Background

Specifying shipping costs makes items attractive to buyers on eBay but most new sellers do not have the knowledge or are afraid to commit to a stated shipping price.

While this project represents a realtivly small piece of user interface, it is unique in that I conceived it, pitched it to project managment, and was given the team and the go-ahead to design and implement it, a rarity in most software organizations, but a testament to eBay's openness.

Problem

New users are afraid of charging too much or too little for shipping. Most do not want to take the time to box and weigh items before they are sold. Many new sellers do not specify shipping which leads to less sales as buyers are wary of items without listed shipping costs.

Solution

Based on other successfully sold items display shipping data giving a novice seller a safe range to consider for their listing in context.

Located in the Sell Your Item area this suggestion widget provides live data based on the very item the user is selling:

The feature lives on to this day, showing up in the latest version of the mobile app:

See more on Google patents