Ebay's algorithm hides my items completely from buyers - WHY? Limited states only?

[mrteapot]

20 years on ebay. The last two years have been disastrous and I'm about to give up.

I got a store a little over two years ago - sales dropped 75% immediately and have never recovered, despite trying everything I can think of save cancelling the store.

We sent an email to someone in a distant state with a list of items I had listed - including a cut and paste of the very title for the items. Ten items total.

The items were completely ghosted. No matter how hard the person tried, none of them ever showed up in any of their search results. If they searched for my store by name, the store came up, and they could see my listings. But no matter how hard they tried, NONE of my listed items would ever show up in their search results, even when they directly copied the actual item title.

I've noted since getting the store that my items only go to a very, very limited number of states. Before the store, items shipped all over the US. It was great fun to see where things were going!

Then, the store, the biggest mistake of my entire ebay experience, it seems.

Now, immediately, items ONLY went to - Texas, Florida, Louisiana, a smattering of east/midwest states, North Carolina, South Carolina (to this day, the vast majority have gone to SC!  EVERY WEEK!!!!) and of course NJ, NY, MAINE.

All pretty much states the furthest from my location.

VERY RARELY does an item sell to any other state. I'm not kidding.

It's too regular to be random. The Algorithm is shadowbanning my account and items to most of the country.

Going from $2000 to $3000 per week in sales to less than either in  A MONTH has been very discouraging.

Any idea why The Algorithm would do this to me? I'm ghosted!

Anyone else experiencing this type of service from ebay?

[pf9000]

A lot has happened these last 2 years. I wouldn't be so quick to blame ebay. One of the issues which might be relevant, has to do with category. If you relist a particular item under a different category, it might make a difference. Sometimes the search results are different when a different category is selected. It seems to me that the software isn't perfect, because additional items show up sometimes under "All Categories", or others show up when a different category is selected.  The other one which interferes with the search is when a banner comes up stating... We removed some search results...

[eburtonlab]

@mrteapot 

No matter how hard the person tried, none of them ever showed up in any of their search results. If they searched for my store by name, the store came up, and they could see my listings. But no matter how hard they tried, NONE of my listed items would ever show up in their search results, even when they directly copied the actual item title.

Could you provide an example of an item of yours that does not appear when searching, and an example of the search you are using to look for it?

There are a number of reasons why an item might not appear in a given search:

Too soon -- items can take 24 hours to be indexed and appear in a search.

Sorting by "price plus shipping: lowest first" -- when a lowest first sort is performed, you will often see a message at the top of the results: "We removed some search results to show you the most relevant listings. View all results" -- if you want to see all the results, you need to either try another sort, or click on that "View all results" link. Otherwise you are only seeing a subset of the results of that search, despite the number that is shown at the top. Try counting the results before and after following that "all results" link.

Wrong Category -- if a site-wide search using a particular keyword returns many items, eBay will often direct that search automatically into one particular category. Sellers should take this into account when deciding which categories to list their items in. If possible, try searching the way a potential customer might, and see where the search ends up. To avoid your own search being steered into a particular category, try adding a nonsense exclusion term to your search keywords: instead of searching for widget, search for widget -octopus instead.

No Shipping -- if an item does not have a shipping method to a specified location, buyers in that location will not be able to see that item. This is often a problem for export sellers that do not ship to their own location. Typically this would apply to entire countries, not states.

In addition there are some known location-specific issues that affect users in India, Hawaii and Alaska that may prevent them from seeing local items.

Each sponsored item listing should show up both as a "sponsored" listing that will often have a higher sort position, and a non-sponsored "organic" listing that should sort correctly. The exception to this is if you use the "Best Match" sort; in that sort, only the highest sort version of the listing may appear. Note that if you use an ad blocker, you may be blocking "sponsored" listings, so do not use "Best Match" if you use an ad blocker and want to see all possible listings.

There are a number of things you might be able to do to improve your rankings in a "Best Match" search:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/optimising-listings-best-match?id=4166

[timesgoneby2018]

Just my observation. When I saw your name, I said to myself...oh good, collectibles. I didn't expect all your listings to be articles of clothes.  Didn't really look beyond. I don't know if that has anything to do with anything. But....

[dhbookds]

You've sold 200+ in the last 90 days so you certainly aren't totally hidden...   Many have said clothing sales during the pandemic are rotten......  I searched for a number of your items and all came up.....

just thoughts

[gracieallen01]

From the ebay UA:

To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer

I would suppose this means that they don't have to show all listings - upon their (algorithm's) sole discretion.

[stephaniesmidnightboutique]

I often jump to this as a response to a problem as deep as this, but I would CALL EBAY CUSTOMER SERVICE. They have lots of resources

, and they are so accessible to reach on the phone. I feel sure that they would really look at this with you, and might be able to see something you're not able to detect. There is a phone number, and you can call them right up. They might want to know what this problem is also. It might be some glitch or problem, I'm not sure. But I find them extremely helpful, and I'm quick to call when I can't figure something out. Good luck, I hope you get that solved soon!

[luckythewinner]

People come to these boards all the time with complaining that their items are being hidden by eBay. 

With only a couple rare exceptions, when they give us an item number and search criteria, we can find it in search and/or explain why it cannot be found. 

Are you up for the challenge? 

[domin-tomas]

I don't use ebay for my main selling platform anymore. I have had the same issue the last 2 or so years. I list my items here but i don't expect to sell them and if I do sell, then that is a bonus.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

What do your Traffic Reports in Seller Hub say?

[coolections]

Please no conspiracies. Nothing is hidden.

[mrteapot]

Well, the thing is, in the case where someone in CA tried to find my items, and never did... doesn't it make you wonder?

And with 20 years on the platform, watching my sales and business grow year after year, month after month, the more I listed the more I sold (even sold 100 items on a Sunday night once!) to a 75% drop and the sales level I currently 'enjoy' to limited states.. plus after getting the store, the more I listed the less I sold (I maxed it out at 500 auctions and 1000 buy it nows, and that DESTROYED sales!).... doesn't it make you wonder?

[mrteapot]

I'm up for anything. I'm just reporting what happened to my sales after:

1. getting a store

2. listing more and more items, maxing out at 1500

3. answering questions from bidders (I used to ignore them back when I was selling 60-100 items per week)

4. getting my feedback to 100% and 'top rated', power seller, etc.

5. the email experiment with the 10 items

Note that this was all entirely well planned out. Once I saw that my items were getting less than 10 views each, during the course of their 7 day auction, I knew something was dreadfully wrong - could that explain why sales dropped 75% in a few weeks since opening the store?

I haven't tried to repeat the experiment since last summer. But, I can tell you that in the last few weeks, auction items are getting more views but... again.. no sales.

Any thoughts on what's going on with where items are going? I wish I'd actually documented the state count since getting the store but, when those few states are 90%+ of where things are going..... SC has become a joke "might as well open a store in that state."

[mrteapot]

I'll look at it over the coming week. I'm still not entirely sure what the data means, or really shows, or how/if it correlates to sales. I need to dig into it.

[mrteapot]

HI! thanks, yes I'm going to give them a try. I didn't want to until I had exhausted about every option I could think of first to make sure I wasn't either making mistakes or losing my mind.