Main photo in Variation style listings still not 100% fixed issue still left unchecked.

[teklifestyle]

So a few weeks back we had a major issue where the main photo for variation listings was not showing up it would just pick a random item from the variation to display as the main photo. Sales dropped drastically and it took about 3 weeks to get resolved. However in the search this has been fixed but issues still linger that went left unchecked 

 Promotional links from a variation listing leading to your promotional items are still not showing the main photo its using random item from variation so if a buyer wants to do buy 2 get 1 free and they click the promo its super confusing as they think they are just individual items not other variation listings to pick and choose from.

[Anonymous]

WARNING: 5 MINUTES OF HARD LABOR (READING)!!!

Finally, I am not the only person on planet earth that noticed this, Yaaaay!!!

This is not a technical issue, this is a deliberate change done by eBay thinking it will increase sales --> it dropped conversion rates by 20-40% btw.

They first wanted to show a variation's image in search results instead of the main image --> sellers complained and they "fixed" it by 01.07.2020 (Took +5 weeks to get done).

Now the fix wasn't really a fix because they simply shifted that faulty behavior somewhere else. Here is what they did... Instead of showing buyers the variation's image first in search results, they now show it right after a buyer clicks on the listing.

I recorded how it works now:

https://streamable.com/iyvw6q

So if the main image of your listing is what gets buyers to click on your listing, they are not going to see that picture anymore as soon as they click. Instead, they will be sent to the 40th or 60th image of your listing and they now have to swipe all the way back in order to see the main images of your listing again. As you can imagine most buyers are not really patient and don't want to do that, they simply hit return and skip buying from you all together. This change has dropped my conversion rate by 20-30%. As far as I would like to name few other sellers whose sales have nosedived because of this, I am not going to do it as it may violate the community's rules.

Go ahead and give eBay a call about this, the site was working perfectly fine until May/2020, after that the change happened and it screwed our sales.

Getting sellers to become aware of this issue has been like trying to move a mountain, they falsely think the issue has been resolved because they see the main image of their listings again in search, but it has not.

Ooh and btw, the app is loading pictures super slowly which is putting off a lot of buyers. 

[Anonymous]

The issue wasn't solved at all, it is now occurring after the buyer clicks on the listing. Let me explain how it unfolds:

1. Buyer sees the main image of your listing in search 

2. Buyer clicks on your listing --> eBay automatically picks up a variation and sends the buyer to the 20th,40th or 60th image of your listing 

3. Now the buyer has to swipe all the way back to see the main images of your listing (which are the most important) 

Buyers want to see the main images of the listing first, not the opposite!! This has dropped my conversion rate by 20-40% and 99.99% of sellers are not aware of this issue.

Here is a video I recorded about it:

https://streamable.com/iyvw6q

The only way to get this fixed is by making eBay aware of the problem.