eBay displays additional photos in its mobile app in the default view. Mobile shoppers who are part of the test population will see thumbnail images below the main photo without having to make any additional clicks.
A product manager for the iOS/Android application who works on the item display – the listing page with title, price, photos and description – posted a note on eBay’s discussion boards on Friday, asking what people thought of “ebay’s new image viewing experience.” .”
“We know how much our buyers love seeing all the pictures and we thought this would be a great way to engage with all the photos,” the manager wrote.
Last year eBay made images bigger and added a photo counter and a new gallery view, the manager said, adding that eBay was curious to see how customers think of the latest change.
One commenter said easier access to the images could only be a good thing, but said: “Encouraging buyers to read the description is the most important thing you should do with the apps.”
Another seller suggested eBay should give more prominence to listings with videos, both on the listing page and in search. “The search results page should have a filter (something like ‘contains video’) and preferably an icon in the actual search result entry so that a shopper can see this at a glance if they click through to the item view page they will come across a video.”
Highlighting videos would give sellers more incentive to take the time to add videos, the seller added.
Buyers and sellers can add their comments to the thread on the eBay iOS app discussion forum.
Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner is co-founder and editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on e-commerce since 1999. She is a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and the author of Turn eBay Data Into Dollars (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book Blogging Heroes (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (September 2005–present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (March 2006–present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to [email protected] See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
