Sellers often complain eBay is focused on bringing more sellers onto the site, making it a more competitive and less profitable marketplace from their viewpoint. Two announcements on the eBay board on Tuesday indicate eBay is paying attention to buyers on its site.
The first announcement discusses a feature called Personalized Picks designed to help buyers easily find items they might be interested in (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200511011127052.html). The new section will appear in members' My eBay area in the "At A Glance" modules found on the eBay home page and on the Buy Hub. Personalized Picks displays categories, searches and items related to recent shopping activity. (Amazon is well known for the personalization features it uses to encourage sales on its site.)
The second announcement is a push to encourage use of the company's online payment service PayPal, but also encourages higher-priced sales. eBay said when buyers use PayPal Buyer Credit for purchases of more than $50, they will "make no payments for 3 to 12 months and pay no interest if paid in 3 to 12 months" (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200511010840402.html).
eBay will automatically advertise the promotion on eBay items over $50 as long as sellers accept PayPal and have not opted out of displaying PayPal Buyer Credit messages on their listings. PayPal Buyer Credit is a line of credit exclusively for PayPal members.
The verdict is not yet in on whether eBay's new advertising campaign is effective in driving buyers to the site (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m10/i21/s02). The campaign theme is, "Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay."
