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Find Similar items Now On Listing Photos
I just noticed that there is now a "Find similar items" button on listing photos. I checked about six of the listings that came up after clicking on the button, and none of the 30 or so listings were from the same seller as the original listing.
IMHO, this is going too far.
52 comments
kh-phdan
·2 years agoHello Everyone,
Due to the age of the thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue discussing this topic.
Thanks for understanding!
h3lp2005
·2 years agoI personally like the feature, because it gives buyers the freedom of options, and the ability to find the same items for less we get to see who is overpricing, who is not
wastingtime101
·3 years agoWhen you ran a test in your OP @mcdougle4248 you were shown shoes from the same brand in the same size.
I just ran a test and was shown "visually similar" listings with a sponsored tag under the "visually similar" page header.
This was the original listing:
And here were the results:
https://www.ebay.com/explore?campaign=VisualSearch&component=lex6aspects-5-items&item_id=204409262020&image_id=qpoAAOSwQeJj5Cj6
Results from same category, but they kinda fail the "visually similar" label given to them.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoThanks for the update @wastingtime101 ! I still don't have it back on the view item page when I look at it, but not surprised it is going to Sponsored ads now.
Here's what I got when clicking your link - not only are most of the results not particularly visually "similar"....the varied thumbnail sizes and shapes are interesting too.
wastingtime101
·3 years agoYeah, that's very close to the results I saw, looks like the same items, but your results are in a different sort order. I was too lazy to take a screenshot, but it helps to have that image to demonstrate the lack of "visually similar" items.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@wastingtime101
I am seeing pretty much the same array as @valueaddedresource screenshot. I really need to use my imagination to see how some of those items might be "visually similar".
mam98031
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248
All I can do is shake my head and wonder how Ebay expects small sellers to survive much less thrive when our listings are covered almost head to toe with other seller's listings. This is a real head scratcher to me.
moosie-goosie
·3 years agoWOW! Just looked at some sandals and realized just how many OTHERS are posted on the listing page.
55 (FIFTY-FIVE) other sellers sandals and shoes in various sizes and brands not related to my simple two word search (brand/size).
10 are placed BEFORE the original sellers item specifics / description area. These 10 are "sponsored items".
The next 45 are placed below the original sellers specifics/description...
5 - from "top-rated sellers"
35 - more "sponsored items"
5 - "people who viewed this item also viewed"
natoman777
·3 years agoSo, it is not cool, but what can you do? I know when I go to purchase on eBay I look for the best price, but also a reliable seller, and sometimes it is based on location and shipping time. All we can do is list and take good photos and do our best to ship fast and provide good customer experience. I have never paid for promoted listings and don't think I ever will.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@natoman777
What can you do?
You can continue to share your thoughts here on these Community Boards. Sometimes eBay developers look at these threads. I know this because recently I have had interactions with eBay developers here on the Boards after posting.
Respond to feedback/survey requests. If you get a message in your eBay message box asking for feedback or to take a survey about a recent listing, take the time to respond. Those responses are read. I am not saying that action will necessarily be taken based on your feedback, just that your voice will be heard.
natoman777
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248
What you say is correct. I have done all of those things and will continue to. Unfortunately, I only remember one thing being changed so far in all the years I have been on eBay. When they updated the site a year or two ago the photo up loader didn't work correctly on PC's. Myself and many others complained about it as it was taking away precious time in listing. After about 5 months it was fixed.
I think eBay is most concerned about making money. Which makes sense...it is what all of us seller are concerned about as well. I am not a fan of what they are doing with the similar items function being on our listings. I am very doubtful they will change it. If you know how to navigate eBay you can already do this through searches. Keep on Keeping on...
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoI do think ebay does give some consideration to Board comments and other seller statements. However, I think it's important to always remember: ebay is a data driven company, and if ebay is testing this and seeing that buyers are buying a lot from these new "similar" pages, that is likely to outweigh seller opinion. If the data indicates buyers don't even click on the little link....ebay might drop it, and those who objected can feel like their objections were heard.
readabouthorses
·3 years agoI view eBay as just a big ole online newspaper so what they are doing violates so many "rules of advertising" that I learned from the many years I spent in marketing and advertising working at TV station, advertising for The Ohio Art Company, advertising for Record Bar and also printing my own newspaper.
You just don't put competing ads so close together! It would be like you taking out a whole page ad in a newspaper and then the newspaper taking it upon themselves to insert all your competitors small ads within the big page ad you ordered.
Which brings up a question ... just how much of our listing page is ours? The constant encroaching of competition makes our "share" smaller and smaller.
And eBay seems to not care who they are putting in there. I hate looking at a listing for a magazine only to see half of the "eBay suggestions" are abusing Media Mail to ship their magazines!
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@readabouthorses "Which brings up a question ... just how much of our listing page is ours? The constant encroaching of competition makes our "share" smaller and smaller."
Frankly, I long ago gave up thinking of the listing page as "my" listing page.
I still like to think of my store homepage as "my" store, but it's probably just a matter of time before the AdsTeam proves that to be just a fanciful illusion.
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoInteresting - on the original listing I was testing on, the overlay is still gone but there is now a scrolling ad carousel row for "visually similar sponsored items" that wasn't there earlier.
So maybe they are trying a few different things.
chapeau-noir
·3 years ago"Throw some more of that spaghetti at the wall, Jamie, and see if any of it sticks".
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@chapeau-noir - exactly! Certainly makes you wonder what the Chief Growth Officer and Chief Business and Strategy Officer are actually doing to earn their comp packages for sure.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI know. 😞 Honestly, I like selling here, but when people being paid inflated salaries do something that even a humble former editor and hack writer with plus/minus marketing skills knows is a bad idea, it doesn't do much for my confidence in our leadership.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years agoI am not seeing this on the listing I screenshot in my OP.
I notice in your screenshot that they are using Sponsored listings.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248 yep, it's just one of the various rows of PL now on that listing.
From top to bottom on the page right now for my view of that particular listing (with ad blocker off) it goes:
images/seller info
scrolling ad row - Similar sponsored items
scrolling ad row - Related sponsored items
item specifics
description
seller feedback module
scrolling ad row - Visually similar sponsored items
scrolling ad row - Sponsored Items from Top Rated Sellers
scrolling ad row - Explore related sponsored items
scrolling row organic/not sponsored - People who viewed this item also viewed
25 more ads under Find more sponsored items
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@valueaddedresource
And I'm sure at eBay HQ they are saying: "Commendable restraint, Ads Team! We wouldn't want you over-doing things!"
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoscrolling ad row - Similar sponsored items
scrolling ad row - Related sponsored items
scrolling ad row - Visually similar sponsored items
scrolling ad row - Sponsored Items from Top Rated Sellers
scrolling ad row - Explore related sponsored items
scrolling row organic/not sponsored - People who viewed this item also viewed
25 more ads under Find more sponsored items
Click to see seller's photos and description
ten_o_nine
·3 years agoHAHA, the only thing missing is the item. LOL
wastingtime101
·3 years agoDidn't Etsy do something like this a few months ago, then get rid of it due to seller backlash?
Seems like most of the "more like this" results aren't very similar to the shoes you're looking at @mcdougle4248 .
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@wastingtime101 yep, a few months ago Etsy did something very similar with a "view similar items" overlay on seller images and you're right there was major backlash to it.
More recently they have tested a different approach and instead of taking over the seller image, they added an "image" after all the seller provided pictures that is basically just a black square with clickable buttons for multiple related search terms/phrases.
That one has also been met with backlash - it seems like both platforms are currently running frog boiling tests to see just how much they can turn up the temp before sellers hop out of the pot.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years agoSorry, I do not know about Etsy's endeavors with this technology.
You are correct, most of the shoes that came up after clicking on the button were not visibly similar to the original listing I was looking at. They were all the same brand though. I can do a better job using the filters already provided on the search page to find what I am looking for.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI understand the need to make a profit, but that is a nasty, sneaky idea. What happens if we fill up all 24 image slots? They create a whole new 25th for this turkey of an "innovation"?
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@chapeau-noir unlike Etsy's current attempt at a similar sneaky idea, eBay isn't actually inserting an additional "image" spot for this - it's just a clickable button overlaid on top of the main image display "box" if that makes sense.
chapeau-noir
·3 years agoI was kind of joking, but yes, I see they'll obscure our own image with their redirect, going Etsy one better, and course it's not possible to embed a hyperlink in eBay's photo hosting so we can't short-circuit that. I haven't been able to test this as it hasn't come up in my own searches and can only hope that the redirect opens in a new tab as is usual so the buyer's search isn't lost altogether.
ETA: This frog hopped out of Etsy's pot when they forced through that ridiculous 12% penalty fee on people grossing more than 10k a year - and if you make that much in ONE year, you're stuck for life.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@chapeau-noir The "Similar" page opens as a new page...as far as I can see, there is not anyway to click "back" to the view item page, you need to close the "Similar" page or go the tab beside it (which will be the original View Item page.)
ebay never seems to tire of finding new ways to divert buyers from our listings.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@chapeau-noir that's an interesting question - when I tested it, the redirect did open in a new tab but I have my eBay search settings purposely set to "open item page in new tab" and my browser settings are generally set to open links in new tabs as well, so I'm not sure if that is a factor or not.
It's gone now for me but if it comes back I'll play around with it some more and see if that changes if I change either eBay search or browser settings.
chapeau-noir
·3 years ago@valueaddedresource Etsy implemented 'open in new tab' as a site setting a couple of years ago when I still sold there. Uproar on the forums, but I thought it was a great idea. AFAIK, eBay also has this as a global setting, so I'm hoping they retain this.
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248 it just disappeared for me on both browsers/both view item page versions....maybe they weren't ready to let this cat out of bag yet? 😂
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@valueaddedresource
It was gone from the pages I was looking at for a few minutes, then it came back for a few minutes and now is gone again. The cat cannot decide if it wants to stay in or get out of the bag 🤣
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248 Schrödinger's view similar items button. 🤣
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@valueaddedresource
I am not going to open the box to check on the cat. At least not for the next hour or so 🤔
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoAs I said, probably still a test.
backpacktreasures
·3 years agoThis is not ok. Is there any single inch of our listing that actually keeps the buyer on our listing instead of clicking AWAY from our listing?
valueaddedresource
·3 years agoWarning, there are a lot of potentially boring technical details here, but I thought some might find this interesting -
https://tech.ebayinc.com/engineering/how-ebays-new-search-feature-was-inspired-by-window-shopping/
I had read about this back in March but honestly from the description in the article and the images shown, I thought it was going to be deployed within the regular search flow, not on the view item page. Maybe I misunderstood the original post or maybe they've expanded on it - I'm not sure.
I would have much less of a problem with it if this was being done within the search like I originally thought it would be - see a result in the list and have the option to tap a button at that point to refine the search based on visually similar items.
But once a buyer has clicked through on to a listing page, redirecting them to competitors with this "view similar" button overlaid on the seller provided images... I have to agree with @mcdougle4248 , that's a step too far.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@valueaddedresource
Thank you for sharing. Very interesting.
From the article, I agree with your thoughts that this would "be deployed within the regular search flow, not on the view item page".
simba6
·3 years agoThey are burning the candle at both ends.
selsa84
·3 years agoAnd it's getting windy
valueaddedresource
·3 years ago@mcdougle4248 I'm also seeing this on listings in both FireFox and Chrome (also in both the "old" view item page and whatever version of the test of the "new" view item page I can currently see on one account).
Interesting note - none of the results I've been shown so far have an explicit "sponsored" tag on them. Presumably that means at least at this time these are all organic results, not Promoted Listings.
Edit to add - I'm a slow typer and you all have already commented on the lack of sponsored tag so...never mind on that. 😂
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years agoI suspect this is a test, but may also be a new feature. ebay has been working on the view item page, and this may be part of that testing. Also, ebay has been touting the improved ability of its photo search ability, and this would tie in with that. I agree, at least at present, these appear to be organic listings.
ebay has previously said that the large majority of PLS sales are made on the Listing pages, not from the search results page. I'd guess that ebay believes this will result in more sales and more satisfied buyers.
From a seller perspective:
If buyer is viewing MY item, and this change results in buyer choosing to buy someone else's item from the "similar" results: This is BAD. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!
If buyer is viewing someone else's item, and this change results in the buyer buying MY item from the "similar" results: This is GOOD. I love it, I love it, I love it!
coolections
·3 years agoNot sure if you are new to Ebay but similar items have been showing on listings for quite same time now. Ebay looks at it like an ad in the newspaper where they show everyone who pays for an ad. It is up to the buyer to choose which one they prefer. It is up to the seller to price competitively to get that buyer.
toomuchstuffagain35
·3 years agoThis is different.
It's a button to see similar in the seller's listing photos.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years ago@coolections
I am not new to eBay. I have been a buyer and seller since 2005.
I am aware that other Seller's Sponsored listings have been showing on listings for several years. What is new to me is seeing a button on the listing photo to take the buyer off the original listing page.
bcsportscardshop
·2 years agoWe do not approve of this. Nope. Another reach from eBay, redirecting traffic that we strive hard (and pay much) to get! Very disappointing… also, the eBay standard envelope “never scanning pickup or delivered†madness is pushing our buttons. Very displeased with these new features. And they expect us Sellers to maintain “perfect metricsâ€. How? The system is flawed. *sigh*
drygoodies
·2 years agoYeah, well since I pay for a store - It's ridiculous that ebay would put someone else's listing on my listing. EBAY IS a monopoly and should be shut down - there is zero oversight
mam98031
·2 years agoEbay is NOT a "monopoly", there are plenty of other sites out there that compete with Ebay. You just may prefer to use the site, but that doesn't make it a monopoly.
ms.rodriguez*
·3 years agoEbay is now showing competitor's listings in ads. Those folks paid to promote those items. If you want to find other items from that seller, click SELLERS OTHER ITEMS. Personally, I try to avoid buying any item that is promoted like this. I feel like if Ebay is shoving down my throat. I want to buy an item that I searched for.
mcdougle4248
OP3 years agoI am not so sure the listings that came up after clicking the Find similar items button are Sponsored listings. I do not see the Sponsored label on any of the listings returned.