eBay Sellers’ Gender Gap Price Problem

Research shows that women sellers on eBay are paid significantly less than men.

According to a new study in Science, female sellers typically receive $0.80 on the dollar when compared to their male counterparts, CNNMoney reported late last week.

Nearly 1 million auctions were analyzed from 2009 to 2012 as part of the study, and researchers found that women received lower final prices and fewer bids than men on the same products.

This bias was more prevalent among newer products, with women reportedly receiving nearly $0.97 on every dollar a man does for used items, the study explained.

Researchers attributed this lower gap to buyers unknowingly relying on women to provide accurate product descriptions for used products.

The study looked at 429 of the eCommerce site’s most popular items and found that factors, such as a seller’s reputation, price or product description, have the ability to mitigate the apparent gender bias.

“These findings held even after controlling for the sentiments that appear in the text of the sellers’ listings. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that this gap varied by the type of the product being sold,” the researchers stated.

“We supplement the analysis with an additional off-eBay experiment showing that, in a controlled setting, people are willing to pay less for money-value gift cards when they are sold by women rather than men.”