Restoring Buyer and Seller Trust in eBay

eBay connects 138 million buyers and 18 million sellers in more than 190 markets around the world.


Since it was founded in 1995, eBay has been lagging in trust compared to its key competitors, making restoring trust one of the boldest and most important bets in the company.


Unpaid Items (UPI) occur when buyers walk away without paying after winning an auction or making an offer, seriously harming seller trust and platform credibility

I joined to help eliminate 90% of unpaid items on eBay to restore trust in the platform. 

 

In three months in a team of 2, I identified and resolved inconsistencies in the ways that teams were approaching unpaid items.


I developed strategies that set a high bar for eBay trust by leveraging deep discovery, cross-org collaboration, and benchmarking.


The result was an experience walk-through with strategies that have made their way to the top of the priorities list for eBay's leadership.


Restoring buyer and seller trust in the face of unpaid items

Unpaid items don’t just frustrate sellers—they erode trust in the entire marketplace. . Our cross-functional initiative redesigned commitment and follow-through to reduce friction and restore trust.

How might we make eBay’s purchase experience as trustworthy as the payment itself?

On eBay, committing to buy doesn’t always mean following through. Many buyers failed to complete payment, leaving sellers in limbo, and causing unnecessary friction and revenue loss.

What we were seeing:

  • UPIs represented $8.4B in GMV at peak
  • 8% of all fixed price transactions were going unpaid
  • Sellers expressed frustration and distrust due to lack of recourse

THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM

Is eBay a trusted place to sell?

53%

say no.

8%

of annual global sales are unpaid transactions.

$6.4B

the value of annual unpaid transactions.

Nope.

Actually, eBay is a great place to abuse sellers.

Despite performing in-line on seller trust overall, eBay lags on certain trust dimensions such as fraudulent buyer detection/removal, efficiency of issue resolution, and clarity of policies/guidelines/protections (among those not currently selling)

75k

abusive buyers sanctioned in 2019

240k

sellers impacted by abusive buyers in 2019

$70M

ann. ($6M/mo) SMIR involved in abusive buyers

only

54%-66%

 B2C sellers and 66%-77% C2C sellers agree that eBay protects sellers from abusive buyers (RM, Aug’20, Big 4)

SELLER EXPERIENCE

“eBay has done an atrocious job”

This veteran seller requests to see data to make her own decisions because she does not trust eBay to handle bad buyers.

Interviewer: Why do you want to manage the UPI setting/filters by yourself (vs) letting eBay manage it?


Seller:  Lack of trust with eBay:

- “You have consistently failed over last 20 years”

- Fraudulent credit cards selling bouillon - me reporting stolen credit cards didn’t eliminate that address from being able to set accounts - Got excited when eBay started managing payments. No excuse now because we have all the data to identify these people.


Once an item is “sold” and then gets relisted because of UPI, it never sells for it true worth because of lack of trust.

This buyer had so many 5 star reviews and looked trustworthy at first... until you read the reviews.

I discovered that Sellers can only provide positive feedback for buyers, regardless of the outcome to curb seller retaliation.


eBay did not make it easy to report a buyer, but did make it easy for sellers to provide feedback for transactions, even if the order had not been paid for.


Isn't it better to direct sellers to the report flows than to prompt them for feedback if the seller had not paid?

The Problem

  • Unpaid Items (UPI) occur when buyers walk away without paying after winning an auction or making an offer, seriously harming seller trust and platform credibility.



  • New and inexperienced sellers are heavily targeted, which undermines platform growth.

27%

of sellers experience UPI within 90 days

53%

of sellers globally say eBay is not a trusted place to sell (flat YoY).

$6.4 billion

value of unpaid transactions, representing 8% of eBay’s global annual sale

75,000

75,000 abusive buyers sanctioned in 2019, affecting 240,000 sellers.


eBay was not doing enough to eliminate unpaid items (UPIs), putting their sellers at risk.


For sellers, eBay needed to shift the perception that eBay has “untrustworthy buyers,” and continue building trust that eBay “has their back.”


The goal? Make eBay known as a “safe place to sell”.

APPROACH

In order to increase the level of trust between buyers, sellers and the platform, trust has to manifest at each critical moment of the buyer and seller journey, so I went undercover as a new seller on eBay and on other platforms to compare their experiences.

  • Design Strategy: Framed unpaid items (UPI) as an end-to-end experience problem, not just isolated incidents.
  • First-Person User Research (Self-ethnography): Personally sold items on eBay to directly experience the seller journey and UPI scenarios.
  • Benchmarking: Compared eBay’s seller experience against competitors like Amazon, Shopify, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark.
  • Journey Mapping: Informally tracked the seller journey step-by-step, capturing emotional reactions, confusion points, and trust breakdowns.
  • Problem Framing and Reframing: Shifted the focus from "how do we decrease UPIs?" to "how do we build a trustworthy, supportive platform?"
  • Root Cause Analysis: Identified systemic platform issues (e.g., poor communication, unclear protections) that contribute to UPIs.
  • Empathy Building: Focused on understanding and illustrating the emotional and financial toll unpaid items have on sellers.
  • Strategic Foresight: Highlighted the long-term business risks if seller trust continues to decline (e.g., withheld inventory, churn, brand erosion).
  • Voice of Customer (VoC): Incorporated feedback from seller forums, interviews, and survey data to show broader patterns of dissatisfaction.

the experience audit

My experience as a new seller on eBay

Trust me, you'll want to see this.

Watch the video

4

items posted on eBay

7

unpaid items

2.5

months on eBay

741

dollars lost in potential sales

0

items sold

THE QUANTITATIVE CONTEXT

My experience was not uncommon. 27% of sellers in a 90-day period will sell an item where the buyer does not pay, some top sellers have 30% of their sold items go unpaid.


 New Sellers, who should be a priority for us to retain on the platform, are the largest targets.

This buyer had so many 5 star reviews and looked trustworthy at first... until you read the reviews.

I discovered that Sellers can only provide positive feedback for buyers, regardless of the outcome to curb seller retaliation.


eBay did not make it easy to report a buyer, but did make it easy for sellers to provide feedback for transactions, even if the order had not been paid for.


Isn't it better to direct sellers to the report flows than to prompt them for feedback if the seller had not paid?

Buyers are finding eBay very hard to trust, and are >2x as likely to have had a bad experience on eBay.


THE SOLUTION

I wasn't going to leave eBay hanging, though. I analyzed other experiences and shared recommendations to improve trust for buyers and sellers on eBay.


I must have done a good job persuading them to do better because I received this message from a stranger on LinkedIn a month later!

Recommendations: Restore trust in eBay by applying these design principles

As eBay, we want new sellers to join the platform and stay.

These new sellers are comparing eBay to other selling experiences, and care about their ROI.


• Clarity of seller protections is the most correlated driver of trust

• While 40% of current sellers believe guidelines/policies are clear (in-line with key competitors)


eBay Seller Council in Autumn 2021 found that:

● Sellers experiencing UPI through BO and auctions have been put off using those options

● Most C2C sellers ‘silently suffer’ non-payment as an accepted cost of doing business on eBay

● Less experienced sellers are not informed about common tricks and may ship an item without a legitimate payment

As eBay, we want a trustworthy community of buyers and sellers who treat each other with respect. That is not possible without sharing eBay’s expectations for treatment.

New customers face bad buying experiences (BBEs) at a

higher rate than loyal customers, are more likely to not report

their problems, and tell us that they don’t know how to get the

most out of the platform.

● If we want buyers to pay consistently, we need to have

payment details on file.

● Sellers and Buyers alike are lacking in knowledge on

what the expectations are, questions include: “What is

the penalty for not paying after winning an auction?”

“Why am I being outbid immediately after I place my

bid?”

● Buyers have cited a lack of help links throughout the

experience

● There is no onboarding experience

● Help article is hard to parse



Buyers are finding eBay

very hard to trust, and are

>2x as likely to have had a

bad experience on eBay.



Consider humanizing the transaction by showing the

impact of non-payment on sellers

● Having to wait to ship is a nuisance,

you need to keep track of it and act

when status changes

● Need to relist the item when sales

don’t go through, loss of viewers and

impressions that helps in search

ranking/trust signals

● Disappointment that the sale was

not real, in particular when this

frequently happens.

As eBay, we want new and trustworthy buyers to stay on the platform. These new buyers are comparing eBay to other services, and with that comes with expectations.

This 2021 study found that a “pay seller” button was expected to send buyers directly to payment options, and one gen Z participant thought that one click would charge the default payment, thus switching the status from unpaid to paid.

● Most buyers find it reasonable to provide

payment details at point of bid or offer.

● It could deter them from purchase, but only if

they’re on the fence already.

● They might sometimes contact the seller to

ask for flexible or delayed payment.

● eBay could offer other ways to pay flexibly/ on

credit to take risk away from sellers


Sellers expect eBay to be able to detect fraudulent or abusive buyers because of the data they have. eBay does not make it easy for its community to report bad behaviour.

Forums mention lack of buyer ratings

• Only 54%-66% B2C sellers and 66%-77% C2C sellers

agree that eBay protects sellers from abusive buyers

(RM, Aug’20, Big 4)

• Some veteran sellers request to see data to make their

own decisions, because they do not trust eBay to

handle it*

• Currently, bad buyers are unable to receive negative

feedback and reporting is difficult. An example

follows…. 


eBay lags competitors on

perceived ability to detect

& ban fraudulent buyers

from site (3.9 avg. vs. 4.3)

New Sellers are more likely than ever to experience unpaid items as fraudsters learn how to get away with it and continue to target new sellers who are more likely to fall for their tricks. By not acknowledging the experience, Sellers get the impression that UPI is to be expected when selling on eBay. That is not the impression we want to give.

Forums mention lack of buyer ratings

• Only 54%-66% B2C sellers and 66%-77% C2C sellers

agree that eBay protects sellers from abusive buyers

(RM, Aug’20, Big 4)

• Without eBay acknowledging what happened, or

showing steps to resolve the bad experience, eBay is

saying “we’re okay with this, that’s just eBay”

“EBay is not very interested

in the concerns of the

sellers. The buyers are the

kings. If they've got a

problem, [eBay] will listen

to them immediately. But

sellers, well, there are no

consequences.” - Private Seller

eBay customers are reasonable people. They understand that friction is sometimes necessary, but they need to know why. eBay has shown hesitation in adding friction that would protect against UPI, while also hesitating to remove friction to make for a great customer experience.

Friction can be well received with friendly explanation.

• Combined shipping, an ability that currently requires

many additional steps and a custom invoice — which

is sometimes the cause of UPIs — has been

deprioritized as a feature.

○ Estimated to be 5-10% of overall UPI transactions

• Enabling combined shipping helps the seller feel more

control, and saves the buyer money, and eliminates

one reason for UPI.

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Opportunity

The Opportunity

Unpaid items weren’t just a payment problem. They were a trust problem.

We reframed the problem: instead of chasing payments, we could improve the quality and accountability of the buyer commitment.

  • Reduce friction for sellers
  • Introduce barriers for repeat UPI offenders
  • Provide better buyer education during checkout




  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    As eBay, we want new sellers to join the platform and stay. Create an experience that treats sellers like the entrepreneurs they are.

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Limiting the new seller experience so that it protects new sellers from targeting at first. It

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Based on similar offerings,

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Ability for seller to accept multiple offers and whoever pays first wins.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • To keep new sellers on eBay, earn their trust from the beginning with contextual education moments.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Having buyers with repeat UPI strikes blocked by default on all stores.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

  • Explain why some friction points exist, for example adding a payment method, by humanizing the experience. E.g. showing a seller putting an item aside for 4 days waiting to get paid.

    Describe the item or answer the question so that site visitors who are interested get more information. You can emphasize this text with bullets, italics or bold, and add links.

These interventions were modeled to deliver measurable reduction in unpaid items while giving sellers more confidence in their transactions.



Closing Reflection

Trust is more than just a payment going through. It’s about clarity, accountability, and confidence in every step of the transaction. This project was about designing those moments better.