In today’s eBay UK Autumn Seller Release, eBay have announced new enhancements to the shopping experience. It’s certainly not critical for you to make any changes in order for your listings to benefit, but it’s worth taking note of the changes as small tweaks in your selling methods could have an incremental increase in sales in the future.
eBay Image Search
With eBay Image Search, buyers can now upload an image from their phones or snap a picture to find similar items on eBay.
Previously, you may have had items for sale that were exactly what buyers were looking for, but you were reliant on buyers to use the correct keywords and filters to find them. Now, eBay are able to catalogue your items based on what they look like and match them to image searches made by your buyers.
You should already be taking clear images of items for sale on a plain background, this becomes more essential than ever with image search. Simple changes, like using an image of a shirt on a mannequin (rather than a picture of a folded shirt) enables eBay to determine attributes such as if it is a short sleeved or long sleeved shirt.
Visual Shopping in the eBay app
Building on Image Search is ebay’s new Visual Shopping feature which combines words and pictures to help buyers explore their options on eBay.
Now, when they find a potential purchase in the eBay app, they can expand the listing to find similar options based on the listing’s image and filters. This gives you new opportunities to get your inventory in front of buyers who are considering purchasing similar items from your competitors and is where the Required and Recommended eBay Item specifics come into play – if you don’t complete the Item Specifics, WITH common values that eBay habitually display to buyers, then your items won’t be found via visual shopping.
Saved Sellers & Watched Items
eBay are following up your sales via email and encouraging your buyers to save your profile as a Saved Seller. This means they’ll be immediately notified when you’ve created new listings.
With Watching, eBay have made it easier for buyers to filter their Watched items when they access eBay UK on their mobile device away from the app. This creates a smoother experience and helps engagement with Watched items. eBay are also combining Watched items and Saved searches/sellers to inspire new purchases on eBay with item recommendations.
