Dive Brief:
- EBay launched its “Wish Bigger” seasonal campaign housed on its new "holiday hub" website.
- A key feature of the hub, which shoppers are directed to via a “Grant Every Wish” link on eBay’s home page, is its "holiday heatmap,” which tracks hot items — what shoppers in different regions across the country are both buying, and what’s on their wish lists. EBay’s 25 million sellers can also use the heatmap to market popular items thus far, such as the Barbie Dreamhouse Grocery Store & Playset, to consumers.
- After the holiday rush, eBay will set up in-person stations at select Westfield shopping centers on Dec. 26 and 27, for what the marketplace has dubbed, “Boxing Weekend.” At these pop-up locations, consumers can sell unwanted holiday items (or anything else) on their own, or for free, via eBay’s Valet service of professional sellers.
Dive Insight:
The holiday campaign comes as eBay looks to expand beyond its second-hand merchandise auction model and moves towards a becoming a bonafide e-commerce platform with new merchandise at fixed-prices.
eBay’s strategic move towards retail, which came into sharper focus since its split from payment service PayPal in July, is being led by new chief merchandising officer Suzy Deering, who joined the company in August.
“We don't want to be the place where people come in and get out— we want to be about discovery,” she told AdAge.
For the holidays, for example, the company has signed up hundreds of employees devoted to researching information for sellers around Black Friday and Cyber Monday on trending merchandise.
