Is there a new way that our listings are displayed?

[inhawaii]

I just sold something.

I went to go look at the listing and it looks different.

The page defaults to item specifics and does not show the description at all. 

You have to click on  "description" to see the description.

Is this something new?

I don't like it.   As a matter of fact, I hate it. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@mozartbach1971 wrote:

Can't they put the description first and then have you click on the tabs for everything else?

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@mozartbach1971 sure they can, it would be very easy from a tech/programing perspective to swap the description and item specifics tabs to make the seller provided description the default.....but eBay often has their own priorities in mind with these decisions and I suspect it's not likely that they will put the description first.

But that would be an excellent thing to put in the feedback box specifically for sharing your thoughts about the page design. 😉

[ltldpr]

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@ajs_coins_and_alchemy wrote:

@inhawaii 

Yeah, please provide format in which you are viewing? Mobile app or Web Browser?

Mobile App has (for a long time at least) shown an abbreviated "Item Specifics" to click on and expand, as well as Description not shown whatsoever unless you click on it.

Honestly can't remember if the Mobile App has been like this for me the whole time (18 month Ebayer) or if that changed at some point.

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Just adding to the convo:

Mobile browser (not the app) makes you click to see more than a sentence or so of the description AND from what I can tell - only ONE (the first only) shipping option if others are available. No way to see other shipping options from my Android.

I've checked my own listings without being logged in, and all it shows is the first shipping option I used when creating the listing.

For me on a pc, I have to click the shipping tab (next to the description tab) to see all options, otherwise, it too is the first shipping option with a link to "see details" up at the top by the price.

[gurlcat]

I certainly won't defend ebay choices like this (because we know why they're doing it), but it doesn't help our case that some sellers' description boxes are miles-long hot messes which an actual description of the item may be little (or NO) part of, maybe buried in the paragraphs, and the paragraphs look like 1999 amateur eyesores of multi-colored, huge-font text and exclamation marks, often bitter commands and warnings to current shoppers that reflect the seller's frustrations with past buyers.  And then some of them even have repeats of the same photographs that are viewable (and zoomable) at the top of the page.  All kinds of added unnecessary junk that nobody would call an item description.   This leads me to think they set up such a template back when sponsored ads were only at the bottom, to make it harder for shoppers to reach those ads.  And of course any time a significant number of sellers figure out a way to thwart ebay tactics, ebay figures out a way to counter-thwart with new tactics that suck for all of us, whether we were among the naughty ones or not.  

Me for instance, my description box is simple black text that begins with the (usually short) actual item description, then a few templated sentences about my shipping.  In other words, my description box is so relatively small that you could easily scroll past it while trying to find it among the ad modules.  And of course you won't see it at all on a phone unless you opt to click the (also hard to find) Description link.  I didn't know that my first year or so because I don't do ebay on my phone, so when I found out, I changed the Condition for all my items to say: 

"He who clicks Description may read what he might regret not reading" -Confucius 485 BC   

My goal there is to put at least some of the onus on the shopper to be responsible with their choices, even if it requires an extra click or careful scroll.  Truth is I offer Free Returns so I will inevitably take responsibility for <whatever> but it's not exactly fun to have to do a return and get a refund, thus only getting back to where you started, so I'm trying to guide them toward avoiding that.  So far it has worked pretty well considering I rarely get returns.  And I see that Condition is still displayed prominently in this new view version, but I know that may not always be the case in the future.  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I'm not seeing the test, so a couple questions:

when the buyer clicks on the description tab, do they see a page with the description only, or the description with a bunch of PLS modules?

They could test this with description as the default open tab (rather than IS) ...is that better, or worse? 

I've been doing a fair bit of research on items I'm in the process of listing, and I will say, if I were actually a buyer interested in this stuff, I'd be asking myself why I'm shopping here, given the truly Godawful descriptions many sellers provide. Descriptions that are nothing but a restatement of the title, or descriptions missing basic info (how tall is this item? Not in description, not in IS, nothing in photos to give me a sense of scale) or description, as gurlcat mentions, filled with lengthy and often unenforceable TOS...I can understand to some extent why ebay has no strong desire to put this front and center. I'm not saying my descriptions are great, but many of the descriptions I looked at are just frustrating to read.....and here's the kicker, many of these are solds, so apparently in many cases, photos (or perhaps price) really DO make the sale.  because it sure isn't the information the seller provides.

I don't know what the answer to all of this is. I can understand the need to test different iterations, and I think it's clear that, one way or another, when all the testing is finished, we are still going to have an ad presence of some sort. At this point, I just hope they make a choice and stick with it through Q4, rather than continue with this testing for the rest of the year. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@gurlcat You say:

"This leads me to think they set up such a template back when sponsored ads were only at the bottom, to make it harder for shoppers to reach those ads.  And of course any time a significant number of sellers figure out a way to thwart ebay tactics, ebay figures out a way to counter-thwart with new tactics that suck for all of us, whether we were among the naughty ones or not. " 

Actually, I think a lot of these templates were created BEFORE sponsored ads became a thing. Lengthy TOS in particular has been a plague on the description box for years, with or without varying font colors and sizes.....long before promoted listings was a thing.

Just as the opposite...the "just repeat your title" description has also been in use for years, based on the premise that listing quantity is far more important than quality, so the faster you can list, the better. Certain gurus---back then. more likely to be bloggers than YouTubers---pushed this very hard.

I have seen some gurus suggesting what you are talking about----make sure your description is long enough to get noticed between the rows of sponsored listings, those above and those below the description box....but in many cases they seem to be using white space or just useless filler to achieve this.

As far as Condition goes, I have it in the condition box (now called something else, seller notes maybe?, in item specifics) and in the description. I get very few returns (and I have 30 day free returns). 

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@gurlcat You say:

"This leads me to think they set up such a template back when sponsored ads were only at the bottom, to make it harder for shoppers to reach those ads.  And of course any time a significant number of sellers figure out a way to thwart ebay tactics, ebay figures out a way to counter-thwart with new tactics that suck for all of us, whether we were among the naughty ones or not. " 

Actually, I think a lot of these templates were created BEFORE sponsored ads became a thing. Lengthy TOS in particular has been a plague on the description box for years, with or without varying font colors and sizes.....long before promoted listings was a thing.

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@gurlcat @my-cottage-books-and-antiques  Exactly this!   Also, self hosted pictures were often necessary back in the day, for one b/c we paid by the photo IIRC & the number of photos were severely limited by Ebay both as a maximum & IIRC, we paid for every pic > the gallery photo.  I could be wrong about that, it's been a long time.  But if you self hosted, in the description, you could put in as many as you wanted, you could do the sizing the way you needed it to be, etc.   At one point, the majority of sellers used self-hosted photos b/c of Ebay's limitations & charges.  Also, the zoom feature is actually quite recent on Ebay (well after other sites were doing it).  

I agree though that there is not much reason for self hosted photos anymore, especially with the increase to 24 pics or whatever it is now.  But in the past, it was necessary for many to self host.  I'm sure there are still some valid reasons to do so, some of them technical in nature. 

And yes, the length of TOS's had nothing to do with ads.  There were NO ads for 90% of my time on Ebay & Ebay ENCOURAGED long, detailed descriptions & TOS's.  That's why they're there.  Ads are only a few years old.  4 if memory serves me right. 

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques it's hard to get a full picture that captures it well due to how the scroll works on the page and how this forum doesn't like big pictures but hopefully this helps.

Directly under the top section with the picture is now the module you see in my previous screenshot defaulting to IS - there are no rows of ads in between.

When you click between the tabs, that module just gets shorter or longer depending on the content, which causes the ads below it to be higher or lower down the page as well - to your and @gurlcat's point, sellers who have lengthy templates will still push those ads further down than those with shorter ones when viewing the description tab.

So the order on the page is:

Top section with big picture in the middle and right side module with seller details that scrolls independently (basically the same as the previous iteration of the test we saw, including the display ad spot for 3rd party ads or Promoted Display ads for stores.)

About This Item module with tabs for IS, Description, Shipping/Returns/Payment

2 Rows of Promoted Listings ad carousels - in this example it was Similar Sponsored Items and Sponsored Items Customers Also Bought.

Seller Feedback Module

4 more rows of carousels - 3 promoted, 1 organic "people also viewed"

Then 25 "Find more sponsored items" ads not in carousels

My personal preference would be to have the description first, but the points about the quality of some descriptions are definitely fair.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Thanks for posting that @valueaddedresource , that is NOT the different one that I saw @inhawaii .  I saw a different variation that looked more like the new listed page.  I wish I could remember if I saw it on Thursday.  It was gone as quickly as it came & it was just a couple of days ago, so it may well have been on update-Thursday. 

[scrane2006]

If this is a change its definitely bad, I was looking at a particular model of Coleman stoves and I been Clicking on Different ones that sold From different seller and the same description and sold price is coming up for all of these items when I open up the page. eBay was down here on my end for awhile today, wonder if they are just having some technical issues right now, hope that is all it is.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

One thing I'm not thrilled about is the "feedback module" being so low. Not because I feel the buyer needs to see my feedback info, but because that's the main place where the buyer is told I have a store. Above the fold, the buyer is given a link to my "other items" but I believe that does not open the stores home page. 

I'd like to see ebay HIGHLIGHT the fact that I have a store, not bury it (and worse, they retain place for a competitors store to be advertised above the fold).

It's really past time for ebay to tell us their intentions for stores. They keep telling us to use the billboard, the banners, add a video etc, but they seem determined to do nothing to direct buyers to our stores or to provide traffic data to show us whether buyers are even seeing our stores. Why should we put any effort into a store front when ebay puts no real effort into directing traffic our way (with the exception of the still being tested store display ad, which we would need to pay for....)

Stores should be much more than they are, but ebay has done very little with them for the last few years....I'm not sure there is even a stores team left....

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

One thing I'm not thrilled about is the "feedback module" being so low. Not because I feel the buyer needs to see my feedback info, but because that's the main place where the buyer is told I have a store. Above the fold, the buyer is given a link to my "other items" but I believe that does not open the stores home page. 

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques for this iteration, in the seller details module on the top right, clicking the logo or seller name takes you to the seller's Store home page, clicking the feedback number automatically scrolls down to the feedback module on the View Item page, and "seller's other items" takes the buyer to a page showing a list of items but you are correct, it's not the Store home page.

I definitely agree eBay can and should be doing much more to highlight Stores and make it worth the effort for sellers to use the features and functionality that come with a store subscription.

[gurlcat]

I agree that ebay probably hasn't established all that they could with the potential of stores.  Matter of fact they're worse than just clicking 'See Seller's Other Items" because the store view isn't as sortable or user-friendly in general, from the buyer's view.   So often I find myself having to go through multiple clicks just to get to one of a seller's item listings, so I can access "See other items" LOL.  And it's not just me saying that; I've seen tons of posts about it on Facebook, Reddit, maybe even here.  So I really don't care if they bury my store in the listing.  I might have cared back when I had first set it up, but now all I expect from it is free listings and free shipping supplies.  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@gurlcat  yeah, and I guess that supports my point: why does ebay even bother to suggest we do this and that with our stores, when they are doing so little with them? There hasn't really been a substantial improvement (by ebay) to stores since they gave us the new layout...which was a nice start, but then they seemed to forget about (as they have so often in the past, with other things they've provided us)  I still care about Stores because I see so much potential there, but I agree with you: at present, I don't do a whole lot with my store because ebay has made me ask : why bother?

I would really like to see them realize that stores could be a much bigger part of ebay, but I don't see that happening anytime soon...and maybe never.

[gurlcat]

Well hang on now ....LOL when I trash-talked the buyer view of stores I was going on the last time I checked, which has been a minute.   So I decided to take another look, see if it's as bad as I remember.  This is weird, I don't recall ever seeing a right-side sorting menu like you get on the whole-site search results page or the 'See seller's other items' page ......now it appears there is one ...... sometimes ..... somewhere.  

Look at these. 

Store #1 The sorter buried under 3 lines of 'featured,' 'newly listed,' and 1 more (I forget what). But there it FINALLY IS.  WHAT A STUPID PLACE TO PUT IT!   Oh and it's not even the worst I saw.  There were some underneath 5 or more thumbnail lines AND a sale banner. 

Store #2 One line of Featured above the sorter. (I didn't pinch wide enough to see it well, so I added red arrows)

Store #3 This one has NO sorter at all (I scrolled all the way down). 

Store #4 -That's me.  I guess I'm the odd lucky one because my sorter is right where you'd expect it, directly below the search bar and above all thumbnail lines.  

So maybe stores are more sortable than I remember ....sometimes..... but I don't even like looking at listings in grid view or whatever it's called; I prefer 'list'.  And nope, there's no option to change it in stores.  Not user friendly AT ALL.  


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[simply-the-best-for-you]

@gurlcat  I don't want to copy your post with all the pics, but what lines of promos you see & if they are shown, as far as the 'featured' , 'newly listed', etc.  is controlled by the seller.  There's a default if you do nothing, that's why different stores show differently.  

I didn't realize this until after I won the Ebay Up & Running Grant & got a personal trainer of sorts for a few weeks as part of the prize & he taught me all about this.  You can even manually create your own rows, BUT the options are still very limited.  @my-cottage-books-and-antiques  is correct that there's a lot that can still be done & one of the main things I'd like to see is for those rows to be truly customizable.  As it stands now, you have to choose from their occasions/holidays to promo, I'd like to be able to create my own.  

ANY store can be categorized (provided it was set up by the user) by clicking on the CATEGORIES box at the top left.  BUT, showing those USED to be the default & now it's kinda hidden & the user has to know it to do it.  Unfortunately, without clicking for the Category list to show up, stores are kind of useless.  Also, just FYI, what categories (ebay default or your own) show up, is selected by you, the user - that's been the case for over a decade.   

All that said, they definitely have a long way to go, but it is my personal belief that hardly anyone shops in stores.  Of course Ebay won't share the numbers.   I know very few buyers who like to use stores, BUT those who do, do so exclusively.  

You used to be able to do list or grid format.  The option may still be buried somewhere, I'm not sure.