eBay gets social with sexy new features
With more and more companies joining, revamping, or promoting the social aspect of their campaigns, it is a good time for eBay to jump on board.
eBay recently announced the introduction of a set of new features to make browsing and buying on eBay more personalized and inspiring.
“The world is changing, with the lines between online and offline commerce blurring and the expectations of buyers and sellers rising rapidly,” said Devin Wenig, president of eBay Marketplaces. And their answer to this change is to accelerate its efforts into local commerce, as well as extend its popular eBay Now delivery service to twenty five additional markets by the end of 2014.
eBay Marketplace gets social
eBay has introduced two different areas of features and expansion: the new eBay Marketplace and local commerce.
There are five new features for the eBay Marketplace that you need to know about so you can begin being social: collections, curators, follow, profiles, and eBay Today. Collections are groups of products that have been hand-selected from eBay’s 500 million+ expert curators, buyers, and sellers. What is a curator? A curator is a top trendsetter across a variety of interest areas, who creates collections on eBay to help you find something you will love. ‘Follow’ is a simple, one-click way for you to customize your feed by following the collections, curators, eBay users, and interests that are most helpful to you; very similar to the way you follow a person or product on Facebook.
Profiles is a customizable page available to users and sellers, where you can share information about yourself, your collections, and your interests for people who may soon ‘follow’ you; again, very similar to Facebook. And finally, eBay Today is a new page that helps you easily discover the very best collections of items on eBay, selected daily by eBay’s Chief Curator and Editorial Director, Michael Phillips Moskowitz. Think of this page as “what’s most popular, or trending.”
Acquiring Shutl, making deliveries within the hour
In the area of local commerce, which in case you have not heard is a service available through iPhone, Android, and desktop web which allows users to have products from local stores delivered in as little as an hour. eBay Now is one part of eBay’s strategy to enhance the local marketplace and help retailers take advantage of technology to reach more customers, thereby increasing sales; eBay has made new additions as well. eBay Now hopes to expand, including Dallas later this year and London in early 2014.
They have also acquired Shutl, which is a marketplace that uses a network of couriers to deliver local goods the same day. This will help eBay’s goals of expanding the local marketplace even further. Finally, they have added in-store pickup and scheduled delivery. The in-store pick-up is currently available for Toys “R” Us and Best Buy with more retailers joining soon. This gives you the added convenience of buying an item through eBay and picking it up while you are out. And scheduled delivery provides a way for users to buy something and pick a time that works for them; insuring they are home when their item arrives.
Brands should take ntoe
With the addition of all of these features, it is important for buyers and especially sellers, to take a look around the new eBay and insure you have your profile set up, interests entered in, and start adding items to your collections. This will help make sure your product is reaching the largest audience possible, while taking advantage of eBay’s new social features. And if your brand is not involved in eBay, it is important to note the shifting tide, evaluating your own approach.
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