Donahoe announced that eBay will introduce an insertion fee reduction in the U.S. Feb. 20 by cutting the cost of listing items by 25 percent to 50 percent. By reducing the impact of items that don’t sell, eBay hopes merchants will list more products.

eBay will also do away with fees it charges U.S. merchants for its “gallery” option, in order to encourage merchants to include more photos with their listings. Fee changes will vary by country.

In addition, eBay will alter its search engine so that merchants with lower rates of customer satisfaction get less exposure on search results. Meanwhile, sellers with higher buyer satisfaction ratings will get better exposure in search results.

In particular, eBay wants to penalize sellers that charge excessive fees for shipping and handling, which the company has found is a major turnoff for buyers, said Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, who spoke after Donahoe.

eBay will also require a “safe payment option,” such as PayPal or a major credit card, from merchants with lower customer satisfaction and from those in product categories that generate many buyer complaints.

eBay will also revamp its feedback system, in particular to curb what Cobb called “a disturbing trend” of sellers using it to retaliate against buyers by giving them low ratings. This discourages buyers from leaving honest feedback and drives many of them away from eBay.