A festive red eBay logo has been spotted by merchants over on eBay.com. It looks like, rather like the red cups that come around annually at Starbucks, that it is a nod to the festive season that we hope is already fully underway and proving successful and offering a sales boost to you.
Perhaps predictably and understandably, some eBay merchants have been rather non-plussed by then temporary change to the logo, suggesting that eBay really should be expending energies predominantly on site stability, improving the platform and building new services for sellers. Such cosmetic changes have attracted the ire of eBay sellers on the discussion boards. One seller even said that they were confused and worried by the amended red eBay logo and were concerned that they gad inadvertently made a visit to a scam or phishing website.
An eBay employee has confirmed on the discussion boards that this is just a light-hearted change to the logo for Christmas:
Visual changes to the logo should not be cause for alarm. This is a common practice for the holiday season and we have made many changes to our logo over the years. Happy holidays!
– Trinton, eBay
It does seem like a strange thing to do on some levels. The multi-coloured eBay logo is one of the most recognisable corporate brand visuals in the world. But it has indeed been modernised since it first appeared back in the 1990s. That said it is also a fun idea to get people in the Christmas mood and such a minor change won’t have taken much in the way of resources to implement.
But have you seen it on eBay in the UK? We’ve had a look around and it hasn’t popped up yet on this side of the atlantic but perhaps it will materialise in the days to come. Let us know if you spot it.
4 Responses
looks so cheap
I wonder how much that cost them.
They could have put a little Christmas hat on it or maybe fairly lights.
Possibly the budget didn’t stretch that far in their graphics department.
Actually, that reminds me of our high street Christmas lights around 10 years ago.
There were about 5 dispersed at intervals on street lights.
Underwhelming and lacklustre !!
Merry Christmas to you too ebay! B-)
OOoooh, just spotted a mistake in my post, it should have said gender-neutral lights or transitioning lights.
Can we say flashing lights or would that be exposure lights?
Knowing how much time and effort (and expense) some retailers go to designing their websites and A-B testing any changes, it seems gob-smacking that eBay would just do this without telling anyone. Ho-ho hum.