eBay’s new listing template
by Chris Dawson
eBay are testing a new auction template which is being shown to selected users across the site. The major change is the introduction of tabs to pull all the relevant information together making it easier for buyers navigate the listing. At the same time they’re highlighting sellers feedback along with much clearer information on how long the listing has left to run and the cost and payment options.
There appear to be some missing elements on the test pages, namely item specifics and the links to about me page, reviews and guides, account type, seller location and the “add to favourite sellers” link.
The requirement to scroll to the bottom of the page for information such as shipping and payment information has been replaced with a tabbed view, the auction page has traditionally been too long. It’s questionable just how many buyers would scroll to the bottom to read the sellers terms. The tabbed view is in line with Scot Wingo’s recent advice to “Have links to shipping, contact etc above the fold in your auction descriptions“.
One point that will alarm many sellers is the warnings of low DSR scores which have been highlighted on some listings. In this case the seller has a DSR scores of 4.5, 4.3, 4.0 and 4.1 and a despatch time DSR warning is displayed.
Sellers are unlikely to welcome warnings to buyers displayed prominently at the top of their listings.
Overall I like the new layout, it doesn’t affect the listing frame with seller specified shop links and categories, nor the actual description so sellers will have little if anything to change if the test template is rolled out site wide. I’d like to see the missing elements replaced, especially the Item Specifics as many sellers (myself included) use those to convey information such as if the product is new or used.
Buyers will need to become accustomed to clicking tabs for more detailed shipping options but that shouldn’t be any harder than scrolling to the bottom of the page.
What do you think? Is the listing template eBay are testing an improvement or a step backwards?
Comments
44 Responses to “eBay’s new listing template”
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Looks ok.
Can’t wait for the PS board to erupt again, go and tell them biddy and make sure you point out the bit about DSR in big letters and repeat it several times
embiggen….
also remind them that they won’t be able to neg a buyer soon, and that discounts will only apply to high ranking powersellers, that should really, whip it up
But back to the point in question, if it makes it “tidier” then it will be worth it. It looks good to me from the screen grab. In relation to the DSR warnings, I wonder how many new sellers will be appearing soon!
@ Whirly: embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word
Just out of interest Biddy, what was the DSR score of the example listing you used, what do eBay define as low? do you know?
Whirly, from what I’ve seen, 4.0 and lower is “low”. The seller in Chris’s screen shot above has 4.0 for shipping time and 4.1 for P&P (or S&H as they’re in the US). I don’t know, therefore, if there isn’t a warning on S&H because there’s already a warning on shipping time, or because 4.0 is the cut off point for warnings.
Let me go surf .com for a bit and see what I can find.
Ah is it that time of the year? I love the changes to the View Item Page - it always ignites debate and then 2 weeks later no one recalls what the old one looked like!
I’m not sure that this iteration feels like a radical step forward (perhaps there are other variants out there?). It feels more like a case of repositioning the same information with the exception of the meet the seller theme and the social networking look style avatar. For some time that idea has been kicked around. I think, for something so simple, it brings some personality and identity to a listing - that I know for some is a motivating force in driving a bid/purchase.
Look forward to seeing how this develops. No video box yet…
Can’t wait for the PS board to erupt again
Ohhhhh I fancy watching a good bun fight…..
There was a post about this on the US PS board the other day, but no one else could see it apart from the original poster, I think eveyone else thought they were seeing things.
I just wanted to comment that I got a good giggle out of “Click to embiggen”. I see from the comments I’m not the only one. D’oh!
My ass will be dust now…it’s on the board
Because all my images are self hosted the image in the top left does not show, which is rather annoying. You get a blank square with the message “”seller did not add any pictures or check item description for details”.
Sue,
since some keywords will be “cloaked” (eg. Payment types, Shipping info, etc) I was wondering how will this impact the listing visibility as seen by Search Engines? will you risk a comment?
Oh - that’s interesting in a not so good way
Did you generally use gallery images?
OMG, I hope it’s not taking the seller picture from eBay’s My World thing, mine’s a picture of Kermit the frog.
PMSL - You know what Richard, I rather think it is
oophs
Oooops Indeed, think we’ll have to find something else……. I’m sure I can find a picture of Kylie somewhere. That ought to attract the buyers.
Biddy (pinched this)
5 = Excellent (very satisfied /reasonable
4 = Good (satisfied /reasonable)
3 = average (neither satisfied/unsatisfied reasonable/unreasonable)
2 = below average (unsatisfied/slow/unreasonable)
1 = poor (very slow/unreasonable/unsatisfied/inaccurate)
But eBay claim “this seller has low ratings for shipping”
Sue, what do you get if you click on the “Related Items” tab? Hopefully not a pile of other sellers listings.
Chris, I always use gallery but self hosted.
@ Whirly, absolutely. I do NOT know how eBay justify those labels, when they’re so out of kilter with the reality. But I’m pretty certain in the current climate, there’s no plan to change them.
@ Mario, I haven’t received any of the information you seem to be referring to, so I’ll refrain from comment til I have, except to say that eBay are very unlikely to do anything that would damage SEO for listings.
@ Richard: I don’t know, because I actually don’t have access to this layout. The screenshots were provided by a lovely TameBay reader: it’s obviously one of those things that they’re just testing on a few users. I’m hoping related listings is like the old cross-promo box that’s currently on listings, but I may of course be disappointed on that.
I’m hoping related listings is like the old cross-promo box that’s currently on listings, but I may of course be disappointed on that.
Hopefully you’re right. If it’s to other sellers listings then I’m pulling out of eBay, simple as that. I see no justification for me paying a fee to have others stuff on my listing, the sponsored links in the main pages are bad enough.
@ Jimbo: that’s VERY weird because my images are self-hosted too.
I would say the tabs idea has come straight from eBay Express. On EE there are 4 tabs - Description, Seller’s information, Seller’s other items and Related Items. The related items tab shows items from all sellers so it will be interesting to see what happens with this new layout.
Oh I think you’re spot on Steve!
Sue. not sure how you do your listings but mine are in SMP.
On the self hosting tab I have nothing in the first box “picture URL” And just have a URL in the “Gallery picture’ box. I then have the picture in my listing coded into the HTML. I have always done this to avoid the picture appearing again under the description. I imagine this is the difference.
Aha. That is the difference then - I have a URL in the first box.
Looks like I will have to go through all my listings (again) if/when it comes in! Oh bother.
adapt and overcome I dont care a bugger what ebay do as long as someone bids and buys
I will work with it ,around it, over it ,or under it
though this DSR thing is driving me crackers, me shipping goes from 4.7 to 4.8 and back again on a daily basis,
wish I knew why
Looks like they are testing this more in the UK than the US
Hi everybody,
My name is Subha and I can help answer some questions you may have about the new design we are testing.
1) We are testing in US and UK for 0.25% and 2% of our users respectively. Due to this extremely small volume, we decided to not do a broad announcement, however if you are a Voices member, they should’ve received an email notification of this test before it began, plus have discussed this project with them a few times. Again, only if users are in the test can they see the new design, any clicking on the ngvi.ebay.com url takes the user to the home page.
2) For the 1st two days of the test, we realize we had problems with the bidding and watch functionality and have corrected those.
3) We recognize that there still might be some performance issues in terms of speed and are working on this.
4) Regarding the questions you may have on the message we display for sellers such as “this seller has low ratings for shipping time, etc”, this is something we are again testing with the goal of increasing the transparency to buyers regarding detailed seller ratings (DSRs) of sellers, especially when the DSRs are low.
Just FYI - henceforth, I will be consolidating my replies on the thread provided below, so if you have any more questions, pls direct them there.
http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thr.....527&mo d=1203390343521&anticache=1203396768519
Thanks much,
Hi Sue,
I have the new view and when you click on the related item tab nothing happens which is a little worrying as it is live for 2% of users - when you then click the ‘back’ button you end up back within the list of items searched for.
I’m interested to know why your store categories are showing up as many others inc ours aren’t. Do you think that’s because you have a featured ebay shop.
Any ideas?
Hi Andy,
Wow, they broke it already… or are they going to sneak in other sellers’ items later when we’ve stopped noticing? /conspiracy theory
The reason my categories are showing up is that they’re hard-coded into my listings rather than using eBay’s listing frame. A mistake, actually, but it’s worked in my favour here :
Another conspiracy theorist found - finally!
So how do I get categories hard coded then?
And what do you do when you change categories - or don’t you ever change them?
Does this mean shop categories are going to disappear from listings?
How you get them coded is sit and type in the HTML (or better, nick and amend it from the source code of a page with the listing frame). Or you can pay me an inordinate amount of money to do it for you. And if you change your categories, you have to pull all your listings and do it again.
I think the fact that this format’s being show to so few people suggests that it’s very much a work in progress. It’s missing item specifics, FGS, so I wouldn’t assume that the listing frame will vanish just yet.
Yes, related listings shows other sellers listings. Also my shop header and logo doesn’t show anymore.
Sue - I think I’ll wait and see rather than pay jusy yet…
Thanks for the news, Moonmac, even though it’s not what we wanted to hear.
Andy
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