John Donahoe, the incoming chief executive at eBay, talked to the NY TImes about some interesting plans for improving his company. One of his main priorities will be improving the site’s lackluster search function, which makes it very hard to find the needle you seek amongst the larger haystack.
But Mr. Donahoe hopes to go way beyond simply finding products easily. Using all the information the site has about regular buyers and sellers, he wants the search to return the best products, from the best sellers, for that particular customer.
“On eBay we have data about what people actually purchased and bought. As we begin to capture and use that data, we believe we can provide the most relevant search experience that takes that inventory we have and delivers it to a buyer so they have good choice.”
For example, he said, “sellers that provide reasonable and fast shipping, even free shipping, will rise to the top.”
I’m not a frequent eBay user, so I’m not sure how the company’s core customers would react to such a change, but it sounds attractive to me. The current system never gives me any confidence that I’m actually getting the best product at the best price, and I’d welcome anything that changed that.
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