eBay announced in mid-August that it would implement changes to its Checkout feature. The auction site said Friday it would roll out those changes this week.
Checkout is the feature that allows buyers to complete an order after an auction has ended or a fixed-price order has been placed. eBay will now customize the Checkout button on the seller's item page to indicate to the buyer what steps they should take next.
For example, if a seller has elected to use eBay's payment offerings (called eBay Payments), then the Checkout button may say "Pay Now" or "Request Total," depending on whether the total amount to pay is known.
If sellers do not accept eBay Payments, the Checkout button will read, “Send Payment Information,” informing buyers to send their payment method and ship-to address to the seller through eBay’s checkout process. (See example of this at http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/payments/vi_sendpayment.gif.)
eBay introduced its Checkout feature in October, sparking controversy over whether the feature was really "optional" as it claimed. It also caused conflicts with third-party auction-management software when it was first introduced.
Since individual sellers accept payments and ship goods, not the auction site itself, eBay does not have a shopping cart feature typically found on fixed-price sites like Amazon.
