Measuring Usability ROI at eBay

1
Measuring Usability ROI at eBay
TM

• Kelly Braun
• Manager, Usability Engineering
• eBay Design Labs

2
Getting Started

• Its easy to see the costs
• Demonstrating the value requires planning
• What is important - Savings? Revenue? Both?
• Need to gather baseline data
• Need business data (usually company confidential)

3
Data needed

• ROI calculations
• Cost of diversion in missed revenue opportunities
• Cost of answering users question
• Design insight
• Page statistics to find where users get diverted
• Success metrics Post-design
• page statistics
• increased revenue

4
Sell Your Item Form (SYI)
5
SYI form

• Look at page statistics and see where people
  leave process
• Estimate usability impact
• Use data to gain insight for re-design
• We assumed the complexity of the page was
  contributing to the drop out rate.
• How much revenue could be generated if we reduced
  the drop off rate by 1?

6
SYI Revenue increase calculations

• Reduce drop out by 1 ? Increase of listings by
  1
• 1.1 million listings per day ? 11,000 more
  listings per day.
• Minimum listing fee 0.30
• 11,000 listings x 0.30 3,300 per day
• Or
• 1,204,500 in listing fees per year

7
Additional SYI ROI calculations

• Final Value Fees (FVF)
• All items that sell on eBay pay a final value fee
  (FVF)
• 11,000 more listings x item sold rate x average
  FVF
• Savings in Customer Support costs

8
SYI Usability Costs

• One usability engineer for 3 months (team input
  and testing)
• Testing assistant for 2 weeks
• Participant incentives
• Additional UI design (1 week) to address
  usability issues and redesign.