Category:
(LIVE) Int'l Financing Program
Role:
Design Lead
Background:
Seller Operating Funds: China + Hong Kong China and Hong Kong are important B2C markets in eBay's selling ecosystem. It's important to note that they operate very different than larger sellers in other markets. Most businesses sell a diversified portfolio of products across not only eBay, but also other platforms such as Amazon and Walmart. In early 2025, eBay leadership set out to offer operating funds to these larger sellers in China and Hong Kong. From an operating model and experience perspective, this would be a first in many ways. By collaborating closely with teams across the US and China, I would lead the design and delivery of the platform to offer Term Loans and Lines of Credit in RMB and/or USD to sellers.
Results
During the initial beta launch (Q3 2025), this resulted in $3.5M in loans. The product continues to expand and reach more sellers, to unlock more funding. Learn more at: https://www.oreateai.com/blog/ebays-latest-moves-funding-for-sellers-smoother-payments-and-ai-rule-tweaks/f9489cd6d68fedde2aa0716e5910eb46
At eBay, a vast majority of sellers that are either C2C or B2C operate their businesses from a single account. However, in CN/HK, this is not the case. These are not small mom-n-pop stores; they are large corporations with several divisions. Thus, each eBay account maps to a different division.
So how can we offer 'loans' to these large corporations in a way that's meaningful and speaks to the entirety of how they operate both on eBay, AND off-eBay?
That was one of the challenges. What you're seeing here is an entry page to start the application process.
Note: while the final experience was launched in simplified Chinese (China) and traditional Chinese (Hong Kong), most of the screens here will show English for ease of understanding.
At eBay, each account operates independently and without getting into the technical weeds, there is no 'parent' account view. So we needed a way for each account owner to view and 'connect' each of the other accounts that they wanted as part of a loan, that would benefit the entirety of the business.
Any account owner could start the 'connection' process
The other owners would then receive notifications and accept/reject the connection
At which point each of those 'connected' accounts would be attached the loan
This would address one of the major pain points of a diversified business, and having their eBay sales inform the potential available loan amount.
However, more than 80% of eBay B2C sellers in this region also sell on other platforms, notably Amazon and Walmart.
These were an integral part of these sellers' portfolio. How would we connect this revenue to be considered for larger loans?
To incorporate off-eBay sales, we latched onto the concept of "boosting" an offer. By using both a central 'connection' entry point, in addition to a contextual 'card', we gave sellers access to add those outside sales.
eBay partnered with a 3rd party that would integrate the connection points across eBay/Amazon/Walmart that would then allow eBay to consider all a business's sales, to 'boost' their potential available loan options.
Redirected via SSO, next the business would need to enter their Amazon and Walmart credentials into the 3rd party's secure site. After completion, this data would then update their Offers area of eBay.
The business would then see their 'boosted' offers, at which point they could complete the application process.
From here, the business completes their online application.
In actuality, they would need to complete and submit additional forms at their banks, sometimes electronically, but other times in person due to local regulations. While we did explore and advocate for open banking processes, this was not something available due to existing government policies.
The eBay portion was intended to take ~20 minutes, but the offline and off platform portions were dependent on the businesses speed to completion.
This launch gave clarity, speed, and excitement for larger B2C eBay sellers to access operating funds to reinvent into their businesses. This would provide a foundation to continue improvements both in the China/Hong Kong regions, but also as a platform for other market expansions.
