eBay Motors: Test of New Semi-Persistent Buy It Now Button

[Kristijntje]

***New Semi-Persistent Buy It Now – A Test in Motors Parts & Accessories*** 

Hi everyone, I’m Sohil Gilani with our Buyer Experience team. Over the years, we've routinely been asked why the Buy It Now option disappears from a listing when the first bid is placed. Our reason has been concern that it would create a confusing experience for a buyer, who could place a bid on an item, but then have someone Buy It Now (BIN) out from under them before the end of the auction.

That said, we've done some extensive research that suggests keeping the BIN option available on a listing longer will increase the chance that a buyer wins the item and that it will close at a higher price for the seller. As a result, we're looking at ways to change how BIN works that balance both buyer and seller needs.

Testing in the Parts & Accessories category on eBay Motors
Over the next few months, we're going to be testing a number of variations of the rules for how long the BIN option will stay available on a listing. For example, we may start with a rule that the BIN option will remain available on the listing until the bidding reaches 50% of the BIN amount. This rule could be modified with a different percentage over the course of our testing. Other variations could include keeping the BIN available until a certain amount of time is left in the listing, or until a certain amount of bids have been placed.

Why eBay Motors P&A?
We're limiting our testing to the Parts & Accessories category on eBay Motors because it has a healthy mix of auction and auction BIN listings, as well as a blend of standard auto parts and hard-to-find items. This should give us a great chance to get solid results and find the "sweet spot" where both buyers and sellers are benefiting most from Buy It Now.

As we experiment to find what works best, we'll be watching the impact of our testing carefully, and we'll have the ability to make immediate changes if needed.

Keeping you informed
To minimize confusion, we've started a thread on the eBay Motors discussion board that we will update whenever the BIN rules are changed. My team will provide general updates and next steps on our progress on this thread, too.

Thanks for your support during this test, especially the buyers and sellers who use our Parts & Accessories category frequently. We appreciate your help in this important testing.

[sneakymagenta]

That said, we've done some extensive research that suggests keeping the BIN option available on a listing longer will increase the chance that a buyer wins the item and that it will close at a higher price for the seller.

Translation: MercExchange is breathing down our backs so we decided to steal Overstock's BIN and dump Merc's.