What does this eBay policy mean?

[bslapp]

I teach a course that includes how to sel on eBay. When selecting relevant policies to share, I came across the following. My question regards the last item: Why wouldn't a listing qualify to drive a positive user experience?:

“eBay strives to create a marketplace where buyers find what they are looking for. Therefore, the appearance or placement of listings in search and browse results will depend on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:

• buyer's location, search query, browsing site, and history
• item's location, listing format, price and shipping cost, terms of service, end time, history, and relevance to the user query
• seller's history, including listing practices, detailed seller ratings, eBay policy compliance, feedback, and defect rate

To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer.”

[divwido]

I'm sorry, I just spit water out all over  my keyboard laughing.  

[ittybitnot]

To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer.”

@bslapp 

Translation:  eBay may not show your listing at all. 

[bslapp]

🙂 I did that once and ruined the keyboard. Had to buy a new laptop!

[flyingmvp]

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@bslapp wrote:

I teach a course that includes how to sel on eBay. When selecting relevant policies to share, I came across the following. My question regards the last item: Why wouldn't a listing qualify to drive a positive user experience?:

To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer.”

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It means Ebay might NOT show all listings.

 You can explain your students that even if they have the best price, best feedback, fast shipping and buyer friendly return policy, their items/listings might not show.

If you pay Ebay more in "promoted listings" you might gain better search placement and increase the opportunity for sales since buyers can't buy listings that "May not appear"

[bslapp]

I'm hoping that someone who works for eBay will find and answer my question. Can't wait...

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

eBay has decided that potential buyers can be overwhelmed if they are shown a huge number of search results. So eBay has devised two ways of addressing this: (1) show all of the results from only one subcategory; and (2) a mysterious formula, possibly related to "best match" which selects a subset of the results to show to the potential buyer.  

Under option (1), eBay selects a category or subcategory and only shows the results in that category. For instance, if you search on "red hat," eBay selects the subcategory for Hats.

Under option (2), the search result shows this message box:

Option (1) is known as "implicit category navigation." You can see an explanation by en eBay staff member i post #44 in this discussion:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Weekly-Discussion-with-eBay/bd-p/weekly-chat/redirect_from_archived_pa...

In both options there is probably nothing "wrong" with the listing, in the sense that the seller could anticipate problems and improve the listing content.

[bslapp]

Thank you! Good to know. Never noticed the streamlining comment myself. Can the searcher request to see the rest?

[mr_lincoln]

@bslapp  It's a disclaimer ... it implies they will ultimately control what does or does not get returned in any Search regardless of filters selected by the Buyer ...

[zip-a-deedoodah]

I'm sure just like Google's mysterious ever-evolving search algorithms, eBay has its secret sauce that it uses to deliver up search results that according to their calculations, will best lead to a buyer bidding or buying something.

 No about if an eBay employee revealed the key ingredient in their secret sauce they would have all their digits chopped off...or worse.  Now you wouldn't want that to happen - would you??????

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@bslapp wrote:

Thank you! Good to know. Never noticed the streamlining comment myself. Can the searcher request to see the rest?

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Yes.  Under option (1), the observant buyer can click on "All" at the top of the list of categories shown on the far left of the results page.  Under option (2), the blue box message has a link for "See more results" which probably brings up all of the Results.

Another way that items get left out of search results is when they are being indexed. This happens when an item is first listed, and also if the seller revises anything. In some categories, indexing (or re-indexing) can take up to 24 hours.

[Anonymous]

@zip-a-deedoodah 

Zipadeedoodah zipadeeda oh my my what........

[dhbookds]

If memory serves?  At one time ebay said that to show a large number of results in a search discouraged buyer to the extent they left the site....  They never named a number......but one assumed they meant buyers were intimidated by 5000 (+, -) listings for a "red dress"....which is one reason they started with the Item specifics so buyers could narrow a search.......

[zip-a-deedoodah]

OP wants to know what this means: "To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer.”

The short answer is that its mumbo jumbo.