Ebay's Search is a Mess , Item Specifics

[iprefervintage]

853 results come up when I searched for a "white ceramic lamp". Most of those lamps were NOT white. THE CORDS WERE WHITE.  Not too many people care about cord color. 

Shopping on Ebay has become a frustrating experience because they system is picking up item specifics that sellers feel they are forced to include when listing. There is no way of weeding out those unwelcome results.

Ebay has added so much clutter to item specifics that it's interfering with customer's search. Sometimes I get results the leave me absolutely miffed.

Today I was listing some candle holders in the collectibles category. The item specifics wanted to know if they were machine washable or dry clean only. -- Kid you not. How's that for a head scratcher?

Look, I'm not complaining about item specifics in general. I have always used them. But whatever Ebay did with this recent change by forcing sellers to use item specifics has really created some problems. I don't know what Ebay did in there, but it needs to be fixed. 

[eburtonlab]

Yes, using a keyword will match words in the item title, and also the item specifics.

If your chosen search keyword is matching irrelevant item specifics such as "cord color", try instead using the actual relevant filters those keywords correspond to.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dcat=261713&_fsrp=1&rt=nc&_from=R40&_nkw=ceramic+lamp&_sacat=0&Colo...

Although not perfect, those results should be better than just searching using keywords alone. But that search will not return results where the seller has not included those item specifics.

Today I was listing some candle holders in the collectibles category. The item specifics wanted to know if they were machine washable or dry clean only. -- Kid you not. How's that for a head scratcher?

That is what happens when eBay consolidates many individual categories into a single overarching category, unfortunately.

[iprefervintage]

Or  buyers may shop on venues that makes it easy and recognizes their search for what it is and doesn't force them to weed out the rubbish they don't want. 

I can't help but think there is a direct correlation between the new search and lost sales.  Ebay sales are down 2/3rds while my other venues doubled (scratching head). 

 I am not here for the sake of complaining. Ebay had a FANTASTIC search and I fail to understand why they thought it was a good idea to make shopping a cumbersome task for our customers.   

[stacy_pme]

Yup, only commiseration for you, unfortunately.   I list a lot of jewelry.  Now.... if you list a plain silver band ring, or a silver necklace, or anything..... really.... you have to put how many gemstones are in it, how many diamonds are in it.... (EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T HAVE STONES AND YOU MARK IT AS SUCH)>.... You then have to select the color of diamonds or gemstones (The stones that aren't in the item....), what size the diamonds or gemstones are (The stones that aren't in the item), The cut and shape of the stones (The stones that aren't in the item)..... You get the drift!   When you put No Stone (or N/A) for the start of it of the number of stones, it should eliminate the barrage of item specifics dealing with stones.... BUT IT DOESN'T..... nope you have to mind-bogglingly fill in N/A into every field, it's ridiculously tedious.  It now takes me about 1/2 hour for each listing!!!!   I think you'll get the idea from the included screenshots below......     Some lazy coding going on.....