Earlier this week, Ebay was plagued again by severe technical issues. According to ebay the disruption was due to scheduled server maintenance. If you sell on Ebay or visit frequently, you may remember the design update a few weeks ago. Below is a snap-shot of “Best Match” Cassini search results for the keyword phrase “apple keyboard”. At first glance you can see from the design update (Image #2) an additional 1k listings were added, however the top two seller spots have not changed.
The new compact design places more emphasis on price point and image. The top-rated seller badge, which was once front and center has been moved off to the right and replaced by price point, shipping, and total watchers.
The previous update was not a subtle change. Ebay had this to say:
“Today, some eBay users are experiencing issues when signing in to the site. Based on our initial investigation, this appears to be the result of technical issues that occurred during scheduled server maintenance. It is only impacting a portion of our users; most eBay users are unaffected. We’re working to resolve this issue quickly and will continue to keep our customers updated. We apologize for any inconvenience to our users. We will be updating our customers via our systems board and social.”
Did these major design changes affect the service for thousands of sellers and buyers? Its hard to tell without having a direct line to the ebay design team. I can say however when a new design change is rolled out (in accordance with ebay’s track record), you can expect technical issues (big and/or small) to affect its members following larger design updates.