Group Similar Items..... Now I understand why no one is viewing my listings anymore

[ci1000]

I have been trying to understand why my sales, views and watchers have been down.  I just did a search for "Swarovski Crystal Heart Bracelet" just to see where I am in the search.  My listings are on the first or second page which is cool.  Then I noticed the "group similar listings" button.  So I hit the button and the search is reduced from 917 listings down to 79 listings..... none of which are mine or even look like my jewelry.  What is up with this?

I also noticed that my vintage items are selling faster..... I guess it's hard to group vintage items into a "group similar" scenario.

Not sure what to do..... my jewelry is new without tags but I hand make all of the items.  I guess this is eBay's idea of how to be Amazon.  Go Figure 

[smileytown18]

I noticed when shopping on ebay, that they changed a few options and also sort out now what they feel is "relevant". Quite frankly, its confusing to most people.
My sales are down too

[rmstatorinc]

Ebay is not respecting both their sellers and their customers. We have been selling on Ebay since 2005 and the Grouped Listing feature is not ready.

When searching for a 2003 Polaris Sportsman Stator, I get 93 results : https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=stator+sportsman+600+2003+-gasket&_localstpos=05830&_fcid=1&_s...

But when I group listings, most of the cheapest products are disappearing which leave the customer with 200$+ products to buy from : https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_localstpos=05830&_fcid=1&_sop=15&LH_ItemCondition=3&_clu=2&gbr=1&_s...

How can a marketplace can put their fees revenue in such jeopardy than to remove lowest priced options. A saavy customer will just have to go to Amazon to find less than 200$ alternatives and by from them.

Come on Ebay, wake up. All your sales will go to Amazon if you don't repair the Group Listing feature.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

"Vintage" items are selling better because US buyers are using the word more in search, well, (-"vintage style") of course. Buyers have few other choices to get rid of the Chinese junk since just checking off "US only" on search doesn't work anymore, because the Chinese are lying and saying the item is stateside when it is not, or they have brought a warehouse of junk stateside.

Speaking from searching myself! Another thing is personalized pictures. I now gravitate to the obvious small seller with the not-so-perfect photographs, backgrounds obviously from homes, not pure white, hands in photographs with jewelry. That's the listing that I know is the real McCoy. It's all about weeding out the garbage listings clogging up the site. 

As you can probably tell, the button to "group similar items" is not one I will ever click. 

[iliaonabike]

My biggest gripe about this feature is the button placement on the full size site when browsing on a pc. They put it right where the sort option used to be. Thanks to trained memory, I click it almost everytime expecting a drop down menu with a sort list, only to be thrown to a refreshed page with "similarly grouped items". Now you have to click the back button and... First world problems, I know. Super annoying though.  

[tunicaslot]

I'm using IE and don't see a group similar option at all. I don't think a lot of people use the filters as much as people think. I know if I filter too much than I lose options I may be interested in - only because the seller doesn't always fill in the item specifics.

[heatherrosejewelry]

I sell Jewelry supplies and my sales are down too. I tried searching a category instead of an item and was mortified to see the listings were already grouped and the searcher has to ungroup them. I searched category, Jewelry and watches-wholesale lots-supplies and it came up already grouped saying there were 797 items total in that category when in fact there are over 14,000. So you have to hit the ungroup button to see all items. Shoppers are not all going to realize this, no wonder sales are down. I can see giving the option to group, but having the categories already grouped is what is keeping people from seeing everything. You would think if the sellers sales are down eBay's profit would be too. I hope they notice and make some changes.

[missjen831]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

I'm using IE and don't see a group similar option at all. I don't think a lot of people use the filters as much as people think. I know if I filter too much than I lose options I may be interested in - only because the seller doesn't always fill in the item specifics.

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I don’t know if it’s site wide, only on certain browsers or yet another beta test but eBay is now choosing filters for us. Been happening to me for a while now. I use chrome and Firefox and I’ve got the group similar items button and it is in fact reducing the number of search results 😞

[ted_200]

As you can probably tell, the button to "group similar items" is not one I will ever click. 

eBay defaulted many users' search preferences into it.  You'll have to click "ungroup" in that case, or you're stuck with it.  Several very experienced users and I got tossed into this, and it took even us a couple of days to realize what had happened and what was wrong with our search results and how to get rid of it.

This has been going on since Black Friday, when it suddenly appeared.   With no announcement or prior warning, btw. 

[ripcityresell]

While my sales aren't down (in fact, they are up quite a bit), I am getting more questions about whether not stuff is included (case, artwork, etc).

Mainly because when my items are shown as the lowest, eBay is NOT using my title (which includes disc only, no case). They are using the generic catalog title, which is leading to some confusion. Also, when my stuff is displayed and the buyer opts to buy it from that area, they never actually go into my listings (which includes the description that artwork is included) to see the actual description.

It's quite frustrating to say the least.

[vintageflairjewelry]

If you search by catagory the items show up already grouped and you have to click ungroup to see all items in a catagory. Take for instance search catagory Jewelry and watches>Loose Beads>Vintage loose beads, The items come up already grouped and you have to click ungroup. If you search for a specific item this does not happen. But it sucks if your buyers search by catagory, they may never find your items this way.

[heatherrosejewelry]

I think they fixed the catagory search, because now when I search by catagory the listings no longer show up already grouped.  I hope it stays this way for my customers who shop by catagory and not item search.

[vintageflairjewelry]

Categories are back to being automatically grouped, it reverted for awhile, but went back again. I always search by catagory and realized something was wrong right away. Sadly there are alot of people who won't realize they have to hit that ungroup button on the top right to see all items in the catagory and sellers are going to miss out on sales due to the lack of recognition.

[jason_incognito]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

"Vintage" items are selling better because US buyers are using the word more in search, well, (-"vintage style") of course. Buyers have few other choices to get rid of the Chinese junk since just checking off "US only" on search doesn't work anymore, because the Chinese are lying and saying the item is stateside when it is not, or they have brought a warehouse of junk stateside.

Speaking from searching myself! Another thing is personalized pictures. I now gravitate to the obvious small seller with the not-so-perfect photographs, backgrounds obviously from homes, not pure white, hands in photographs with jewelry. That's the listing that I know is the real McCoy. It's all about weeding out the garbage listings clogging up the site. 

As you can probably tell, the button to "group similar items" is not one I will ever click. 

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There are18,841,866 listings for "vintage"

of those 7,173,866 are listed as brand spanking new.

Us only knocks off about 5,000,000 listings.... to 13.620,048

[harvest_moon_1900]

As a buyer I am looing for somewhere to vent how much I dislike the default to "group similar items". I check ebay each night in my collector's category and I set the search to new listings and I look through new listings each night. Why would I want to see new listings grouped my similar items, effectively not at all showing new listings first? Makes no sense. I don't like having to uncheck group similar items --- seems so silly this would be able to work with "Sort by new listings" selected. I don't need ebay grouping items for me by default, especially when I view listings by which are the newest.