EBay : Makes It Easier with Three New Ways for Sellers to Send Offers to Buyers

eBay is giving sellers more tools to reach out to interested buyers so that they can sell more and move faster. Buyers express interest in items listed on eBay in many ways, such as watching those items or adding them to cart. We're introducing three new ways sellers can send an offer to interested buyers with Seller Initiated Offer - offers to watchers, offers to buyers who have an item in their cart, and offers in message.

For example, if a buyer adds shoes to their cart or puts them on their watch list, that's a signal that a buyer is interested in an item. With Seller Initiated Offers, the seller can go into the Seller Hub (Active Listings) to the specific listing and see that people have shown interest. In a matter of seconds, the seller can send an exclusive offer with a personalized message. This offer will go to buyers that are watching or have that item in the cart. That message reaches up to the 10 most recent people who expressed an interest in the item, ensuring that the offer is always relevant.

Sending offers to watchers and offers in message have already launched. We plan to launch offers to buyers with an item in their cart later this year.

In an instant, those buyers will receive a notification of the new offer in the app or via email and can make the purchase. We're excited to create more engagement and opportunities for ecommerce between users.

Our sellers asked for this feature through community groups, social media and other channels. The eBay selling team responded to that feedback with this functionality to address the needs of our sellers. Seller Initiated Offers gives buyers another reason to make purchases wherever they are in their day.

When we created ​Best Offer​, we allowed a buyer to start negotiating on items. Seller Initiated Offers is a way to expand that economic opportunity and help our sellers do more and work faster. This will enable more engagement between sellers and buyers, embracing eBay's mission of driving ecommerce through innovation.

Part of these Seller Initiated Offer tools is offer in message, which is an expansion of how sellers can reply back to buyers. For a long time, buyers were able to send a message to sellers asking for a better price and sellers could reply back with a better offer. Before this update, buyers could only accept that offer through eBay's website. Now we've enabled it through our mobile app, allowing more buyers to shop while they're on the move.

At eBay, we use the approach of continuous delivery and ​Minimum Awesome Product​ (MAP) to build and test the product adoption, building something nimble enough to test but enjoyable from a user experience perspective. That approach was important to build something that would touch each of the 1.2 billion listings on eBay. After a few weeks of experimenting, we knew Seller Initiated Offers would be a winner with all our users.

For buyers, this is another means to connect with our sellers and let them know they're interested. For sellers, it's another tool for sellers to use in their business. eBay is about connecting people through ecommerce. In the online world, we think it's important for a seller to be able to reach out and say, 'I want to make a deal. Let's make it happen.'

Seller Initiated Offers - offers to watchers and offers in message - have started to roll out in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia on desktop, mobile web and our native apps for iOS and Android. Offers to cart will be available in mWeb, desktop and our native apps on iOS and Android later in the year.