Welcome to the new eBay

I'm not really that impressed to be honest. The feed feature is a rather trivial idea, eBay will never be Facebook so implementing a feed might be good for some, but I'll most likely forget it's there (unless it's the new default logged in view). The better checkout however is something that I am pretty happy about, I will reserve final judgement when this redesign goes live.

Still not digging that new logo though...

jtchang• 14 years ago

It is possible that ebay is worried about the new crop of companies that are slowly nipping away at its core business model. Specifically people are discovering things to buy through other means and not necessarily searching for them directly on ebay.

That said I like the design a lot. The old design was showing some age. I see they kept most of the layout so it should be semi familiar to all the power users.

interg12• 14 years ago

Ebay isn't ignoring innovations in eccomerce. I'd point you to their x.com (xcommerce) platform - it's pretty impressive what they're doing. check out: https://www.x.com/products

taitems• 14 years ago

The most disappointing part of it for me? It's still heavily tied to PayPal.

evoxed• 14 years ago

I dislike PayPal as much as the next guy, but what did you expect? ebay owns PayPal, probably everyone who uses ebay by now uses PayPal too, and loosening their grip would only make them less competitive.

joelrunyon• 14 years ago

Ironically, the reason they bought Paypal was because it was originally a competitive advantage for them :).

Funny how a decade can change things.

irreverentbits• 14 years ago

I'd guess PayPal would still be a competitive advantage if it were quicker to respond to competitors like Stripe.

fmavituna• 14 years ago

Usability of that announcement homepage is simply horrible.

eranation• 14 years ago

Yep, you get to the bottom and then? where is the so called call for action? or scroll to top? I was looking for a button to "let me in" and finally found a small "U.S. customers try it here!" link which I could hardly notice.

unless this is on purpose (to lower the amount of users somehow to let the system avoid a spike or something) then I really don't get it.

and after you go in, it's a pinterest wall.

timpeterson• 14 years ago

omg couldnt agree more, the main images being viewable through the vertically scrolling slit overlay thingy, wtf makes my eyes bleed

aw3c2• 14 years ago

First I thought my browser was broken, I am still not sure if it is or if it renders as intended. It is also too wide for my 1024px screen.

The feed's popups are too high for a 600px screen. And since it is javascript, you cannot scroll up and down the whole window frame. You cannot open items in tabs using ctrl, javascript will capture the mouseclick, you have to rightclick and choose from the menu. Did I mention how much I love javascript and its improvements to user experience?

nickreese• 14 years ago

I hope the usability of the shopping cart is better than this page. If not, it seems they may have stolen a page from GoDaddy's book.

chucknelson• 14 years ago

It may just be me, but I thought the link for US users to "try it" was not obvious enough. At first I thought maybe eBay was offline for a few days while they switched over or something (but then I realized that would be crazy!).

dazzawazza• 14 years ago

Ive been using the iPad App mostly as the website has been such a poor experience in comparison. I hope the new website goes someway to bridge the gap.

chubot• 14 years ago

Is it just me, or are the recent visual overhauls of EBay, Microsoft, and Google remarkably similar?

  - The logos all have red, blue, yellow, green (that was
    true before, but the shades they use seem more
    similar now)
  - flat styling with minimal drop shadows
  - using lots of white background and light grey lines/panels
  - more hard square corners than rounded
  - san serif fonts (very similar if not identical)
  - hovering over links underlines
  - full width backgrounds

I'm not a designer, but it just seems like a very common visual vocabulary. I wonder why the brands wouldn't try to differentiate themselves more? It has some similarities to Apple's aesthetic but less "sleek" with the multi-colors.

They're going for "clean" but to me it's starting to look a little bland.

nsns• 14 years ago

It's called fashion. You know, what everyone does to differentiate themselves from the herd.

schoash• 14 years ago

This logo looks like a first iteration in their redesigning process.

hm8• 14 years ago

This were precisely my first thoughts about the overhaul. But you'd have to agree that the newer layout definitely looks refreshing on all platforms except at Google where people took some time to come to terms with the changes.

cheneytsai• 14 years ago

I believe Ebay and Microsoft actually hired the same agency to do their redesign.

thejosh• 14 years ago

web 3.0 is here.

wallawe• 14 years ago

And their homepage is shockingly similar to Amazon's: http://cl.ly/image/2Z0w3q0G1g0y

reitoei• 14 years ago

> I'm not a designer

Yet you attempt to critique using phrases like "sleek" and "clean".

lowboy• 14 years ago

Why is that problem? Just because someone wouldn't define their job or profession as designer doesn't mean they can't have opinions.

Tichy• 14 years ago

Surprise: it looks like Pinterest. Yawn...

drivebyacct2• 14 years ago

Wait, wait, wait. Surely this isn't what I should see: http://i.imgur.com/kdKBT.png

I mean, those legs look interesting but I'm guessing that's not what ebay's going for.

edit: wow, I was dropped into the middle (basically right at the end) of the page. I didn't realize that... Is Chrome acting incorrectly? It goes to the top of the page without the '#' at the end. Also, those orange bag jpeg artifacts are not good. I would absolutely shudder to see what that looks like on a Retina display.

I actually quite enjoy it otherwise, but it really has to start at the top. (Surely I'm not the only one this happened to, it happens every time for me)

pajju• 14 years ago

Here is the new Interface Link - http://www.ebay.com/feed

Today, its the Interface that sells. My mom and sister love Pinterest the most in the web. I consider that - web is all about giving greater user experience for super easy discovery!

eBay has done a nice design change, and the Pinterest like Interface sells well for shopping sites.

The change is happening fast, users consume lot of content from tablets, mobile devices so Pinterest, Wookmark and masonary like plugins create beautiful grids and layouts for easy discovery.

But eBay should work more on their recommendation algorithms. It keeps showing me Tablets, even after I bought a tablet recently in eBay. It should stop showing me Tablets again. May be it should show Tablet accessories - Screen-guards, pouches and Connectors? I may be interested in buying them.

Also an option to personalize the shopping experience by showing Items from WishLists and Research-Lists is also missing.

hayksaakian• 14 years ago

Its so jarring to see eBay alternate between capital b and lowercase for no obvious reason. Anyone have a good explanation?

swang2• 14 years ago

Are there still ridiculously high fees associated with selling a product on eBay?

I have something that due to the niche of the product, makes it very hard to sell to anywhere BUT eBay. There are a lot of attempted alternatives in this niche but none provide the instant kind of payment you'd get from using eBay or have the quantity of buyers. It is truly the network effect at work.

What's my point about this? It's that the problem with eBay isn't because it doesn't have a Pinterest-esque style layout. No one really cares about eBay's dotcom style layout, or the fact that it the logo until recently was schizophrenic about it's capitalization. It's because they completely bone the sellers. If you're a seller on eBay, you're constantly juiced on every little single thing. You also have little recourse if a buyer rates you poorly (I guess punish him back by rating him badly too?). It's been a slow methodical shakedown of sellers and quite frankly people are sick of being nickel and dimed to death. So I hope this blows up in their face and that they continue to lose market and mindshare.

And I find it funny that eBay is now promoting that images are the way to go with this layout when for years they nickel and dimed sellers on photos (Is the max 3 without paying? I forget) and the photo quality of those images was always terrible, like someone set JPG compression to 50%

pawelwentpawel2• 14 years ago

That was the first thing I noticed. Even their logo is so badly compressed it hurts my eyes. And for example this part - http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/announcements/new/logo/te... - gives the impression that the front-end guy was trying to implement the design very fast. I liked the scrolling effect on the "promo" page though, quite creative.

mehulkar• 14 years ago

I'm assuming I don't really have an eye for design, but could you explain what's wrong with this infographic? Seems fine to me?

mbesto2• 14 years ago

> I have something that due to the niche of the product, makes it very hard to sell to anywhere BUT eBay...It is truly the network effect at work.

I get the impression you assume the network effect is something that just happens over night. The network effect is extremely hard to master and takes a lot of money/time to do so. Hence why the fees are as high as they are.

> So I hope this blows up in their face and that they continue to lose market and mindshare.

Care to elaborate? I wasn't under the impression ebay was doing either.[1]

[1] http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EBAY+Interactive#symbol=E...

swang2• 14 years ago

> I get the impression you assume the network effect is something that just happens over night. The network effect is extremely hard to master and takes a lot of money/time to do so. Hence why the fees are as high as they are.

Network Effect as in they use their sizable userbase to prevent any other competition in the space. For online auctions to work you need a large buyer base so it can attract a large seller base.

I never said it was easy or difficult, not even sure you need to "master" it, but who cares? That wasn't even an important point of that sentence, which was that it's difficult to sell anywhere BUT eBay because of the Network Effect

Fees are high because eBay has no idea how to keep earning money except to gouge people. They certainly can't make buyers pay anything so the sellers essentially get dumped with more and more "fees". I am still confused how that relates to the discussion about the Network Effect. They worked hard initially and now they deserve to gouge people who are using their site?

> Care to elaborate? I wasn't under the impression ebay was doing either.[1]

I cannot prove either but how does showing a stock price disprove what I said? They can still lose marketshare and still have a positive stock price. And they continue to make profits because they continue to bleed their sellers dry.

Ask anyone (or I guess, just sellers would be more accurate) if they would use eBay if they had to. They would say, "Fuck No", so why do they use it? Because, Network Effect.

dvdhsu• 14 years ago

> You also have little recourse if a buyer rates you poorly (I guess punish him back by rating him badly too?)

Hilariously, sellers can't leave negative feedback for buyers: http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/sellerprotection.html

If you're selling on eBay and something goes wrong (buyer claims she received a box of rocks), there really isn't much to do. PayPal and eBay favor buyers so much that if the buyer really wants her money back, she'll certainly get it.

philjohn• 14 years ago

I'm still puzzled as to why they didn't go with a system where the seller and buyer feedback are both secret until both have been set.

rada2• 14 years ago

That doesn't sound right. I bought a mobile phone on eBay and the seller sent me a unit that was (a) a different model and (b) clearly used. I jumped through all kinds of hoops, culminating in a letter from my lawyer certifying I received a different phone. The end result was, I could not return or exchange the unit, and my negative feedback and rating were erased. Stories like mine are legion. eBay emphatically does not favor buyers, they screw everyone equally.

robryan2• 14 years ago

eBay have ridiculously restrictive seller limits. I could probably be doing 5+ times the sales volume that I do now if I could list as much as I wanted to. I understand being cautious with new sellers but I don't see the logic of drip feeding sellers more limit after they have say 500 feedback that is all or close to all positive.

Amazon take 15% but let you list as much inventory as you want, they will likely restrict your account until some feedback comes in but after a few weeks this is lifted.

So amazon makes way more money off us and is a lot easier to manage. One of eBays problems I guess is that in some ways they are still rooted in the traditional model of small personal sellers and don't support big sellers that well.

s_henry_paulson• 14 years ago

Personally the only reason I go to eBay is to get away from "big sellers".

If it were a free-for-all everyone with a massive inventory would drown out all of the individuals (the core of the site).

robryan2• 14 years ago

I don't think eBay is really the best place for small sellers anymore either, they are kind of in between both models and not a leader in either.

alisnic• 14 years ago

The scrolling is lagging as hell on my laptop (Core Duo 1.6)

bradly• 14 years ago

Obligatory Pinterest Layout Will Not Save You link: http://jfornear.co/the-pinterest-layout-will-not-save-you/

chmars• 14 years ago

Already discussed:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4628594

fusiongyro• 14 years ago

I'm going to disagree, for several reasons.

First, eBay doesn't need saving. As long as they don't choose a UI that is needlessly onerous, they will do fine with or without. It will boil down to whether they are facilitating new users or pissing off old users; a better UI can increase growth, a bad one can reduce it, but when you're in the position they're in, a nice UI is practically a kindness rather than a necessity. Look at Craigslist.

Second, how much of Pinterest is essentially shopping without the purchasing? I'd venture quite a bit of it. I know my wife and sisters-in-law use Pinterest extensively, and they're mostly looking at things they want to buy (and recipes). Both Pinterest and eBay are about tapping into your greed as quickly as possible. It seems like a move in the right direction--and perhaps an implicit acknowledgement that they are Pinterest's principle competitor.

Finally, and this is kind of a technicality, the old layout didn't punish bad photos as much as it should. If you uploaded a shitty little photo, in the list view it looked the same as a nice big photo until you clicked through. Switching to an image-heavy master layout will encourage people to take better photos, and better photos will increase sales.

All things considered, this is the only site I've seen since Pinterest that really should be using this layout.

ed209• 14 years ago

I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of that logo, there are some nice ideas on dribbble http://dribbble.com/search?page=1&q=ebay

johnx123-up• 14 years ago

Bootstrap like design without using Bootstrap

Am I the only one to find it out?

hk__2• 14 years ago

YAPL — Yet Another Pinterest Layout

se85• 14 years ago

Wow, do they have any design or UX people over there or just an overwhelming level of nonsense politics or both?

It doesn't 'look' or 'feel' good at all.

Almost every change I see is a step back, instead of forward, which is crazy considering how awful it was before.

Then again Ebay's strengths were never in anything product related.

I do believe that Ebay is very strong in the business side of things which is the real reason why they are still here today.

Sadly the product has always been in a state of neglect, so maybe I'm crazy for actually expecting something different from them this time.

zizzer• 14 years ago

I'm guessing the same lumbering beast is hiding under these new changes, including the search annoyances like not being able to exclude whole categories from the results.

Jarshwah• 14 years ago

Am I the only one that really dislikes the pinterest style layouts? Off center, mis-aligned .. I don't know how anyone finds it usable.

shocks• 14 years ago

Works in IE8. o.o

MatthewPhillips• 14 years ago

A lot of negativity here. I like the redesign quite a lot. I don't think every website redesign needs to usher in its own new UI paradigm. I'm betting eBay has the data that shows many people click on a listing, look at the picture, then press the back button. Putting pictures front and center saves the user time. And it puts it on sellers to provide good pictures instead of just the stock photos.

sbate• 14 years ago

did they buy Etsy?

mdgrech23• 14 years ago

TERRIBLE!!!!

mkhalil• 14 years ago

Eff eBay. They will not let me SELL anything on eBay because I sold like 15 items at once liquifiying a cousin store. I canceled one and was late on 2. This was like 6 years ago and I was young and reckless. I made a new account last week to try to sell 2 iPhones I had laying around. iPhone4 32gb and iPhone4S 64GB, both unlocked. Was almost at 800 for both and coming down to the last days. POOF. They removed my listings. I called and they said they can't do anything and there isn't anything I can do.

I would sell on Craigslist but everyone wants to undercut or bargain the hell out of you. I guess I'll just put it there anyway. The phones have GOT TO GO.

Welcome to the new eBay

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