It’s been a big year for eBay. Marketplace uptake by consumers is booming and brands and retailers are really upping their eBay offerings in order to keep up. Earlier this year eBay launched Guaranteed Delivery. This program allows eBay’s 168 million active shoppers to filter out search results to show only items that are guaranteed to arrive in three days or less. At a time when shoppers are 45% more likely to purchase if they have confidence the item will arrive within 2-3 days, this is a great opportunity for consumers and retailers alike.
EBay is continuing to evolve its platform, with the intention to streamline the user experience, increase visibility for brands and ensure a consistent and user-friendly shopping journey for the consumer. So, what’s next?
Evolving the Shopping Experience
EBay has announced that it is introducing a product-based shopping experience that will be more streamlined to benefit consumers. For retailers, this means you will need to match your listings for selected categories to the eBay catalogue. The new product-based shopping experience will group listings with the same eBay Product ID (ePID). Buyers will then be able to find products more easily. By ensuring that it meets their search criteria, shoppers will have a faster and more accurate shopping experience on eBay. The top product slot for an item will appear using an algorithm that combines factors such as price, inventory, delivery experience, seller standards and return options.
You may have already noticed that Seller Hub and My eBay are showing recommendations on your existing listings that need to be updated to comply with the new requirement.
Category Listing
EBay is also making changes to category listings to enable more accurate search results for buyers. This means you will need to ensure your items are listed in the most relevant category. Items listed in two categories will incur the higher of the two categories final value fees when your item sells. EBay is also making updates to categories and classifications, including adding, removing, merging and renaming, to ensure a more streamlined search process. If you category is affected, eBay will automatically move you to the most relevant category.
eBay Stores
Starting next month, eBay is introducing new eBay stores. Its aim is to enhance browser security, SEO and mobile optimisation. If your current Store doesn’t have custom pages, it will be automatically migrated from May 2018 and will retain the same URL. If you do have a Store with custom pages, you will be invited to opt-in from May 2018, or will be migrated to the new store at a later date.
The new Stores will have a similar look and feel to the eBay homepage for a consistent user experience.
As always, if you want to know more about any upcoming changes and how they might affect you, contact us today.
