MONETIZATION
Improving Price Transparency in eBay Offers
Making negotiations clearer and more trustworthy after the launch of the buyer protection fee.
Role
Senior Product Designer
Employer
Ebay
Overview
When eBay introduced the buyer protection fee in UK, buyers and sellers began seeing different prices in the Offers flow. Buyers saw all in price, while sellers only saw item price. This discrepancy created confusion and mistrust during negotiations.
I led the design effort to bring clarity and fairness back to the Offers experience while navigating shifting scope, technical constraints, and executive pivots.
What buyers see
What sellers see
My Role
Partnered with PMs, engineers, researchers, and legal.
Designed and tested UI patterns to surface fees clearly.
Balanced user needs, business requirements, and technical feasibility.
Aligned stakeholders across teams despite resistance and shifting priorities.
The Challenge
Price misalignment between buyer and seller views.
Negotiations broke down due to lack of transparency.
Confusion eroded trust and increase offer decline rate and lowered CSAT
Audit & Opportunity
Solutions
Through 5 UXR studies and multiple design iterations, we uncovered key insights:
Designing for sellers, not both.
We started by designing flows for both buyers and sellers. Research showed buyers only cared about their final price, while sellers needed clarity on net proceeds. This pivot simplified the buyer view and focused design effort where it had the most impact.
Learnings & Iterations
Consistency price language builds confidence.
Users wanted predictability across platforms, driving us to unify web and app patterns. We also iterate and align with legal on developing a consistent pricing language.
Live Fee Calculator should be simplified
Real-time updates built trust with sellers and bring clarity to seller’s take home amount and help sellers price their listing better. We iterate on multiple versions of Live calc, and eventually landed on the simplest version
I navigated technical, legal, and business constraints by partnering with Eng, Product, Buyer/Seller Experience, and PMM; collaborating with Legal on compliant pricing; and aligning with LT & ELT through multiple reviews. This secured buy-in and positioned Offers price monetization effort in eBay’s broader trust and payments strategy.
Constraints
50 stakeholders, 5 cross-functional teams
Aligned
Collaborated
10+ working sessions with Legal & Compliance
4 rounds of LT & ELT executive reviews.
Reviewed
Impact on the business
17%
YoY GMV Lift
76%
Neutral & Positive Mentions
19%
Increase in Offer Acceptance Rate
10%
Decrease in Offer Decline Rate