted to others etc.
Chris Dawson says
4:14 pm on October 11th, 2012
Feed data isn’t social yet, but it’s definitely coming! Mark Carges explained that eBay are already close to releasing the next few steps down the ability to share purchase ideas with friends or draw inspiration from your favourite fashion guru for example.
Also coming are some “shopper personalities”, to help casual buyers get started they’ll be able to pick say a sports fan, the home improvement guru or the fashionista profile to get started.
You probably also noticed the suggestions for your feed… expect these to get smarter too
Loopy says
4:08 pm on 11/10/2012
Er, isn’t this what Etsy do??? Come on Ebay, don’t imitate, innovate!!
Mike says
5:20 pm on 11/10/2012
As a seller of collectables, this does it for me.
I gave up a proper job to trade full-time on eBay and was a bit jumpy with some of developments earlier this year.
Nice to see eBay did listen to the smaller guys after all.
Simon Everett says
10:00 pm on 11/10/2012
It’s interesting that ebay are putting more emphasis on quality of image like Amazon’s strict jewellery white backgrounds.
I’m sure the days will not be far off when ebay will require white backgrounds, no borders or watermarks.
I think with personalized pages you are more likely to notice something out the corner of your eye that you have some vague interest in rather than me looking at a car or a dress I have no interest in.
I want the free extra images though.
Come on ebay when will the UK get them.
USA have em and Aus but not yet for us.
Anyone any ideas when we will get them.
ttfn
Simon
hawkwind says
10:15 pm on 11/10/2012
Am i the only one who thinks this is to benefit the outlets.
ie will the feed be based on what (a sort of best match ) pointing at the outlets.
kangxi china rare but what if you prefer DVD,s or something more popular there wont be room for all so will it be best sellers or what.
this sentence says it all for me
[quote] If your interests are hoodies; laptops; televisions; and ladies tops then you might see a fair proportion of items from Outlets[quote]
Dan Wilson says
10:40 pm on October 11th, 2012
Isn’t the critical point that it’s up to you to set your variables? Previously, eBay has taken the lead to display what it thinks you want. If that’s Outlet stuff, you can select it.
But is it’s Clarice Cliff, Murano glass, 78s and panda bear teddies, then you’ll likely never be bothered by Outlets again on the homepage.
eBay is giving up control. That’s notable.
rick says
6:48 am on October 13th, 2012
surly only having what interests you on the home page is counter productive, for ebay and its millions of items,how do you buy if you never see or know about it
Gary says
8:56 am on October 13th, 2012
Slightly puzzled that something that ebay actually does that seems to be beneficial to the small niche seller is claimed to be counter productive for ebay?
Why should we show concern about ebay’s ££££££££££?
Focus on our own £££!
I am absolutely confident that if we focus on our own £££ then ebays £££££££££££ will take care of itself!
I do buy on ebay and I can tell you that as a buyer I would welcome a home page that shows me subjects that I am actually interested in!
Maybe I am alone in this but it is the first page I always enter ebay through.
Does that make me unique?
Maybe ebay are catering for me alone and nobody else worldwide?
Buying on ebay helps with the understanding of the psychology of the ebay selling side.
rick says
9:14 am on October 13th, 2012
we are sellers and never enter from the home page we enter from our sold page,?
and we want our wares seen by those who dont realise they are interested ,those that are interested are already actively looking for them,
rick says
9:55 am on October 13th, 2012
this buyer interest thing has a down side, for instance we are very interested in computors, they are essential to our business, though once bought , we have little interest unless they go wrong, so would be irritated by perceived better offers after purchase, we would not add computers to our homepage list and simply search when we needed one
Stephen Walder says
12:30 am on 13/10/2012
It’s like taking a stroll through a carboot sale; I like carboot sales.
I didn’t think eBay had good vision but they’re making a fair few bold moves of late and, well, I’m liking it.
Finally they seem to be coming of age! To be honest I thought they’d lost it for a while but actually they were just busy growing a set of balls.
Eddie says
6:18 am on 13/10/2012
Seriously – when did any of you ever visit or need eBays ‘home page’ ?
I am assuming, like me, most sellers and buyers have their entry preference page bookmarked, such as My eBay, or list of items selling, I personally could not even describe eBays current home page if my life depended upon it, its that long ago since I visited one
Home Solutions says
9:00 am on 13/10/2012
This is AWESOME! Yes of course people don’t bother with the current homepage. Reason? Because it’s not worth bothering with. It’s irrelevant. But by making the homepage personalised to your tastes? Bingo!
Customers will come to love this. So what if it’s similar to pinterest, it’s not like pinterest invented the concept of images boards and even if they did, if by imitating them a little it helps customers become more engaged, return more often and buy more items, what on earth is wrong with that? Amazon is going to look like the surgery wall of a 1950′s prison kazi in comparison.
Well done ebay!
John Pemberton GMDC GLobal Ltd says
11:04 am on 14/10/2012
I love these new features ebay are delivering on their site. Exciting times for retailers using this marketplace.
rick says
12:56 pm on October 14th, 2012
yeah its a great new feature that mini top rated seller logo
rick says
1:01 pm on October 14th, 2012
and we cant contain our excitement at having to use ebays picture service so the new view item page works as ebay intends
Gary says
9:06 am on 15/10/2012
and we are extremely excited by the removal of links to our ebay store. yeah exciting times for retailers