eBay adds Collections feature to UK and German site

eBay has revamped its UK and German website to include several features that must compete with curation sites like Pinterest. eBay Collections allows shoppers to handpick items to create their own collection of must-have products that can be shared with others for shopping inspiration.

eBay Collections has been available in the United States since late 2013 and already more than a million collections have been created. Now it’s also active in the United Kingdom and Germany. With the new feature, shoppers can display their hand-picked items by theme or groups such as ‘fashion’ or ‘colour’. The collections are of course shoppable and eBay users can also follow other buyers, sellers and curators. eBay has launched the feature in the UK with celebrities like singer Dannii Minogue and designer Kelly Hoppen.

Curation tools
According to Sarah Calcott, senior marketing director at eBay UK, the new features represent the biggest suite of changes that it has introduced in this country. ““Shoppers are in the driving seat like never before and rightly expect an experience that’s fun and functional. That’s what eBay Collections is all about: the fun of browsing and discovery, that’s instantly shoppable”, she tells The Telegraph.

Of course eBay didn’t invent the wheel with its Collections site, as it clearly took some inspiration from Pinterest, that also allows users to create and manage collections of images that are organized around a certain theme. eBay’s big competitor Amazon launched Amazon Collections in August 2013. In an interview with Dutch ecommerce blog Emerce, eBay’s vice president European expansion and cross-border trade told Amazon isn’t a threat to them. “The main difference is that we do not own inventory and therefore do not compete with our retailers. That’s also the reason why we are looking for opportunities to work together with physical stores. We won’t start our own physical eBay stores.”