As we first reported last year, eBay.com was developing a new Pinterest-like homepage called The Feed. In a hat-tip to ever greater personalisation, The Feed displayed eBay items directly on the home page based on a user’s preferences and buying habits.
It has taken the better part of a year, and doubtless, a great deal of testing, but now the Feed is live on the UK site as standard.
Alexander von Schirmeister, Chief Marketing Officer, eBay Europe, commented: “The future of commerce is personal, it’s tailored. Today’s shopper wants speed, convenience, choice… but above all greater control than ever before. Imagine a storefront where the customer continuously controls what merchandise is featured. The Feed makes this a reality.
The Feed navigates eBay’s huge selection of items and inspires shoppers with a regularly updated selection of products, offering them their very own personalised shopping experience. When they see something they like, they can bid or buy immediately, and they can constantly continue fine-tuning their feed to become more customised and personal. The Feed makes inspiration instantly shoppable.”
Whilst this change is desirable, it’s unclear how inspired or revolutionary it is. A quick look just now on my machine shows that eBay still wants to be in control.
The Feed is entirely below the fold and underneath a big space for eBay’s own marketing collateral and also a banner ad for Citroen. I have also spent some time adding keywords to my Feed preferences over the past few days and still the selection seems quite hit and miss. Work on the algorithm that determines what’s shown clearly needs a great deal more work.
How is it for you?
4 Responses
The first item on my feed.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-3690-Good-For-Spares-/171085636244
Back to the drawing board Alexander.
It’s not all bad news.
https://awesomescreenshot.com/00b1jsyk81
Not sure on the connection between L Shape baths and swimming costumes from China but hey, it’s early days.
I like it; in my line I am constantly looking to buy similiar and Feed seems to be throwing up stuff I would not normally consider; it works well for me and has become mandatory viewing
I’m obviously even more stupid than I already thought I was, but how is one intended to access this page, can find no links for it on the pages I usually access.
Can someone post instructions?