Category page redesign
Hi everyone.
We recently made some changes to our product category pages to make it easier for shoppers to quickly find what they are looking for. We decided to tackle the category pages as they are pretty high up in the shopping experience making them very influential in getting shoppers an important layer deeper in the site. Additionally, we wanted to honor your feedback. One of the top requests from the seller survey was a desire to make it easier for shoppers to browse the site. Check out the Baby category page to see an example.
The biggest change was to the left side navigation. The old site category pages featured other categories most prominently and deeper, more refined, subcategories in a jumbled fashion in the middle of the page. To fix this we rolled-up the main category navigation as at this point most shoppers are interested in narrowing down their choices rather than hopping across different categories. We then moved the subcategories over to the left to make it easier for shoppers to get to the products they want fast. Underneath the navigation we’re featuring a rotation of two subscribing members who are active in the category. And below you'll find that anyone on the site has the ability to ‘like’ Bonanzle on Facebook. We’ll be experimenting with Facebook more in the future to drive traffic, liking Facebook is totally optional of course.
We also repositioned most of the product merchandising at the top of the page. We now feature three of our better selling subcategories along with deeper links to get users to items of greater interest more quickly. Towards the middle of the page we’re rotating a number of key items (mostly from subscribing members) from the category. The goal here is to give users a sense of the breadth of our inventory and a simple means to scroll through a sampling of items.
Our hand-picked lists and Bonanza merchandizing also got a tune-up. The hand-picked lists are still prominent, but also allow some room for more effective Bonanza merchandizing. We need to do a better job explaining what a Bonanza is and this is just the start.
Lastly, we cleaned up the presentation of the comments to be more inviting. We’re hoping to get more great dialogue going between buyers and sellers and opening up the form fields at the bottom has been shown to do that.
Thanks everyone for your constructive feedback!
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50 response to Category page redesign
Hi Alex,
I know you guys & gals work hard but….
I don’t know but I am a bit bummed.
My item was removed from the coins & paper money section for this.
What was wrong with the way items were chosen before?
Paying members just lost one of their perks.
:(
We like it Great Job.
PS – Why should the ability to “like” Bonz on Facebook be a basis to take away a perk that sellers thought they had through paid membership?
I hate Facebook (and so do many others) so I am doomed to never having my stuff be featured.
Sorry, but that does not seem right.
Facebook use should not be a requirement for any benefits on Bonz.
Our Premeire memberships were supposed to allow us these perks.
I am now officially very bummed.
:(
Hi Dakota:
Not sure where you got the impression that whether you use Facebook has any bearing on whether your items show up on the category page, but it does not. The link to Facebook is something we are exploring as a means to eventually keep sellers in the loop when new items are posted to the categories that interest them. If you don’t use Facebook for whatever reason, you are completely safe to ignore it.
As far as the premiere perk of having your booth on the category page, as Alex states, our subscribing members are still being featured on the category page as before, but rather than showing a booth shot (which often times did not even map to any item within the booth) we are showing actual, buyable items from the booths of our subscribing sellers. Along with text to make the items more relevant (and hopefully clickable!) to buyers so they will be more likely to visit your item / booth.
In revising this page, our dual goals were to make it easier to navigate & browse through a category, while still using it as a merchandising tool for our subscribing members who have great merchandise in the category. If the page is more relevant, than more buyers visit it, and if more buyers visit it, the benefit to all sellers (subscribing and otherwise) is increased sales.
Thanks for the feedback.
The end of the second paragraph Bill:
>>Underneath the navigation we’re featuring a rotation of two subscribing members who are active in the category as well as the ability to ‘like’ Bonanzle on Facebook. We’ll be experimenting with Facebook more in the future to drive traffic.<<
Does your post mean that the seller doesn’t have to have the ability to “like”? The blog reads as if they do.
Still bummed (none of my items show up in that short rotation).
Like the previously featured booth pictures, we randomly select which items to show in the “featured” area from amongst our subscribing sellers (changing the line up every 15 minutes). So do not despair if your items aren’t showing up this minute, they’ll surely come around (with frequency relative to how many other subscribing sellers have items listed in the given category).
Oh, and yes, users can “Like” Bonanzle via the widget, but it doesn’t effect their on-site experience, or whether their items show up on the category page.
ok
Morning Bill,
Sorry, I don’t get in here to comment often, but like Dakota, I am a bit miffed, and bummed to use his term that NONE of my items show any longer. I searched vintage, collectibles, Antiques and then went to sub category’s from my side, all I see is 6 sellers for those category’s. So… I am very confused here. I am a paying member, although it is month to month, and I am on facebook, although, that is not an issue for me, what is, is not finding my items in any of the cat’s they should be in. Very confused, so hoping you can clarify why this is? Thank you~
Thanks for fielding the early morning comments Bill!
And apologies to anyone I confused with my blog post. As Bill mentioned the Facebook like functionality has nothing to do with the rest of the page and is entirely optional. I edited my blog post so it wasn’t confusing the issue.
Also, subscribing sellers should be rotating through the ‘meet the sellers’ area for categories in which they have items listed. We’ll check to see if we have a bug here.
Lastly, and something I didn’t mention in my original blog post and have since fixed, items from subscribing sellers are also more likely to show in the ‘more highlights’ section. So that’s two different opportunities for subscribing members to get promotion for their booths or items. Oh, and there were no changes whatsoever to the subcategory pages.
Thanks for the feedback! I imagine there will be a few tweaks today if we find any bugs.
- AlexNot sure about the Meet The sellers,These three examples does not look good for Bonanzle Buyers! jmo
one says “I’m an eBay PowerSeller and I’ve thrown a few hundred items up for sale on Bonanzle. I look forward to dealing with you”
Here’s another one, Sellers has not been on Bonanzle for 4 and 5 months! And no items in booth!
clipclop3dayton, pa
Feedback 87
Bonanzling since 11/14/08
Last seen 05/22/10
Users invited 3
Email
cbwj1145
Arlington, TX
Feedback 5068
Bonanzling since 12/24/08
Last seen 04/02/10
Users invited 14
Oh btw these are in coins.
The page looks good to me. I’m not currently a subscribing member, so can’t speak to that part of it.
The only thing I don’t like, is the current featured seller. The very first thing s/he says is:
I’m an eBay PowerSeller and I’ve thrown a few hundred items up for sale on Bonanzle.
While I realize you don’t control what people write in the profile, it’s tacky – it makes it sound like a dumping ground.
Some categories will have more subscribing members than others so if you’re looking for your name in a popular category it could take a number of page reloads.
And you’re correct BookbinEtc – we don’t control what people write in their profiles. I don’t think any of you want that. Thanks for understanding.
I think it’s a very nice redesign ~ much friendlier than before!
And FYI, the “Coins” page now features two different sellers than the ebay one you guys mention above, so there is some rotation. I don’t like references to other sites any more than the next guy, but it sounds to me like that seller is using the term “eBay PowerSeller” almost as a “resumé” comment intended to inspire buyer trust…JMHO.
Nice work, you guys
I see a typo on the Books category page. At the top where it mentions magazines, it then says, “Unable to find that old gem? Fear no more. We’ve for you covered.” The last sentence is the part that needs to be fixed.
If this helps…under Pottery & Glass I hit the Like on Facebook and received this error..don’t have a clue what it means "You supplied an Open Graph type via one of the supported meta tags, but the type you specified “link” is not valid."
My take on the whole thing… Those who are paying members rightfully expect a few perks, after all, money is hard to come by. And yes, the perks are still there …just a little different look
)
All in all, it looks like a good change. Is there going to be glitches? Sure, and pointing them out like thbgs and Sofyblu did can only help.
CAN Bonanzle control what a seller state in their profiles? Yes they can. SHOULD they is another question. The ‘power seller’ mentioned could actually lose sales because of the mention of eBay being so promenent on profile.
Now, I WOULD recommend the empty booths be removed somehow after so many month of no items. That can not only tidy up Bonanzle and increase buyers experience.
All in all the change does not effect me too much….most of my buyers come in directly from Google! But it WAS nice to see my handpicked lists there on the music page
(You can Stop Groaning Bill …Not everytime you see me is there havoc LOL
One More thing … it took some digging to get to the music Category Page … always has, along with many of the other ones. Maybe next tweak?
The blog states, “Underneath the navigation we’re featuring a rotation of two subscribing members who are active in the category.” I assume that this statement is in reference to the “Meet the Sellers” part of the page. The “Meet the Sellers” part of the page is currently featuring both subscribing members and not subscribing members. I have only checked the books category, but there are definitely people getting listed there who do not subscribe.
I want to say I like most of the improvements here but really felt cold with this page. It reminds me so much of eBay that I want to vomit.
I want to be a cheerleader but this page does not make sense to me. Is this a landing page? So someone dropping in would only be directed to the people on this page? So could someone explain the benefit to me as a paying member? If everyone is featured, which is what it looks like to me, then why should I pay for a membership?
Going to the left hand navigation bar
Hit Health and Beauty-then Makeup—There is no section for Mary Kay. Many other brands are listed. I am sure the page is still under construction though
Miriam
i hate face book too, thru facebook,i ended up with a virus or something that destroyed mny computer and i had to buy a new one and i was harrassed for 2 weeks by people that somehow got into my email addresses with all my clients and emailed them and cost me nothing but trouble. I have heard so many horror stories about facebook, i want to stay clear from there! My short time there after registering cost me 2,000.00 since i had to buy a new computer and someone managed with great difficulty to extricate myself from there. There is enough identity theft not to encourage it further.
ok my apologies, face book is not the problem here i see! it is where items will show up? i am confused.
WOW! I also just discovered you are using our real names under the HPL’s!!!! Why bother to brand ourselves with a booth name and then turn around and use our real names? I want my booth name on an HPL so someone will come to my booth. NO one knows my real name except friends. It is also how I find half the booths on here! I can’t remember everyone’s real name and I do not think they want that either.
Please change that!
I had no right in this discussion anyway, i am a non paying member, i plan to be a paying member when i see more sales, right now, my % of sales cannot justify it so the right thing to do for me is not to have any opinions as anything that comes my way is a plus. I saw this first caption about face book and got scared as i am petrified of anything that puts you upthere for everyone to see and potentially harm you in some way or another so i reacted too quickly!
here inlies the biggest problem for the antiques catagory. People list new reproduction items and new country americana arts and crafts under antique primitives. This irks the searchers of true primitive antiques when they have to go through many many pages of modern junk to find one primitive. These people need to get a different catagory and be educated to use it. This will hurt our antique sales abundantly. I have asked for this consideration before. Other than that I really think you are on the right trak. So How are we going to police the erroneous or uneducated listing of non antique items in the antique catagory?
@thebqs – thanks typo is fixed!
@sofyblu2 – thanks we will look at it.
@renegade – good point on empty booths being featured, worth looking at
@TobysArtandBooks – good point on user names on HPLs we will look at that too.
To everyone – thanks for the tips while we make tweaks and fixes! We’re listening.
This a valid idea. People list in the wrong category in books as well. They want everything to be an antique and it isn’t or a rare first edition and it isn’t. Maybe we should have guidelines written for each category? I do agree with Barns about the Antiques and know how frustrating it is to wade through Americana items for the antiques and vice versa.
I think these guidelines would be helpful to both old and new members for many categories. Too much is being lumped into one category and we would all benefit from more accuracy.
I was in antiques looking in the instruments; once again all kinds of modern stuff clogging up the works. Pweople who are looking for antiques WILL NOT Tolerate the new and repro stuff under antiques. You guys really need to clean up the dead booths and find out how you are going to police the erroneous listing in wrong catagories before you make this fly. The concept is great. the items shown is horrible.
Also; i would prefer my booth name vs my real name to be out there. This is a privacy issue.
maybe we need to have volunteers for catagories to be able to report the erroneous listings to the seller and the management. It would work well if the management was ablew to follow-up on the complaints.
Does the listing ‘Report Violation’ button have options that include mis-categorization?
If not, could it be added? If correct categories are available, and people are listing incorrectly deliberately, the reports should make them stop, providing there is a consequence such as email notification and item put on Reserve until corrected.
Oh my, I just realized what TobysArtandBooks is saying about using the real names.
Please change that to our user id’s.
I also feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me for spending the $100 in advance for the year of Plus membership. The reason I did that was to have my dolls featured in the catagory showcase on the Dolls & Bears page. Since that has been eliminated, my money was wasted with no refund possible.
I think the new Dolls & Bears page looks very unattractive. If I were a new browser of Bonanzle that came to find vintage or antique dolls, I wouldn’t get past
that page. I’d just log off and go back to Ebay.
This one size fits all approach apparently doesn’t work for all catagories IMHO.
Good news! We are no longer using real names and are using booth names in the HPLs. I hope that’s fast enough for you. Thanks for the rapid feedback. ; )
We also changed it so featured sellers need to be subscribers and have an active item with at least one item for sale. No more empty booths.
Thanks Alex my gosh you are speedy!
I went and looked on the new pages under Dolls. As a seller of dolls I find it cluttered and unattractive. Also you aren’t featuring a lot of sellers at one time any more like before. You may think 15 minutes is the right amount of time for sellers to remain on the page but for me its to long. They featured sellers should rotate more often.
Buyers aren’t going to be staying on that page longer then necessary to find the category they wish to visit. So they aren’t likely to see more then two sellers during each visit. I can see why the paying members are getting upset.
i have a question? did that new game have anything to do with deciding what gets showcased? because if it did, that was a very small unfair sampling and would really upset me. I don’t have time for games; i’m running a business here.
I also think that the “more highlights” should automatically scroll through. I don’t believe many buyers are going to scroll through those pictures on their own.
You are wasting a lot of valuable real estate on the page in the Dolls & Bears catagory with those Q&A’s at the bottom. Those questions are 2-3 months old and never change.
You make the statement “Barbies to Antique and everything in-between” but there is no catagory for “vintage” so those looking for vintage dolls would have to either do a special search or scroll through all the dolls to find what they want. Perhaps you should add catagories for some of the “in-between” you make reference to.
I have refreshed many times in this catagory to look at the featured sellers. I find most of them might have 1 item that is pertinent to the Doll & Bear catagory in their whole booth. So for those of us that specialize in dolls, and are paid members, this seems quite unfair.
@debdoll – that’s the point in opening the question box right on the page – so more people ask questions. It might not historically get lots of traction in this category, but we have more activity on other categories. And hopefully this change will generate more questions and answers!
Also, the modules aren’t intended to promote every single subcategory – just a sampling so shoppers can get a sense for breadth. The view more links, the module titles, the pictures, the nav links on the left all let you filter down to your heart’s content. Just like they did before (the nav links anyway) it’s just now you can actually find them. ; )
I believe that Debdoll’s point about the feature sellers is a good one. If you are going to feature sellers in each category they need to be sellers that sale more then a few of those items. She gave the example of the dolls and bears category. The sellers that have been featured don’t specialize in dolls and have only one or two in their booth, while the doll sellers will have mostly dolls. If I was paying and that happened I’d be upset also.
@ladybug, debdoll – we’ll see what we can do. ; )
I apologize for noting a problem on the left navigation bar, I guess this is for the people who pay for the premium membership. I will be there soon enough
@BARNTIQUES859 – thanks for the feedback. We had some bugs that resulting in some incorrect images showing. We fixed some, but you’re right. We have some work to do to address miss-categorization and expired booths.
Great job Alex … and welcome to having sooooo many sellers tossing suggestions etc at you …you are doing a great job fielding the all!
let me know if i can help. i think i could write you a good policy & procedure for listing items correctly and committee org. to help redirect the lisyings erroneously listed. I think your concept is a great one. But until the catagorizing and listing issues are corrected; it appears to be putting the cart before the horse
Thank you Alex for correction on the HPL real names to our booth names. I sincerely appreciate that as many others do.
I also appreciate the featured seller is a member however I think if you are reading we still have a long way to go to make this page relevant to the site. Until the categories are defined and we write up something on categories or expand them this will continue to be a challenge.
I understand that the founder wants to keep it simple but when you start having 500,000 users simple has a different definition and if you cannot find some order there will be chaos. Chaos is not simple.
I only just saw this discussion and don’t have time to read thru them all so forgive me if I’m being repetitious. The new category pages, from both buyer and seller’s viewpoints (that’s me) are just awful. Individual pages are busy, busy, busy and make no sense because they are so busy. The category listings page is so hard to read with the green background and white type. Very bad idea. Just plain awful. Having read that you are using our real names for HPLs, I am horrified at both the incredibly dumb idea from a sales point but also it is terrible from a privacy point. Bonanzle needs to decide whether it is a true marketplace where people come to do business or a place where they come to play games, contrive auctions between friends, and have to spend too much time trying to figure out what all the cosmetic changes have to do with driving customers to the site to BUY! The founders did a good job on creating the venue. But real entrepreneurs turn over running the business to those who know how to make it successful. They need to do what they do best—program. But they need to find someone who can tell them what needs to be programmed to make this a true fine marketplace. All the bells and whistles and failed attempts to make it pretty do not drive the buyers here. I’m really tired of having to spend so much time providing input when the same problems never get fixed and we are given useless fluff to make it appear like real work is being done. If I sound angry, and disappointed, I most surely am. I give you my 100% thumbs down on the category redesign and totally agree with the poor members who paid for the upgraded membership. They’re getting little for their money.
@alpenquin – a few items from your post.
First, I would recommend reading the thread if you feel so strongly as many of these items have been discussed.
Second, the category listing page did not change. It has looked that way for months and yes we know it could be better. It’s on the list.
Third, I agree with the community feedback on real names. This was a bug which we fixed.
Fourth, we are working to improve the site on numerous fronts. Some of resources are sent working to acquire customers and other resources on improving the site experience to drive conversion. And that includes hiring talented people who have experience making businesses like Bonanzle successful at scale.
All i know is, in case i list in the wrong category for me, it is not my fault, there is no category for me, when i pass stuff from ebay, when i get here and they ask me where i want to put it, i ma stuck putting it in “other” most of the time, there is no melanesian or oceanic category here and what i sell a lot of is primitive art but it is not the same as american primitives, primitive african or oceania art is an art of uncomplicated and naive designs, with a simple power ot its own, which i hope does not end up in the american primitive category which is completely different, so basically i have no idea what to do nor where to put my things over all… so i scatter them around hoping for the best
Thanks again everyone for the feedback and suggestions. I’m glad we were able to address a number of them with fast fixes.
As many of you noted we have some work to do to make sure that items are categorized correctly. Bill and I have been talking about a variety of methods to make sure the best and right items are merchandised. We’ve got some good ideas on the table!
Look for more changes early next week and have a great weekend!
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