Ebay website search functionality result = lack of views

[paraquip]

While I was waiting for Hurricane Ian to blow out,  I did somewhat of a deep dive on my listings to find out why sales have fallen over 60% since July.

To my amazement there must have been some editing done to the search code that bring up different results.

I am going to use one of my own examples to explain this:

Here is a search for an air rifle that I sell by part number:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=Umarex++2251389&_sacat=0

And here is a search  of the same item by name:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=Umarex+Origin+.22&_sacat=...

Both of these items have identical part numbers yet the search result is wildly different.   This never used to be this was as a simple inquiry by manufacturer  and the associated part# located in "Item Specifics" would query together and apparently now they do not.

When a google inquiry generated and an ebay result comes up on a specific item.....it's generating two different results.   With google controlling 74% of internet search traffic and the corresponding ebay result ....it's no wonder that views of my specific listing are down nearly 70%......this result would be from ebay reporting as well as the fact that my listing might only come up 1/3 of time.

I did the same across almost all of my listings and found a similar result.....a decoupling of item specifics from your listing title.....in an ebay search result.

I have to play around with this a lot more.....but that is one of the reasons why sales are down on ebay

HK

[thevintagesparklelady]

I am a fairly new seller on Ebay - for about a year. I have not made any sales since June 2022! I normally sell a couple of items a month. I get it that we have a tight economy right now, but not even a nibble for any of my items. I tried ending the listing and relisting items in an effort to get some traffic/sales my way but no! If EBay is at fault for the sudden change in our views/sales, what can we do to let them know we are not happy? Is there a place we can complain? Submit a problem? Get a real person to talk to??? I may have to move my items to another online platform. Thoughts?

[reallynicestamps]

@thevintagesparklelady 

You started selling during the pandemic surge in online buying, which ended abruptly.

Normally, I tell sellers shocked by this to look at their sales for the same months in 2019 and 2018, for useful comps.

Obviously as a new seller, that won't work for you.

There does seem to be a consensus among experienced sellers that something happened at eBay sometime in May, although anecdote is not data.

If you have specific questions try contacting eBay employees covering the social media. (the phone reps are subcontracted and work from a script)



https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page.
https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.



[reallynicestamps]

@paraquip 

EBay recently changed how Views are counted.

Bot views from search engines like Google are no longer counted. They still exist but they don't show on you Seller Hub

And Views only stay for 30 days. Which makes sense since if the Viewer has not purchased in 30 days, he is either no longer interested or bought elsewhere.

I had one item drop from over a thousand views to three.

Those three didn't buy either, just like the thousand earlier viewers who didn't buy.

[paraquip]

I understand the view thing......but this is just not about bots........ it's about displayed search results that now seem wonky........

Previously there was some degree of correlation between views (bot of not) and sales......so along with a 70%+ reduction in both views and impressions went 60% of my sales.

As an  example I had a listing that sold out.....where I sold a little over 2000 items......... that same listing since July 1  8-12 sales.     So it went from 10 orders a day to 12 in 3 months

HK

[rugerskick]

Never sell on just one platform.  Some things/item types do much better on certain sites than others.  And there are numerous decent platforms to investigate and try.

[icloseouts1]

I have been on eBay for 13 years and also have had an 80% decrease in sales and can not figure it out. I also can’t find any items (even promoted) when I search for an item every time it is bringing up car parts. It’s frustrating and would drive anyone to somewhere they can find what they want to buy! Something isn’t working - I hope it gets fixed. 

[eburtonlab]

Both of these items have identical part numbers yet the search result is wildly different.

The searches are different and find different numbers of items.

The first search finds items with the particular brand name and part number (2251389) in all categories. I see four individual results (two are sponsored listings that appear twice in my results).

The second search is for the brand name, model and caliber in the Air Rifle category that returns the original results plus other results that do not necessarily contain the original part number but might contain others such as 2251378 or 2101378R. I see fifteen results in the Air Rifle category for this search including the four from the first search.

[paraquip]

Yes my air rifle came up along with car aprts as well

HK

[paraquip]

My point being that the result used to be the same.   It is no longer.....so depending on the way a customer searched (I myself searh by part number) would yield different results for the same thing.

It was not this way previously

HK

[eburtonlab]

My point being that the result used to be the same.

The results are different because the searches are different. Perhaps at one time there was only one model and part number that met the second search criteria, but now there are multiple possible part numbers that match. Since the first search is only matching one part number, only those matching listings are found, while the second search is not limited in that way.

[vtgbeersigns]

Sales are also down about 80% since 2018-2020, search is horrible i can't find stuff when I'm looking for it, too many items on ebay and search is awful using auto correct to display what I'm not looking for.  The next leg down in sales happened when advance promoted came out.  

[eburtonlab]

search is horrible i can't find stuff when I'm looking for it

What can't you find?

[rugerskick]

Its not going to get fixed.

1. It was due to the search changes/item category and detail changes they made and its been a disaster.  They are not going to fix it because that would mean rolling back to the better category structures they had before, and they aren't going to do that.

2. They want more low value sellers to leave on their own, and making ebay more difficult and working more poorly, is a huge passive way to do that.

[chapeau-noir]

Forgive me if I'm confused, but you mentioned "To my amazement there must have been some editing done to the search code that bring up different results."

I took this to mean that actual code as shown in the URLs, i.e., the two quoted results, is not identical - but the code after the query mark (search request) is going to be different because the parameters are different.

ETA: If I'm way off put it down to Covid fog. 😫