Example Of Why Views Are Down Drastically

[lb23cavaliersmvp]

I understand that a decrease in sales can be due to a number of factors but it goes without saying that if your listing doesn't appear when a buyer carries out a search you obviously have no chance. Case in point, I have a Arabia fish trivet listed and if I search listing those 3 terms 5 listings pop up including mine. On the other hand if I search for Arabia trivet only 3 of the 5 fish trivets are shown and mine is one of those excluded. I'm quite certain that 2 years ago all 5 would have been shown in either search. 

[buyselljack2016]

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[buyselljack2016]

Arabia trivet........................for me search defaults to Decorative Cookware and you are not there.

Switch to "all categories" and you are there.

[toysaver · Accepted solution]

AI knows you already did one search and can't figure out why you did another.  AI may also know the trivet is yours and exclude because of that.  AI is not all it's cracked up to be.

[lawnmowerpartsstore2]

Switch to "all categories" and you are there.

My question is why do you have to switch to all categories ?

And what about buyers that hardly use Ebay and type in say Arabia trivet but don't know that you should Switch to all categories. Then the customer thinks to themselves: i remember back in the day when Ebay use to have everything. Oh well i guess Ebay is going downhill so i will just check out Amazon 🤔 Meantime said seller lost a sale.....

[lb23cavaliersmvp]

Correct but how many buyers are going to go to the trouble of changing when they started the search with All Categories? It is idiotic to start a search under All Categories and have the algorithm switch to a more restrictive category that results in 18 fewer listings. 

[buyselljack2016]

I do not disagree.

Search has been "refined" by eBay to the point that it is often "less than functional"

[yuzuha]

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@toysaver wrote:

AI may also know the trivet is yours and exclude because of that.  AI is not all it's cracked up to be.

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I find this happens all the time. When I search for something while signed in, it will put my own listing far down in the search because it figures I'm not looking to buy from my own listing.

But if I do a search on my phone where I'm not logged in, mine will come up much higher in search since it doesn't know that it's me doing the search.

[eburtonlab]

My question is why do you have to switch to all categories ?

For years now, eBay has been steering searches into particular categories based on the keywords used when searching.

Sellers should take this into consideration when listing items, since many buyers likely will not bother to rerun the search in "all categories", and will simply choose from among the offerings that eBay shows them in the category eBay has decided is the correct one for those keywords.

If a seller is not certain what category an item belongs in, try searching the way one would expect a buyer would, using keywords from the item title. If the search winds up in a particular category, that is where most buyers will wind up seeing results for that particular search.

[dhbookds]

@lb23cavaliersmvp 

You have the fish trivet in the Collectors plate category......  try it in the trivet category and see if you don't get better search results.

[lb23cavaliersmvp]

Makes sense except if you search for Arabia trivet in All Categories ebay lists items in Decorative Cookware as the default. Seems like a simple fix to show buyers All Categories if that's what they selected to begin the search.

[onefootflippers]

There is a severe error in thinking here. The error is that you are thinking that the customer buys nothing because they don't see your item. The customer still purchases, they just don't buy your item.

[eburtonlab]

Seems like a simple fix to show buyers All Categories if that's what they selected to begin the search.

You can't fix that yourself, though; only eBay can do that. And eBay does not think that it needs fixing. As far as eBay is concerned, it is working exactly as it was designed to work by eBay. If buyers explicitly choose "All categories" after searching, eBay will show results in all categories. But if buyers do not explicitly choose that option, they will, by default, see whatever category eBay chooses to show them based on their keywords.

You are welcome to try to convince eBay that eBay should see it your way, of course.

A seller cannot unilaterally make buyers search in a particular way. A seller cannot unilaterally make eBay change the way search works.

A seller can change what category the seller's own item is listed in, though.