This post is the last of a series of four articles reviewing how the largest e-commerce sites are using their thank you pages, and what we can learn from it. In the past three posts we've reviewed Amazon, Walmart and AliExpress.
In the series finale we are reviewing a site that is probably well known to everyone reading, it is an e-commerce site that enables customers to sell and buy from other customers (C2C), and currently has 175 million active sellers:
eBay
1. Navigation bar
eBay has two navigation bars- at the top and at the bottom of their thank you page.
The top bar mostly contains some useful user experience links (like cart, help, my eBay etc) and one promotional link for the Daily Deals. The navigation bar is relatively small and doesn't stand up much on the page.
At the bottom navigation bar we have a classic footer menu, which is not something a lot of the e-commerce sites we've reviewed utilized on their thank you page. It mostly contains policy and technical links, nothing that specifically encourages the customer back to the store.
2. Search
The search bar on eBay's thank you page is pretty useful and contains a lot of options. While you can just search in all the site, you can also use the advanced search option for more flexibility or narrow the search scope by categories.
The search bar, much like the navigation bar, doesn't particularly stand out on the page, and is mostly there to service the customer when and if he chooses to use it.
3. Order summary
When compared to a site like Walmart, eBay's order summary takes up very little space on the page. But when we compare eBay to AliExpress, they do seem to provide the customer with more details, even though, much like AliExpress, they are not the retailer and don't hold the stock of the products bought through them.
While the order summary is very minimal, it contains vary clearly the time frame in which the customer can expect the package to arrive and a link for more details. This tactics saves eBay important space on the thank you page to utilize for promotions.
The order summary section also includes a link to eBay's money back guarantee, as one last trust building element, even after the customer completed the purchase.
4. Mobile app download
To the order summary's right is a mobile app download button. This is the first and boldest call to action the customer sees on the thank you page.
The button basically offers the customer to buy and sale on the move, using the mobile app. And since eBay is a marketplace for buyers and sellers, they treat each customer as a potential seller and vice versa.
They don't need to work very hard to convince the customer to download their mobile app- most of us love shopping from our phone, and it's just a matter of deciding which e-commerce site we like enough to warrant downloading their app.
5. Products recommendations
The largest part of eBay's thank you page is without a doubt the products recommendations section.
Much like Amazon, eBay are utilizing their thank you page as an opportunity to display a very large section of recommended products, based on the purchase the customer just completed. But unlike Amazon, eBay doesn't have anything else that might distract the customer from this section.
Your eyes will not get confused about where to look in this thank you page- it is 100% clear you need to check out these recommendations.
Conclusion
eBay can definitely teach any online merchant a thing or two about successfully selling online, so learning how they choose to use their thank you page is a great way to start.
Their thank you page is a relatively minimal one, not containing a lot of elements, but directing the customer's eye and attention exactly where they want it to go.