eBay Giving Works academic research study

Academic research finds that eBay Giving Works listings get more bids, higher bids, and more final sales than identical eBay listings without eBay Giving Works, especially for new sellers.

Starting with a universe of 23.5 million auction listings over a three-year period, the researchers - Raymond Fisman of Columbia Business School, Dan Elfenbein of Olin Business School, and Brian McManus of the University of North Carolina - discovered more than 150,000 instances where the seller listed the same item in two separate listings, one with eBay Giving Works and the other without the program. From this "natural experiment" (that is, not designed and executed by the research team), they learned that eBay listings supporting nonprofits through eBay Giving Works had a 6-13% higher sale rate and sold at 2-6% higher prices than identical items not supporting a cause through the program.

The bump appears to be biggest for sellers new to eBay, who have very little feedback. The study showed that eBay Giving Works in the listing can make a notable, positive difference - from 12% to 54% sale probability with 4-25% higher prices. As Raymond Fisman, a co-author of the study, explained in Forbes magazine: "If a charity tie-in indicates an honest broker, it may be a more useful signal for less prolific sellers than for experienced ones, whose history of positive feedback serves as a credible sign of dependability."

The benefit of eBay Giving Works doesn't spill over to a seller's other listings, the researchers discovered. Sellers who list some items with eBay Giving Works and others without it find no benefit to their non-eBay Giving Works listings.

"For purely profit-minded sellers charity is more 'expensive' since they do not derive psychic benefits from charitable giving," the research report points out.

The study also found that an eBay Giving Works item donating 10% of proceeds will be given to charity is nearly 20% more likely to sell than its noncharity twin and at a price that's about 2% higher. And when sellers donate 100% of their sale price to a nonprofit, the likelihood of selling is nearly 50% greater and auction bids are 6% higher.

View the full research paper.

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