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Brands and retailers have swiftly amped up the online shopping experience to meet consumers’ needs during the coronavirus pandemic — and now, e-commerce is primed to enter the next frontier. But for older e-commerce brands, such as eBay, that means modernization of its platform and reevaluation of an evolving and growing customer base.
Here, Bradford Shellhammer, eBay’s global head of buyer experience, talks to WWD about modernizing eBay’s platform, consumer evolution and how the brand grew during the coronavirus pandemic.
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WWD: In your opinion, what is eBay’s sudden spike in buyers attributed to? Why has the secondhand market accelerated during COVID-19?
Bradford Shellhammer: Online shopping has seen exponential growth through 2020 as households have adjusted to new ways of shopping due to COVID-19. Data shows that e-commerce sales hit a July record of $66.3 billion, which is up 55 percent year-over-year. In April and May alone, we saw approximately 6 million new buyers join the eBay platform.
We’ve also seen a huge influx of small businesses join. Since March 2020, tens of thousands of small business sellers have been added to our platform. Shoppers are bargain-hunting from home or they are looking for very specific items, and the secondhand market provides affordable options that meet shoppers’ needs. We saw significant growth in verticals, including: Home and Garden, Electronics, Fashion, Auto Parts and Collectibles.
WWD: How is eBay modernizing and personalizing its 25-year-old platform? What are some of the ways shoppers have evolved since its inception?
B.S.: Everything we do is for our customers, and as e-commerce and technology has evolved in the past 25 years, so has the shopper. Consumers now expect personalization as a standard of service, and they expect retailers to understand their personal preferences and buying habits. Experiences must be fast, easy-to-use, frictionless, and available across devices, whether it’s desktop or mobile.
Increasingly, these consumer expectations are crossing into physical stores as innovative retailers adopt new clientele and customer service technologies that empower their associates to build meaningful connections with shoppers through personally tailored services.
We know the product decisions we make have a real impact on buyers, and we strive to create the best experience. To drive customized engagement, we’ve introduced new features like Dark Mode, which eases the online viewing experience and was our top customer requested app feature of the year.