This week in e-commerce news, PayPal unveils a homepage redesign and invites testers to try it out, HammerTap announces an affiliate partnership with a video-hosting provider and a study shows that social networking sites offer marketers opportunities — even if their customer base is over age 25.

• New home pages for personal and business users. PayPal developed different home page designs, each with information that is better tailored to the needs of specific types of users.
  
• New products and services page. Based on significant user input, the company created a better overview of the products and services offered.
  
• Site-wide search. The new home pages include the capability to search the entire PayPal site for information you need.
  
• Improved navigation. A new structure that the company says is more intuitive is in place so that you can more easily navigate the site.
• Concise content. New users, in particular, told PayPal they wanted clearer, more concise content on the home page, so revisions are taking place to address this issue.

• Dispense with traditional Web marketing tactics. Don't make the mistake of simply importing what you consider to be the most innovative elements of your Web site, such as, for instance streaming video or contests, to your profile page. "Social networking site users want to join in a conversation or start a relationship, not be spectators on the sidelines. Victoria's Secret uses its presence on Facebook and MySpace to encourage users to talk about their latest lingerie purchases, upload Pink-related photos and download backgrounds and badges for their own pages to further encourage viral spreading of the campaign," says Li in the report.

• Encourage "friending." The authors of the report admit that this seems silly, but suggest it nonetheless. "On the surface, it seems somewhat ridiculous to become a "friend" of a brand — after all, friendships exist between people, not between a person and a company," the study says. "But marketer pages on social networking sites can be a place where friends develop a close relationship with the brand." For example, the Pink Victoria's Secret profiles had 203,000 friends on MySpace and 314,000 members on Facebook at the end of March 2007, according to Li. This means that the Pink logo appears on more than 500,000 user profiles, further encouraging users' friends to click on it and visit the Victoria's Secret profile page.

• Regularly refresh content. These types of marketing campaigns are not based on a "set it and forget it" model. It's quite the opposite; they take a lot of maintenance because you have to keep content continually updated and engaging to keep visitors coming back over and over again. In the case of Victoria's Secret, the report says the company used profiles, feature updates, merchandise highlights and updates and promotions, as well as photos from the latest Pink celebrity parties to keep content fresh.

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.