Overview A beta, by definition, is a work in progress about which we solicit feedback. So let me do a bit of introduction, then I'd love to hear from you.
The current version of My eBay is one we call "Classic." It is primarily blue. The beta, on the other hand, is primarily yellow and also includes "beta" in the breadcrumb and page title at the top of the page.
There are two reasons for changing anything: 1) It's broken. 2) There is room for improvement. We're making changes to My eBay Classic for several reasons that fall into both of those categories:
- Customer Satisfaction: Surveys are showing a decline in satisfaction with My eBay Classic, dropping 15% last year. That's one indicator among many that shows that at least part of My eBay is broken.
We also see room for improvement. For example, while nearly 80% of buyers and sellers think that just the right amount of information is shown in My eBay, less than 30% think that information is
extremely organized. The ease of managing that information does not rate much higher.
- Scalability: As more and more features get added, the My eBay Classic design requires more and more columns. This is creating a very cluttered appearance, which can only be eased by expanding page width--something not possible for a significant number of our members. For new members, this cluttered appearance also makes it seem that using My eBay is far harder than it really is.
In addition, our technical infrastructure needs revisions to be able to support both new features and new functionality that is now available on the Web.
My eBay beta has reduced clutter via a redesign and organization into three primary tabs: Activity (for your item activity and transactions), Messages (for communications), and Account (for account balance information for sellers, seller dashboard details, and member site and notification preferences).
A major change last May--in response to the first round of testing--brought back traditional containers/sections to My eBay (e.g., Watching, Bidding, Sold), and brought back columns into those containers so you could easily scan information and sort it. We're still in the midst of tweaking the beta in response to round 2 (e.g., still to come: sorting by seller ID in Watching, and adding "Add Note" in the Take Action menu).
We're also making changes to help put the "My" back into "My eBay." For example, we recently added the ability to organize items by grouping them into lists that you create. I'll describe that next.
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Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
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