It’s been a while since your last eBay bidding war, hasn’t it? Your online shopping process may have altered slightly in the past ten years, but eBay’s new Pinterest-esque redesign is looking to bring online auctions back into style.
On Wednesday eBay President David Wenit revealed “The New eBay,” a collection of design, social and commerce enhancements that seek to refresh the entire experience. “Search results are no longer enough,” Wenig writes in a letter to users. “Consumers want insight. And they want personal, curated selection that is relevant to them, controlled by them.”
eBay will provide this curated experience via what we can only assume is a Pinterest-inspired user feed. The new design puts an emphasis on imagery, while maintaining the ever-popular simplistic feel. As seen below, the “Feed” is a curated list of items that eBay thinks might be of interest to you. Algorithms are based on categories that you “follow” as well as past purchase history. It’s like a Facebook Newsfeed filled with stuff you can buy.
On the social shopping side, eBay’s enhanced profiles “let you share interests with other eBay buyers and sellers.” You’ll also be able to check out friends’ homepages to see which products they’re interested in.
eBay’s site redesign is an obvious nod to visual media wave ushered in by popular social networks Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. Other brands have capitalized on this social-visual trend, including notable cases like Fab.com’s user experience to Anthropologie’s Tumblr strategy. It sure is nice to look at – but will visual media sell products?
