eBay announced a number of new enhancements for buyers and sellers last week. On the buying side, eBay is testing some changes to the bidding/buying process. eBay will display Gallery pictures when buyers go to confirm their bids; will display the average selling price for an item when the bid is significantly below the average (but only when sellers used Pre-Filled Item Information when listing the item); will include more education on the "Place Bid" page; and will provide warnings to prevent accidental Buy It Now bids. As part of the test, only a small, random percentage of buyers will start seeing those changes to the bidding/buying process (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603221617072.html).

eBay has created a new section within My eBay called Past Purchases that will allow buyers to quickly review the past 3 years of purchases, up to a maximum of 500 items. Also included will be links to find similar active items to bid on or purchase; research similar Completed Items; and sell that item or one similar to it. The Past Purchases section will be located in the All Buying or All Selling sections of My eBay (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603241633272.html).

eBay will also make it possible for sellers to revise or resend invoices after buyers have completed checkout and have selected a payment method other than PayPal, which previously there were unable to do. eBay said it would be helpful in situations where buyers completes checkout for one item, then decide they want to make more purchases. After a seller revises the original invoice to include the new purchases, the buyer will then be able to go through Checkout again to pay for everything at once (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603221429382.html).

Finally, eBay said it was making a few enhancements to its Reviews & Guides feature to make them more visible to buyers looking for particular items. Item listed with Pre-Filled Item Information will include two new pieces of information: an "Average Rating" bar showing how other members rated that product, plus a "See Reviews" link that lets the buyer easily read what other members thought of it. Sellers who don't want this extra information to appear on their listings may opt out through the "Show product ratings on your listings, if available" option within Seller Preferences in My eBay. And in April, eBay will add Member Guides in Search. Up to four relevant member-written Guides that have been voted as helpful will be included in a "Related Guides" box on the left-hand side of the page when buyers search for an item (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603221721172.html).