eBay, one of the internet’s first auctioning site, has recently gotten a makeover. Originally, the logo for eBay consisted of a red “e,” a blue “b,” a yellow “a,” and a green “y” with the letters overlapping one another. In 2012, the company made the letters a little slimmer, a little less cartoon-y, and got rid of the overlap. Back then, according to Adweek, “Toning down the logo is likewise meant to be metaphorical–with the streamlined mark embodying a ‘cleaner, more contemporary and consistent experience’ offered by eBay.” Now, eBay is playing with color even more, but not in the flashy way their logo started off. “Fill Your Cart with Color” is a new eBay campaign aimed to personalize the online shopping experience.
According to the company, “A new study conducted by eBay found that 9 in 10 Americans (93%) want the things they buy to reflect the ‘real them,’” Since this study, the eBay homepage has undergone a complete transformation from their old site and will also change to each user’s account depending on their search history. The new homepage has a major focus on colors, featuring circle graphics with specific hues and headers for easy navigation. For example, right now they have a green circle featuring the image of a Google Home Mini with the title “Tech.” Next to that is a lime green circle with a brown purse entitled “Fashion.” The more you browse through eBay, the more the pages and circles will customize to your interests. To showcase eBay’s new platform, they partnered with 72andSunny to create a new video ad promoting how “beige is boring,” echoing back to the idea that eBay is a different kind of shopping, one that is vibrant, practical, and accessible. According to eBay’s VP of Global Brand, “Individuality and self-expression are at the heart of the eBay brand, delivered through an extraordinary breadth of inventory from around the world.”
As if that isn’t enough, eBay also recently set up an airstream shopping pop-up for the month, à la Google’s Home Mini. The company has been parking an airstream in major US cities, which has been occurring since Black Friday, for an interactive shopping experience. Already it has made pit stops in New York City, Chicago, and Denver, but it will also appear in Seattle and San Jose. At the airstream, employees will tell you about current eBay deals through AI technology, give away customized hot chocolate, and you can also play the ever-so-fickle claw crane arcade game to win prizes featured on the site. A friend of mine visited the Chicago location and said, “You could win awesome things like the new Nintendo SNES classic, a Star Wars bobblehead, AirPods, eBay gift cards, and Fuji camera.” She and many other people she witnessed had little luck with the claw, but she did note that the game was also filled with plastic balls stuffed with colored confetti that corresponded to the item inside. At their kick-off event in NYC, eBay had some help with the launch to draw interest to their new branding and deals. eBayinc states, “Shopping expert Anna De Souza was also on hand to share her holiday shopping tips and highlight eBay’s Price Match Guarantee and Guaranteed Delivery Programs, reminding shoppers to ‘check eBay’ for all of their holiday gift needs.”
What do you think of eBay’s “Fill Your Cart with Color?” Comment below.
