{"id":61852,"date":"2012-10-11T08:14:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T06:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=61852"},"modified":"2012-10-11T13:56:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T11:56:15","slug":"ebay-gets-social-network-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/61852-ebay-gets-social-network-inspiration.html","title":{"rendered":"eBay gets social network inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online commerce giant eBay<\/a> unveiled a new look for its website Wednesday inspired by social networks, giving consumers personalized suggestions to help them sift through the huge shopping site.<\/p>\n

The e-commerce giant with 105 million active users will start giving its users a “newsfeed” and a “personalized homepage” with recommendations based on a user’s shopping history or personal interests.<\/p>\n

The liberal use of photos on the revamped eBay site seems to mimic the fast-growing social network Pinterest<\/a>. The eBay newsfeed appears inspired by Facebook<\/a> and users will also get a Twitter<\/a>-like option to “follow” products or brands.<\/p>\n

“We’re delivering a cleaner, contemporary look and feel; a more intuitive, convenient way to browse, decide and buy — both globally and locally; and a new personal way to curate your own shopping experience and discover items perfect for you,” eBay president Devin Wenig<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

The site will have “more inviting pictures” and allow users to click on an item and get key details, and then complete a purchase in as little as two clicks.<\/p>\n

At a news conference in New York, eBay’s chief technical officer Mark Carges<\/a> said a lot of online shopping “killed most of the pleasure of shopping” and that “we are reintroducing all those elements.”<\/p>\n

And eBay marketing official Christina Mercando said the personalization would help shoppers sift through the millions of items sold each day.<\/p>\n

Sellers on eBay will now be able to link their Facebook fan or profile page, and embed YouTube<\/a> videos.<\/p>\n

“These changes and more reflect the new eBay and our evolution as a marketplace that connects the world to the things they need and love –anytime, anywhere” said Wenig.<\/p>\n

Wenig said the “new eBay” would be increasingly global and mobile, reflecting consumer trends.<\/p>\n

“In a connected commerce world, consumers shouldn’t care whether the product they want is at a neighborhood store, or in a shopkeeper’s window halfway around the world,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The future of commerce is mobile. It’s increasingly multichannel via any connected screen. Consumers want to move seamlessly across devices, through any shopping environment.”<\/p>\n

Executives at eBay said some of the early bets they made on mobile are paying off, pointing out that people spend more time on the site from a mobile device than from a desktop, and that 10,000 vehicles are sold every week on eBay mobile in the US.<\/p>\n

Shares in eBay rose 1.2 percent to close at $46.76.<\/p>\n

EBay is set to release quarterly earnings next week. It had net income in the past quarter of $692 million on revenue that rose 23 percent to $3.4 billion.<\/p>\n

The company said in July it expected mobile volume from eBay and its PayPal unit to each hit $10 billion in 2012 — more than double the amount in 2011.<\/p>\n

But eBay’s moves suggest the company, launched as an online auction site, now sees a broader range of competitors such as Amazon<\/a> and Google<\/a>, as well as social networks like Facebook that are edging into ecommerce.<\/p>\n

One initiative for eBay is a same-day delivery service being tested in some markets. A consumer can place an order at a local partner retailer, and it is delivered within the hour.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

eBay updates its logo<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

EBay declares war on Amazon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

EBay shows steady growth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

PayPal wants ban on \u201cobscene\u201d e-books<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new-look eBay has added a number of features inspired by social networking sites<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":59889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[36,3720,10412],"class_list":["post-61852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-active","tag-ebay","tag-online-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61858,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61852\/revisions\/61858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}