glitchancement: Providing More Information in Bidding/Buying Process

[amy]

***Limited Test: Providing More Information in Bidding/Buying Process*** 

March 22, 2006 | 04:17PM PST/PT

Hi everyone, I'm Scott Loper with eBay's Buyer Product team. My team looks for ways to make it easier for buyers to use the site, especially when they go to place a bid or make a purchase.

We're running a limited test
In the next few days, we're going to start displaying a few enhancements to a small group of users to test their effectiveness. A small, random percentage of buyers will start seeing some of these changes to the bidding/buying process:

    * The seller's Gallery photo – If the seller chose to use Gallery, the picture will be displayed when the buyer goes to confirm their bid.

    * Average Selling Price for Items with Pre-Filled Item Information — We'll display the average selling price for that item when the buyer’s bid is significantly below the average. This will only be included on items where the seller’s listing was created using Pre-Filled Item Information. (Items listed with the same Pre-Filled Item Information are close or identical products and can be compared to determine a reasonably accurate average price.)

    * More education about bidding – We're putting more education on the "Place Bid" page, including a graphic demonstrating how the bidding system works.

    * Warnings to prevent accidental Buy It Nows – Buyers sometimes purchase multiple items accidentally by hitting Buy It Now more than once. This warning will prompt them after they've bought the first item to make sure they really want to buy another.

The data from this test will help us plan how to proceed, and we'll keep you updated on any permanent changes we may decide to make.

[amy]

Update--7 months later eBay is rolling the new features out to the entire site:

**Update: Providing More Information in the Bidding/Buying Process*** 

October 31, 2006 | 02:27PM PST/PT

Hi everyone, I'm Evan Liang. Since March, my team has been testing a few improvements to the bidding/buying process to make them easier for buyers to use (read our initial announcement). We've seen very positive results from our tests, so we're now going to make these changes permanent.

In the next few days, you should start seeing the following when you place a bid or use Buy It Now:

    * The seller's Gallery photo. If the seller used Gallery, the picture will be displayed when the buyer places and confirms their bid.

    * Average Selling Price for Items with Pre-Filled Item Information. We'll display the average selling price for that item when the buyer’s bid is significantly below the average. This will only be included on items where the seller’s listing was created using Pre-Filled Item Information. (Items listed with the same Pre-Filled Item Information are close or identical products and can be compared to determine a reasonably accurate average price.)

    * More education about bidding for new buyers. We're putting more education on the "Place Bid" page for new buyers, including a graphic demonstrating how the bidding system works.

    * Warnings to prevent accidental Buy It Nows. Buyers sometimes purchase multiple items accidentally by hitting Buy It Now more than once. This warning will prompt them after they've bought the first item to make sure they really want to buy another.

      Sincerely,

      Evan Liang
      Buyer Product Team

[sneakymagenta]

Meet Ebay's programming staff

"no changes during the holidays" my ass

[xppman]

They meant during the "summer school's out" holiday. 

Didn't you get the memo?

[mandy]

Blogging Stocks has an article on this new feature:

An announcement from eBay states that a new auction bidding assistance feature is being added to their site. Overall the eBay sellers have again responded by questioning this change...

Of the 160 eBay seller responses I've reviewed: (responses, not individual sellers)

Approximately 80% of the responses denounced this move by eBay. Approximately 10% of the responses were gaurdedly positive. Approximately 5% of the responses were genuinely positive. Approximately 5% of the responses were neutral...

full article: http://ebay.bloggingstocks.com/2006/11/1...site-news/

[sneakymagenta]

2.) Will this change actually discourage bidders from exceeding the system generated average?

3.) Will this system actually create a downward trend in it's own averaging?

If you're bidding on a common item and the average is $10 would you exceed it?