eBay UK is continuing its foray into producing enticing consumer content with the aim of encouraging buyers into shopping on eBay with two “online magazines” and a “Think eBay” message.
They’re well produced and draw in expert/celebrity content and also demonstrate the breadth of eBay’s offering. Rather like Collections launched earlier in the year (and of which nothing has been heard since) the idea is a showcase of eBay’s selection. No bad thing and I must say that they are very nicely produced and have a fresh, vibrant feel to them. Do have a look.
Here’s the fashion “Think fashion, Think eBay” section and I’ve extracted the Youtube video for your viewing pleasure too.
https://youtu.be/nmbe5tNlC_I
And the other buying guide under the Think eBay banner is electronics (and apparently Home & Garden will follow soon). Think electronics, Think eBay lives here.
I just wonder how effective this sort of thing really is. For starters, it’s pretty labour intensive and expensive to produce such content. But I happily concede that it’s terribly on trend.
Sensual, sassy content with a social media aspect is what brands are increasingly doing online. Indeed, fashion business ASOS does this sort of thing very well.
But I guess the difference is authority. Does eBay have the expertise to tell people what they should be buying or wearing? Specialist brands do have that authority with expert journalists in-house spotting trends and, indeed, forming them.
It’s not clear that eBay inspires similar trust as a commentating brand. All that said, it’s no bad thing to see eBay investing in marketing and we will be intrigued to discover how it progresses.
6 Responses
Looks to me like ebay shepherding people towards the big sellers who they want to promote…..
Another nail in the small sellers coffin…..
Desperate times; as ebay lose market share it will get to the point where they can’t hide behind price hikes – just today I have had a reminder that I my categories are capped and I only pay a maximum £10.00 on cameras..No I dont I pay 8%. I not longer list large ticket items on ebay, and doubtless others are following. We are learing there is life after ebay – ebay need more than this kind of thing to bring back buyers, and to get off the back of sellers.
Sold 1 item for £4.50 during 24 hour period from Saturday noon to Sunday. Never happened before. I am getting really concerned as we have expansion plans for this summer. What is happening to ebay? Some many sellers complain about low sales, surely this is worth a proper investigation Tamebay! Don’t you have mole within Ebay who could shed some light on what is really going on behind the scenes?
This has happend to me of and on over the years too. Each time I start a panic, is my business going down hill? Then , either within a day or at the longest I have had is 4 days, it is back up and running at its normal £400 a day, until it drops down again to £30. On average this happens once every 6 months.
Just to add to the current worries over Ebay. 10 years trading, and this is the worst traffic / sales I’ve ever seen. of course customer service are blaming the password issues, which I’ve no doubt are having an effect. However, it has been a gradual slip since about feb this year, and just seems to get worse and worse. This time last year I was at nearly £800 day. Today £38. I’ve invested heavily in new staff to try and meet all Ebay’s demands (even though I had 100% feedback and 1000’s happy customers). I’ve had all my product re-shot and they look great. I’ve tweaked titles now we can amened them using tera-peak to check best words. I’ve created a lovely bespoke store front and listing templates. But sales are just going down and down whatever I do. I’ve NEVER been so worried I won’t considering ordering any more stock or listing new lines but I know find myself in this situation. It’s not worth the risk when items that would always sell 10-15 a day (for years) can suddenly go to 3 then 1 then none for days on end and not recover. Spending my time and money investing in more scalable projects now such as bespoke branded items I can sell into off and on-line channels and I’ll be dumping the remaining stock wherever I can to free up some capital I think. End of an era really….Tired of trying to work out why, but it simply feels out of my hands and that is not a nice way to do business !
Good luck in whatever you do / do next people