Group Similar Listings feature a disaster for both buyers and sellers

[vssoutlet]

What did eBay have in mind here?

If you haven't already done so, search for a product and click the "Group Similar Listings" box. Whether you are a buyer or a seller, you are in for a good-looking page with incredibly misleading results. Not surprisingly, this is yet another "feature" that eBay has copied from "You Know Where" They have also copied the "buy box" concept from The Site That Shall Not Be Named (TSTSNBN).

Where are the flaws in this approach?

• The TSTSNBNsells primarily new items with UPC codes. This makes items comparable (although if you check out the used items for a listing on TSTSNBN, you'll find how dissimilar they are) because they can be matched on UPC. TSTSNBN has never been a good place to buy used/vintage items because of how it's been designed. eBay specialized in these types of items. I used past tense intentionally. Now that eBay has essentially copied the TSTSNBN approach, they have given up their market-leading advantage are striving be become a third-rate TSTSNBN.

• When considering vintage items, condition is vitally important to buyers. I'm not talking about the "Condition" drop-box selection - I'm referring to the kind of condition that SEEING the actual listing photos and reading the item description tells you. In many categories, condition is as important (if not more important) than price. This condition is NOT considered in the new eBay "buy box." This is why TSTSNBN is an awful place to buy or sell vintage items. Exposure is almost entirely based on the lowest price.

• This approach makes selling vintage parts much harder. One of the best things on eBay is the ability of sellers to offer parts of items (which rarely have UPC codes). The way groupings are being done under “Group Similar Listings,” sellers are incentivized to sell complete items, which will be more easily found by buyers. As such, the number of listings for vintage parts will decline, hurting the buyer community.

• When designing this feature, I'll bet the thinking was that everything should be in the eBay catalog and, if so, is correctly selected from the catalog by the seller.  Vintage products can have dozens of variations - especially in the era before UPC codes.  I did a search for "Leica M lens" and then hit the "Group Similar Listings" button.  Here are some of the issues I found:

1. When I clicked on "Leica ELMARIT-M 90mm f/2.8 MF Lens (Chrome)", the photo of the lens shown (the "buy box" photo) was of a black lens. Some of the listings had valuable items like an original lens hood, lens case, caps and box. Others didn't. A Leica lens hood can be worth well over $100. Anyone who knows vintage lenses understands that these listings are NOT comparable.
   
   
2. There is no easy way to view the other products in the group thanks to a much more crowded and complex interface. 
   
   
3. "About this product" from the eBay catalog has replaced actual item details. This can be VERY misleading to buyers. I've had buyers complain that my listing did not match the "About this product" text exactly. They thought I wrote that. 
   
   
4. Sellers will be falling all over themselves chasing the "buy box" to get their products considered.  As on TSTSNBN, photos will fall to a distant second place. Descriptions will suffer because they no longer matter as much. 
   
   
5. The item is the "buy box" makes no sense. It's called "Our Pick" by eBay. Surprisingly, eBay's pick is a seller with 8 feedback ratings, offering no returns and has **bleep** kitchen-table photos. It's not even the cheapest. Apparently, reputation, return policy and quality photos (all of which eBay has been pushing for years), doesn’t mean much in the new interface.

I’ve been an eBay seller for over 15 years. I have over 1,400 items listed. My sales have dropped to under five items on most days since this feature has been implemented. Unless I switch to products like iPhones, new bathing suits and cardboard shipping boxes, I probably won’t survive changes like this one.

eBay management needs to study the history of once-great companies that have failed because they abandoned their unique niche to chase a larger competitor. It rarely ends well.

[packratville]

My experience with the catalog concept and group similar listings has been negative, as a seller and as a buyer. It's poorly implement and full of errors. There are some glaring examples posted on the Catalog discussion board.

[vssoutlet]

It's amazing to me that these highly-paid "experts" at eBay are going in this direction. I spent over 20 years as a highly-paid expert system designer and developer. I always made a great effort to know the business for which I was designing and the various critical stakeholders (buyers and sellers in this case). Great designs (and successful companies) come from truly understanding the needs of your stakeholders. eBay is so obsessed with going after Am****s market share, they are at risk of losing their niche.

[comicallycomic]

I thought I would try the grouping from another ip and it is unfortunately very broken. Most useful results and those that fit the criteria and provide additional options just vanished. Even when being specific, the items that are searched for in the exact keywords that describe them, are deleted. This is a disservice for consumer and seller indeed and I cannot see how something that is so poor in function was implemented.

[vssoutlet]

I can tell you why - a rush to catch up with Amazon leads to poorly implemented software. Creating a catalog for vintage items is impossible. They either need to go with minimal information or be so specific that almost none of the items would match. And don’t get me started on the catalog photo when dealing with used items 😞

[paudoh-16]

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@vssoutlet wrote:
It's amazing to me that these highly-paid "experts" at eBay are going in this direction. I spent over 20 years as a highly-paid expert system designer and developer. I always made a great effort to know the business for which I was designing and the various critical stakeholders (buyers and sellers in this case). Great designs (and successful companies) come from truly understanding the needs of your stakeholders. eBay is so obsessed with going after Am****s market share, they are at risk of losing their niche.

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Having been a professional myself, in my opinion, it's already been lost. Some of these blues know it too. Look for the resumes?

[73ssnova01ks]

Here is a good example.  I searched for "fairlane molding" and hit the "group similar" box.

For those non-car people, the picture shows a grille (from one listing), but the description is for the trim around the top of a rear window (from another listing).  When you click on either the picture or the text description, you see the listing for the grille. 

When you click on the "Pre-owned: $42.50",  then you see the following, which is the Bottom window trim...

With the vintage used parts, it seems to be like looking at a description of an apple but seeing a picture of a puppy, then clicking on something that touts itself as "similar" and seeing a kumquat.    

If you get more specific, it still is lacking. Searching for "fairlane door molding", you can be viewing a ranchero tailgate molding, click on one "pre-owned: $XX" in the "similar" grouping  and see a front turn signal lens for sale.

[ittybitnot]

Thank you for posting that.  Just amazing. 

[vssoutlet]

You have perfectly captured in images the point I was making in text. A picture is truly worth a thousand words. “Identical vintage parts” is an oxymoron. Grouping is hurting the buyer as much as the seller. The chance of them not receiving what they expect has skyrocketed with this new system.

[penguins_dont_fly]

@73ssnova01ks

There is a thread in the Product Page forum that the eBay "Product Page" guy (Syed) is responding to ... I think you should post your pics on that thread and tag him ... he has stated that this is a test ... and folks are trying to get them to just stop the test, already 😞

Your pics are a perfect explanation of what is wrong with this new format 😞

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Product-Catalog/Are-listings-now-product-pages/td-p/28702615/jump-to/f...

[73ssnova01ks]

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@penguins_dont_fly wrote:

@73ssnova01ks

There is a thread in the Product Page forum that the eBay "Product Page" guy (Syed) is responding to ... I think you should post your pics on that thread and tag him ... he has stated that this is a test ... and folks are trying to get them to just stop the test, already 😞

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Thanks for the suggestion - I reposted it there.