EBay: New website will boost sales

LOS ANGELES -- EBay Inc., the world's largest online auction company, will upgrade its website to placate sellers and revitalize the company's slumping sales growth, chief executive Meg Whitman said.

"You'll see more changes in the next 12 months on our site than you've probably seen in the last three or four years," she said. "EBay was so successful that we did not keep up with the user experience that was required."

Sellers have complained that eBay allowed the site to become cluttered with too many listings, resulting in fewer sales and driving shoppers to other retailers. The company has adjusted fees to try to increase revenue, which rose in the first quarter at its slowest pace in at least eight years.

"People come to eBay for fun, for value, and for those popular and pleasing and weird and wonderful items," Whitman said on "Conversations with Judy Woodruff," which airs on Bloomberg TV today. "And we got a little bit too much commodity-oriented."

"Buyers have a tough time finding what they want," said Jonathan Garriss, of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance.