Mashable is teaming up with eBay to offer shoppable editorial across the UK and US, optimised for mobile.
The partnership lets Mashable’s audience use eBay to shop, browse and purchase products matching those featured on the news site without ever leaving Mashable.
The companies have focused on a mobile-first experience and so far 65% of traffic to the widget has come via a mobile or tablet.
Dan Burdett, Head of eBay EMEA Marketing Lab explains: “We know a lot about how people shop on our site, but less about how they shop off it, so we wanted to bring a simplified shopping experience that brings products to Mashable’s passionate audience rather than expect them to come to us”.
The pilot partnership with Mashable is an effort from eBay’s Marketing Lab, which focuses on developing disruptive marketing solutions and game-changing innovations.
By introducing the new eBay widget to Mashable, the team will be able to understand whether elements such as seller reputation and delivery times matter as much to consumers than they normally would on the platform. The marketing team will use the data and learned consumer insights from the pilot to accelerate business growth and deliver scalable solutions.
A streamlined purchasing process that allows consumers to buy products directly from eBay via an outside website, is a first for the marketplace and part of eBay’s ongoing plan to improve and develop its consumer experience both on and off eBay.co.uk.
Those who purchase an eBay item on Mashable using the new experience between 29thJanuary and 14th February, will be automatically entered into a prize draw for a chance to win an iPad mini 4.
Participating articles on the site will contain images with shopping tags on them. Clicking the tags will allow you to purchase the listed item seamlessly using the eBay widget, and be automatically entered into the eBay prize draw