eBay • Vehicle Shopping
Making shopping for a Lamborghini as worry-free and secure as a Kitchenaid
In an online marketplace that is as vast as eBay, customers can shop for a Lamborghini sports car as easily as a KitchenAid mixer - for that reason, trust is essential to shoppers. In an effort to help buyers feel confident about their vehicle purchase, eBay created the Vehicle Purchase Protection program to protect eBay customers against fraud, vehicle title issues, and undisclosed defects for up to $100,000. In addition eBay also selected AutoCheck by Experian Automotive as the preferred vehicle history report provider for content displayed in the vehicle View Item page. I was challenged to update the vehicle search and browse experience, and incorporate these new protections.
Optimizing the search experience for vehicles
Searching thousands of vehicles for that perfect car or truck can be daunting, but not with eBay Motors’ refreshed buyer experience. Users will be greeted by a highly-customizable home page where they can browse vehicle listings that are populated based on specific criteria and preferences. Robust filters then enable the shopper to drill down and find the exact vehicle they are looking for. Listings can be refined by available images, year, price and mileage, and the user can even preview the number of results matching each filter before they are applied.
Starting a vehicle search on eBay takes the customer to a dedicated vehicle search page that features the ability to filter by make, model, year and location
Integrating the Vehicle Protection Plan into the core experience
It was very important that customers were aware of the new Vehicle Protection Plan covering up to $100,000 against fraud, vehicle title issues, and undisclosed defects. It was also important to ensure that customers could easily find the AutoCheck vehicle score to make a well-informed decision. I explored places within the vehicle View Item page to make sure people noticed eBay’s vehicle protection plan value proposition, as well as the auto check score. After various iterations, I landed on a solution that placed the Vehicle Protection Plan close to the Buy button, and a dedicated content section for viewing the AutoCheck score breakdown.
The view item page before (Left), versus after with Vehicle Purchase Protection information (Right)
Translating AutoCheck's vehicle history score into eBay’s Design language
The visual language of AutoCheck’s vehicle score clashed with eBay’s Design System. I explored different ways to display the score in a way that felt more native to the eBay system. I worked closely with the eBay Design System team and conducted usability tests to develop eBay’s version of the AutoCheck vehicle score that was informative, and easy to understand while feeling integral to eBay’s look and feel.
My visual explorations looked at different ways to display the information.
After multiple tests with customers and iterations, the final visualization of the AutoCheck score was chosen for its technical feasibility and visual simplicity.
Conclusion
The improvements made in 2017 gave shoppers more confidence that the vehicles they were considering for purchase were priced reasonably and were verifiably not lemons. By providing this information integrated within the core eBay experience, car shoppers did not have to do extra work through outside means to determine if a given vehicle was consistent with market value, or make sure that the car was not in a serious accident.
The vehicle View Item page with the Vehicle Purchase Protection badge.
The AutoCheck vehicle history score appears for the selected vehicle.
Customers can click to see the entire vehicle history report to understand why a vehicle is given a certain score.
At eBay, nothing is more important than trust. Without it, our global marketplace couldn’t function. For our shoppers who are purchasing vehicles or business equipment, we’re extending our buyer protection programs to help put our buyers at ease when shopping on eBay. Whether consumers are browsing or ready to make a critical purchasing decision, the scope of these protection programs is unique in the automotive ecommerce industry, empowering our sellers’ and dealers’ growth by offering a worry-free, secure shopping experience.
- Tony Hoang, Head of Vehicles, eBay Motors
