eBay

expeditedeals · ‎01-20-2020

In exchange for higher fees paid by some sellers EBay has now "unleveled the playing field" and is manipulating search results to place those sellers listings in places they do not belong based upon a buyer's search.

If a buyer searches for an item using "Time:Newly Listed" they will see mostly newly listed items, along with many listings that are months old, "sponsored listings" that do not meet the buyer search criteria in any way.

More significantly, if a buyer searches for an item "Price Plus Shipping Lowest First" the results provided by EBay will include one, or often more, listings, "sponsored listings", more expensive items that have been moved by EBay from where they belong based on the search criteria and misrepresented to EBay's buyers, ahead of items that are priced well below them.

There are several more examples that you may have noticed as a Seller or Buyer.

As a Valued Buyer on EBay do you expect EBay to provide honest search results? Results you can rely upon and which do not waste your time? Results that do not cause you to buy something you might not have or to pay more than you should because you did not realize "Newly Listed" does not mean Newly Listed and "Price Plus Shipping Lowest First" does not mean Price Plus Shipping lowest First?

As a Valued Seller on EBay do you think it is ethical or serves your interest in any way for EBay to lessen the position of your listings by falsely representing other listings, diminishing the position of your listings... because another seller is willing to pay EBay more money to do so?

Is search and browse manipulation an ethical profit center for EBay? Does it enhance EBay's credibility with Valued Buyers and Valued Sellers? A lot of people and businesses rely upon EBay's reputation for their success. Do you feel EBay is looking out for You as a Valued Buyer Or Valued Seller, and own reputation... or has a Focus on Profit blurred the Vision?

le-5262 · ‎01-20-2020

I'm just an individual simply selling my own collections and I pay the extra promotional fees on my listings. It would be nice if I didn't have to and still had fair exposure.

I would expect that my listings would show above other people's listing who don't pay the fees (point and purpose of the fees), but I wouldn't want my items to be misrepresented in categories they don't belong in.

gwzcomps · ‎01-20-2020

Promoted listings are a good way to make buyers like me shop somewhere else. I still buy on eBay, but I spend more on other sites that don't make it difficult for me to find the best deals on what I want.

cashvaluerecovery2011 · ‎01-20-2020

Its not just unethical its a conflict of interest and hurts buyers and sellers. I and many buyers just avoid sponsored listings like the spam they are. Buyers dislike the filters not working properly in order to show these misleading listings. They skip them or buy elsewhere. Higher fees means higher prices for buyers so they go elsewhere.

I for one LOVE others sponsoring their listings. It means they cant compete with me price wise and as buyers skip past the spam they see my non sponsored best price next in line. In jan alone ive sold over 100 items never having over 300 listings up at a time. I promote none.

Unfortunately ebay has gone away from what worked. They now employ poor tactics that hurt this great venue. They push sellers at every turn to " lower your price" to make a deal. But they never offer to help on lowering prices for buyers by cutting fees on their end. Sad to watch this old girl getting weaker.

eleanor*rigby · ‎01-21-2020

I use Adblock Plus and never see a promoted listing on eBay. It filters them all out. It does not, however, filter them out on Etsy or Amazon or Pinterest. I had to add specific apps to Chrome for those sites.

zamo-zuan · ‎01-21-2020

@expeditedeals wrote:
In exchange for higher fees paid by some sellers EBay has now "unleveled the playing field" and is manipulating search results to place those sellers listings in places they do not belong based upon a buyer's search.

If a buyer searches for an item using "Time:Newly Listed" they will see mostly newly listed items, along with many listings that are months old, "sponsored listings" that do not meet the buyer search criteria in any way.

More significantly, if a buyer searches for an item "Price Plus Shipping Lowest First" the results provided by EBay will include one, or often more, listings, "sponsored listings", more expensive items that have been moved by EBay from where they belong based on the search criteria and misrepresented to EBay's buyers, ahead of items that are priced well below them.

There are several more examples that you may have noticed as a Seller or Buyer.

As a Valued Buyer on EBay do you expect EBay to provide honest search results? Results you can rely upon and which do not waste your time? Results that do not cause you to buy something you might not have or to pay more than you should because you did not realize "Newly Listed" does not mean Newly Listed and "Price Plus Shipping Lowest First" does not mean Price Plus Shipping lowest First?

As a Valued Seller on EBay do you think it is ethical or serves your interest in any way for EBay to lessen the position of your listings by falsely representing other listings, diminishing the position of your listings... because another seller is willing to pay EBay more money to do so?

Is search and browse manipulation an ethical profit center for EBay? Does it enhance EBay's credibility with Valued Buyers and Valued Sellers? A lot of people and businesses rely upon EBay's reputation for their success. Do you feel EBay is looking out for You as a Valued Buyer Or Valued Seller, and own reputation... or has a Focus on Profit blurred the Vision?

I've seen the same thing in search. If you sort by price as you have listed, they'll be showing up those listings, but they will often times NOT be flagged as "sponsored listings" as well. They'll simply be out of place and mixed in with the results sorted by price.

It's also been brought to my attention that these sellers are usually China sellers, coincidentally appearing in the middle of searches where they do not belong...

Here's a screenshot I was sent of the issue, and please keep in mind, this is sorted by price highest/lowest:

zamo-zuan · ‎01-21-2020

@eleanor*rigby wrote:
I use Adblock Plus and never see a promoted listing on eBay. It filters them all out. It does not, however, filter them out on Etsy or Amazon or Pinterest. I had to add specific apps to Chrome for those sites.

Considering eBay only shows EITHER a Sponsored Listing, or a organic search result, and not both, using adblockers can have a very harmful effect on sellers.

It's basically saying that any seller who is paying eBay additional funds in order for their items to show up, will not appear in your search results.

To be clear, this isn't the fault of anyone shopping on eBay, it's an issue eBay should fix. But due to the way search is designed these days, adblockers are basically punishing sellers for investing in to eBay marketing, rather than rewarding them for their investment.

Right now it's a lose/lose situation. If a seller don't pay eBay the advertising bucks, they won't get visibility as often as those who do. But if a seller does pay eBay, adblockers will make it so they get decreased visibility as well.

eburtonlab · ‎01-21-2020

@zamo-zuan

Considering eBay only shows EITHER a Sponsored Listing, or a organic search result, and not both, using adblockers can have a very harmful effect on sellers.

I may be mistaken, but I believe that the case of either the sponsored or organic listing appearing (and not both) only occurs when using the "Best match" sort.

Using other sorts, both the sponsored and organic listings are normally shown, unless an ad blocker is being employed, in which case only the organic version appears.

I just tested this using a simple search that gives me thirteen organic results.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=lenovo+t560+i7&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=1

Using an ad blocker, I see thirteen actual results in each sort except "Best match", where I see only twelve listings. Using a browser without an ad blocker, I see the same thirteen organic results plus two sponsored results which are duplicates of two of the organic results. I am assuming the reason I saw twelve rather than eleven results using "Best match" with an ad blocker was that one sponsored listing outranked and replaced one of the organic listings (and then was blocked), and the other did not.

krys888 · ‎01-21-2020

I just noticed a weirdness in searches too. I searched for Silkstone Garden Party (a doll fashion set), was shown a few of them in search, but then right under it was a gob of handbags. Women’s handbags. Gobs and gobs of them. Most sponsored/promoted. For the life of me I can’t figure out how ebay would think that someone searching for a specific item would even be remotely interested in a completely unrelated item in that search. Very weird.

coolections · ‎01-21-2020

@krys888

There are two reason for your search result. The first being most important: buyers do not search Silkstone Garden Party, they would type "Barbie Silkstone Garden Party". Try that and you will see nothing but Barbie items. Secondly there is a purse made by Hermes that is called garden party. Since you did not specify you wanted a "Barbie", Ebay made a suggestion to you that there is also a purse with that name.

luckythewinner · ‎01-21-2020

@zamo-zuan wrote:
Here's a screenshot I was sent of the issue, and please keep in mind, this is sorted by price highest/lowest:

In your screen shot, the two items that you highlight as out of place do not have free shipping but I also do not show the shipping cost.

Are you certain that once you add in the shipping cost, they are still out of place?

lindyslucky · ‎01-21-2020

I absolutely hate the sponsored listings as a buyer.

i tried to look for an item recently & just gave up.

In the beginning, it seemed they were only at top & bottom.

Now they are in the middle & often not even close to what I'm looking for.

Sometimes it seems there's as many sponsored as not. What good does that do if a buyer knows what they are looking for?

As a seller, ok, we play along.

Fought it, but seemed like I had to.

At first, it seemed to help sales.

Now.....well, we get more views, sales not so much

coolections · ‎01-21-2020

@luckythewinner wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:
Here's a screenshot I was sent of the issue, and please keep in mind, this is sorted by price highest/lowest:

In your screen shot, the two items that you highlight as out of place do not have free shipping but I also do not show the shipping cost.

Are you certain that once you add in the shipping cost, they are still out of place?

Yes, he gave false information. The shipping cost on a few I checked made the listing in the correct sort order like it was supposed to be.

luckythewinner · ‎01-21-2020

I found the first one you circled in red at $118.98.

The shipping cost on that listing is $15.

That makes the total $133.98, which I believe means it is exactly where it should be, between $136 and $132.76.

What am I missing?

luckythewinner · ‎01-21-2020

@luckythewinner wrote:
I found the first one you circled in red at $118.98.

The shipping cost on that listing is $15.

That makes the total $133.98, which I believe means it is exactly where it should be, between $136 and $132.76.

What am I missing?

And the one you show as out of place at $90.99 has a shipping cost of $38.39 for a total of $129.38, which I believe means it is exactly where it should be - between $130.99 and $128.98.