Buyer Search vs. Category Browsing - data???
Just curious to know if there has been any data collected on how buyers are finding items they are looking for? Mainly, any data on search vs. category/sub-category browsing? I've read, in different forums, that buyers tend to use the search engine on most sites, including Ebay, instead of browsing categories. Wondering if there is any data to support that? Thoughts from fellow Ebayers???
9 comments
luckythewinner
·2 years agoI can give you one buyer's perspective.
I'm a buyer since 1998 and I use search 100% of the time.
I have never used category browsing in my life.
c_miracles_vintage
·2 years agoOn my buyer account, I used to love to browse by subcategory (i.e. Health and Beauty - Skincare). I would then filter by location to weed out China. See what was on offer, what kind of sale like B1G1F. Then I would sort by newest listing and browse those items, then by lowest cost and browse that. I purchased A LOT doing that.
Now that you have to put in a keyword to get details like if there is a sale going on, the seller name and their feedback rating, etc. (Also, any kind of keyword including the name of the category or subcategory does not show everything like it used to for me anyway when I could just browse the subcategory.)
Like eburtonlab said, so many details are now missing without the key word search. But if I want to see those details, I have to use a keyword like cream, and look at those items, then I have to search lotion, and look at those items, then mask, etc. If in the makeup subcatgory, I have to search eye shadow, then mascara, etc. etc. You get the idea.
Too much work and no fun. It's a pain and I don't enjoy searching or buying on eBay any more unless I am looking for something specific. Guess I should be grateful because this change forced me to find another hobby other than shopping and buying on eBay.
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoThe reason that it is so important to be in the top 20 search results is that buyer are unlikely to view more than a page or two of Ebay search results. They are now many cheaper forms of entertainment than shopping on Ebay available on the internet.
There are too many listings for browsing a category to be effective. Many seller stores have too many listings to browse.
Your question suggests you do not really understand how large Ebay and the other large Internet marketplaces are.
The same lack of appreciating the scope of these sites results in sellers who expect personalized attention and exceptions to policies.
A typical Walmart store is estimated to carry 120k SKUs. An Aldi 1,400 SKUs. A boutique might have 600 or 700.
A buyer is unlikely to view all of the SKUs in a store or a department. Same applies to buying online, where there are millions of SKUs and one category will have more SKUs than a Walmart store.
retrohunter55
OP2 years agoThanks tobaccocardyahoo for your input. Your answer is helping me in streamlining my daily listing tasks, which is what my goal is. Although I do understand how large Ebay is [I've been on Ebay since 1999] I was never quite certain if I was wasting my time when selecting a listing category by drilling down to a specific sub-category or pay closer attention to search keywords. I will be concentrating more on search keywords in my titles and search optimization from here on out, and will be spending way less effort on any sort of sub-category placement.
eburtonlab
·2 years agoeBay likely has lots of data, but is not sharing much of it publicly as far as I can tell.
I do note that when browsing a category, many details that are consistently available when searching with keywords are often not displayed at all -- including, at times, seller information and many filter options. I suspect that if eBay thought that lots of folks were browsing categories rather than searching, those options would appear with much more consistency.
I often recommend that folks browsing but having problems seeing filter options try searching the category using the category name as search keywords in order to get around browsing limitations.
slippinjimmy
·2 years agoI haven't browsed a Category in 20+ years, I'm sure there are some buyers that still browse by Newly Listed but even for that if you are viewing even most sub-categories there are so many new listings posted that to just see the ones in the past few hours might mean scrolling through 2,000 to 5,000 listings.
In some of the busy Categories "newly listed" might have 50,000+ listings from the past 24 hours.
So while have no data I think it's unlikely that many users DO NOT start with a search on general keywords and then use filters and only then Browse the results.
retrohunter55
OP2 years agoI'm inclined to agree with you, Slippinjimmy. One reason for my question is to figure out if it's worth a seller's time when listing an item to drill down into sub-categories. I'm thinking NO. I seriously doubt buyers are going through dozens of categories/sub-categories to find an item when a simple search would do a better/faster job. But .... I'm still open to more responses from sellers. Thanks.
eburtonlab
·2 years agoOne reason for my question is to figure out if it's worth a seller's time when listing an item to drill down into sub-categories.
Keep in mind that eBay often automatically steers searches into a particular subcategory based on the keywords used in a search, so if an item is listed in a higher-level category, it may not be seen by buyers searching using those keywords.
luckythewinner
·2 years agoIMHO it is best to pick the appropriate category.
eBay does do "category switching" in some searches, where eBay limits a search to a specific category based on the search terms. For example, if you search "american girl doll" you will see the category gets switched to:
Collectibles & Art > Dolls & Bears > Dolls, Clothing & Accessories > Dolls & Doll Playsets
If you think buyers searching for your item will use "american girl doll", you probably need to be in the correct category!