ebay: transactions on a massive scale

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eBay: Transactions on a Massive ScaleChristian Rohrer

UIE Web Application Summit

2 eBay Inc. confidential

© 2007 eBay Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of these materials may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior permission of eBay Inc.

eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks of eBay Inc.

PayPal and the PayPal logo are registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc.

Other trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Please do not take our picture or record the class without asking permission.

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• Introduction to eBay and current status• History

– Single interface for many types of items – Why?No product catalogFlexibilityCost savings (storage)

– June 1999 24-hour crash => 99.9999 uptime– Global platform – pros and cons (Europe, Asia diffs)

• Implications for web application design – Seven step process for making any changes to the site– Well-defined product development process– Lead to page-by-page engineering versus overall experience design

Checkout: eBay – PayPal flow

• NPV method of evaluating projects– SYI 2.0 -> 3.0: strong ROI, but compared to what?– SYI 3.0 Motors worse than 2.0

• The emergence of “TSEs”– Motors– Express and Half– Kijiji & Craigslist

• What about RIA?


eBay – In the beginning…

• Pierre Omidyar on Labor Day Weekend, 1995

• Simple interface (the same for any type of item)

• No product catalog

• Basic principle: people would do the right thing (pay total strangers)

• Final Value Fees – needed to pay ISP bill

• Feedback: among the web’s first reputation systems

• Met some core user need: Rapid growth

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• A vehicle sells every minute

• A motors part or accessory sells every second

• A diamond ring sells every 2 minutes

• Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the

world use eBay as a primary or secondary

source of income.*

eBay Today

On an average day on eBay…

eBay users trade about $1,640 worth of goods on the site every second.

* (Source: ACNielsen International Research, June 2006)


Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2

eBay’s growth has been amazing

203MillionUsers

1999 2000 2001 2002 20031998 2004 2005

596Million

Listings*

2006

• eBay has a global presence in 33 markets.

• eBay has 203 million registered users worldwide, with 90 million users in the U.S. and 113 million users in eBay’s international markets.

• If eBay were a country, it would be the fifth most populous country in the world behind China, India, the U.S. and Indonesia. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base, April 2005)

• Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income.

* As of Q2-2006. (Source: ACNielsen International Research, June 2006)

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Site Statistics: in a typical day…

NA91 M0API Calls

59x16 Gbps268 Mbps

Peak Network Utilization

50x99.94%~97%Availability

16x874 M54 MTotal Page Views

35x35 M1 MOutbound Emails

GrowthDecember2005

June1999


1999 Outage

• Site down 22 hours on June 10,1999

• Estimated $3-5 M lost in revenue

• Stock price affected

• Dominated corporate priorities thereafter

• Significant impact on – Engineering investment– Engineering Mgmt– Hardware investment– Software development

process

• Nearly perfect uptimebecame a top priority

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eBay Methods and Processes

• eBay Product Approval (7 steps)

• Success Metrics for a UX Organization

• Delivering Experiences – how all the pieces fit together (or don’t)– Designing Experiences Page by Page– Designing Experiences Holistically


Summary of Project Approval Process

1. Understand the project approval steps.2. Know the levers that drive your business.3. Proactively research UX issues.4. Select a product area to improve.5. Estimate the ROI.6. Present proposal on equal footing.7. Follow up after the project launches --

quantify results and inform future project decisions.

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Who approves projects?

What criteria do they use to approve projects?

At eBay:• Submission open

Anyone (designer, researcher, business analyst, product manager) can make a project proposal

• Senior staff approves projectsApproval is comprehensive

• Criteria for approval is standard and objectiveBased on return on investment (ROI), short- and long-term goals

1. Understand Project Approval Procedures


2. Know Levers That Drive Your Business

At eBay, business levers include:• Registered users• Bids• Listings

Know the value of those levers:• Example: “What’s the monetary value to eBay of each

registered user?”

Know how the UX can affect those levers:• Example: “Improving the registration user experience will

increase the % of users who complete the registration process”

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3. Proactively Research UX Issues with Your Current Product

Inform project proposals and design directions through:

• Heuristic analysis and best practices • Customer support contacts• Site usage statistics• Baseline usability studies• Field studies, surveys, focus groups


4. Select a Product Area to Improve

Select a specific product area where:• Business benefits will be significant, measurable,

and attributed back to your project• Cost and risks will be relatively low• Business benefits are expected to be high• Chances of success are expected to be high

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5. Estimate the ROI for Your Project

Estimate the cost• How much does it cost to build and maintain?

Estimate the benefit:• Identify business levers your project will affect• Understand the current user experience• Use the impact of previous projects as a

relative gauge• Be conservative


6. Present proposal on equal footing

Justify project according to standard criteria (ROI).

• Don’t position your project as “special” or different.

Justify results, not process.• The ends (e.g. increase % of users who complete registration) will

justify the means.

Know your audience.• Speak to their issues and speak their language.

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7. Follow up after the project launches

Quantify results.• Determine incremental benefit of the project

Communicate those results within the company.• Project success can create a virtuous cycle.

Initiative

Increased investmentMore resources (people, finances, and time for new initiatives).

Success

Responsibility


Example: Consistent Pagination (Before)

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Example: Consistent Pagination (NPV)

Identify the levers:• Increased bids• Reduced development costs

Estimate the benefit:• Determine number of bids for items listed beyond

page 10 as a percentage of all bids• Estimate increase in bids due to this project• Estimate cost savings for future development


Example: Consistent Pagination (After)

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View Item (Before)


View Item (After)

Contextual:When the user has been outbid, provide the bid box

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Page by Page Experience Across Sites: Checkout

• This experience problem stems from analyzing user experiences page by page, rather than thinking about the lifecycle or the experience through a flow.– Issues: consistency, iconography, number of steps

• This can happen when you have a hugely successful website (millions of emails and billions of PVs)– It can be hard to think systematically that far ahead


PayPal Guest User Flow

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6

54

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2 • Header change• Logo change• Inconsistent style• Repetitive information

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PayPal Registered User Flow1

7

6

54

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2• Header change• Logo change• Inconsistent style• Repetitive information


Page by Page: SYI 2.0 to 3.0

Evolution of “Sell Your Item” (SYI) linear flow

• Sell Your Item 1.0: 1 pager

• Sell Your Item 2.0: Multiple pages for more feature selection

• Sell Your Item 3.0: Fewer pages, better content, better help, and better design

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Evolution of the Sell Hub

User Research in 2004 showed us…

• No clear call to action for starting the selling process

• Not clear what to type in text field• Design is very category focused


• Clear call to action as to how to begin selling

• Participants knew what to type and where• Decreased emphasis on Category


Evolution of the Category Selector

• Found selecting a category very easy and straightforward

• No difficulty adding a second category

• Difficulty figuring out how to select a second category

• Feared they would overwrite the first category selection



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Evolution of the Customization of SYI

• Made the layer look more like a window• Made the layer draggable like a window• Exposed most of the options by default • Plus icon removed

• Plus icon confusing• Pop-up layer cumbersome, not movable,

blocked view




SYI 3.0 Research

7 User Experience Research methods were utilized to address the main questions:

Lab tests (Steve)

RITE Test: Qualitative – Focus on improve the design using prototype and iterative rapid test.

Visits: Qualitative – The big picture in a natural environment, the “why”, the “aha’s”, the things we may not otherwise see in lab or via survey

Longitudinal: Quantitative and qualitative – Identify how pervasive the issues are, ability to compare across designs, by user segment, and over time. Objective and subjective measures.

Public Opt-in: Quantitative and qualitative – Can track feature usage and compare to past usage, collect open-ended feedback, and the “opt-in” nature leaves Community with a sense of Voice regarding the design.

Public Opt-In(5/06)

LongitudinalKeynote Study (2/05)

Visits(1/05)

11 Rounds of RITE Lab Tests (6/04-3/05)

Post-Launch Usability Study (5/06)

Usability Study(11/05)

Usability Study: Qualitative – Controlled environment allows quickly identify usability issues and causes of those issues.

Surveys(12/05-8/06)

Survey: Quantitative, can track user attitudes, preferences, feature usage, and collect open-ended feedback

Usability Study: Qualitative – quickly get the holistic view of the product post-launch. Help identify additional issues.

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SYI 2.0


SYI 3.0

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SYI 3.0: Business Results

• Both first time sellers and experiences sellers had higher completion rates

• Both were also quite a bit faster

• Feature revenue also increased

• Return on investment in UX was worth it

• Note: eBay Motors SYI customization


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TSEs allow eBay to design experiences holistically

•Motors

•Kijiji

•eBay Express


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Kijiji has demonstrated strong consumer traction

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CanadaKoreaIndiaTaiwanJapanChinaItalySwitzerlandAustriaFranceGermany

Kijiji Unique Visitors

• During its first 18 months, Kijiji has grown quickly

8.7 Million

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Kijiji: Global consumer research indicates strong consumer appeal

“I at first visited other website, like Yahoo, but later, I shift to Kijiji. In Kijiji, it’s easy to operate, you just simply post information there.”

Taiwan

“It’s safe, people are friendly, you just go to their home and buy it.”

China

“This site is quite simple to operate –easy and convenient”

Canada

“This site is clearly laid out – it is easy to start straight away”

Germany

Right from the startyou feel

that it’s easy and open to all

France

Simplicity and ease of use are

meaningful benefits globally that consumers appreciate and

value


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Desirability

Elements of a User Experience

It starts by being useful…

Functionally, people mustbe able to use it…

The way it looks mustbe pleasing…

This helps createan overall brand experience

Executing well on all of these areas is what creates a great user experience. Research is needed for each.

Usability

UtilityIt is useful

to me.It meets

my needs.

Marketingcampaigns

Brand experience


The Roles of the User Experience Team

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UED at eBay: Guiding Principles

User Experience & Design (UED) collaborates across the organization to design high quality user experiences.

Support - UED designs the user experience that supports the vision and goals of the eBay brand, the business units, the functions and the company at large

Educate - UED promotes the value of a great user experience across all organizations within the company

Champion - UED leads the definition of the user experience, champions the eBay user and drives ease of use initiatives

Influence - UED shares insights which shape business strategies

ebay: transactions on a massive scale

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