eBay's latest freshening-up of its UK website is designed so that it can take on the big high-street retailers, and appeal more to women shoppers.

It announced yesterday that it will aim to make the site more suited to browsing through, rather than simply being used to search for specific products.

Amanda Metcalfe, eBay's UK and Ireland marketing director, said the company wanted to "behave [more] like a retailer".

As a result, the number of ads on the home page for gadgets and products which appeal more to men is being reduced. The company will also make more use of real-time data to present products to people browsing the site, said Marketing magazine.

Future advertising by the company will also be more closely aligned with events in the regular shopping calendar, such as bank holidays, it added.

Metcalfe added that she had no qualms about redressing the company's focus more towards women: "It’s fair to say we haven’t been as inspiring as we should have been because we have been mainly talking to men," she said.