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. 

[ed8108]

Ebay has surely heard the cries of dwindling sales from manny sellers, likely engaged in conducting tests, making efforts to help sellers to increase their sales.

[unemployed_husky]

ebay is a bunch of tryhard idiots and they are copying the Amazon layout because they think it will make more people come to the site by making the exact same website as every other website.

[cockerspanielcute]

Came here to say all of this...I'm generally pretty flexible w all the changes and go with the flow but this is just RIDICULOUS. As others said, people barely read text when its right there - now that will be cut down a ton and I can only imagine all the issues and returns it will cause....why, why WHY not just put description first then the others on tabs....

75% of the page is either sponsored posts, other sellers stuff, or useless info.  I really try to be chill about all of the changes but YIKES! Happy to pay fees but - for this? 😞

[krozac]

Yes the programmers did it to drive small sellers crazy and make the buying process more opaque.

This default view where the item description is not displayed, but only "Specifics" is shown is bad in so many ways I will not go into a full diatribe, but I will summarize.

I see no way to opt in, so that a person searching for an item can see a full description when clicking on an item after searching and clicking the link.  Or for the seller opt -out of item specifics as being the default view that a searcher sees that first rather than the item description.

This especially hurts book and music sales where the description, not the condition alone sways a buyer, especially those who take the time to not use pre-filled in ISBN related or bar code text descriptions. Those sellers who write unique things that relate to the book - such as listing its table of contents or describing what sort of illustrations are contained within or some words about the author or subject matter are the one's who are hurt greatly by this change. Some people, not many, do write excellent descriptions and are salesmen or saleswomen and make a sale with their description.

This change in default view definitely decreases traffic on most searches since few people search with the box checked for "search item description."  So even if the searcher does have that box checked they now have to click when they reach the item page to actually SEE and read he description. --- Is that not a textbook definition of counter-intuitive?

The sponsored items listings has gotten completely out of hand and fills the viewers eyes-  which is what eBay wants. They get sellers to ante up for these "sponsored"  listings at the cost of sales to other sellers - like everyone reading this. It's all about making money and whatever conversion / engineering / layout team eBay employs have obviously tested this format and see it as beneficial (aka -it makes more money) for the company - not the sellers.

I have learned from over 20 years participating - that if eBay makes a change, it will be for the worse, especially for the dwindling auction portion of the site. They want to be AMAZON and never will be.

[csbbct]

So, this morning it looks like eBay seems to have turned this around after a week of keeping our descriptions hidden.  Now the Description tab with all our descriptions show on the page FIRST and you have to click on the tab to see Item Specifics and Shipping.  Much better!!!

[valueaddedresource]

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@csbbct wrote:

So, this morning it looks like eBay seems to have turned this around after a week of keeping our descriptions hidden.  Now the Description tab with all our descriptions show on the page FIRST and you have to click on the tab to see Item Specifics and Shipping.  Much better!!!

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@csbbct just FYI, this is what's called a rolling test - that means this and other variations people are seeing will come and go and may be shown to different users at different times, when using different browsers etc.

So it's not like this was a universal change that was made and then universally rolled back.

You may no longer be seeing it but that doesn't mean other users aren't. Some buyers may still be seeing your items in the view that requires clicking on a tab to see the description if they just happen to be included in the test at any given moment.

[valueaddedresource]

I haven't seen it myself yet, but I've seen multiple people reporting eBay appears to now be testing this same layout with the tabs, but putting description first so it's the default then a tab for Item Specifics, and then Shipping, Returns etc.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Weren't we all expecting that? I know I was...they are testing, it makes sense to test all the options. Which one...if any...will they choose? Who knows? 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  So, today, on Google Chrome PC, I'm seeing NO listings between the elements of the listing, and all I'm seeing , under the Feedback Module, is a lot of other listings entitled "You may also like"...it isn't clear if these are sponsored, organic, or a mix. I did see at least one listing that I know is organic, haven't had time to do more research on it. Neither the title (you may also like) nor any of the listings I've seen use the term "sponsored".

Obviously, this is yet another iteration of the test, but certainly interesting that this seems to meet the promise of putting the listings beneath the main part of the listing....Your thoughts?

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@valueaddedresource  So, today, on Google Chrome PC, I'm seeing NO listings between the elements of the listing, and all I'm seeing , under the Feedback Module, is a lot of other listings entitled "You may also like"...it isn't clear if these are sponsored, organic, or a mix. I did see at least one listing that I know is organic, haven't had time to do more research on it. Neither the title (you may also like) nor any of the listings I've seen use the term "sponsored".

Obviously, this is yet another iteration of the test, but certainly interesting that this seems to meet the promise of putting the listings beneath the main part of the listing....Your thoughts?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I'm not seeing the same thing you are.

For me in most browsers it's the usual view with 2 rows of PL above description and multiple modules/rows of mostly PL below feedback.

Firefox incognito I am only seeing 1 row of PL above description and then no PL Below, just 25 organic "You May Also Like" listings.

But yeah obviously they are still testing.

As far as my thoughts - personally, I'm looking for them to honor the promise of moving ads below the description without obscuring the description in any way or requiring additional clicks or action on the buyers' part to see it.

If they do that, my thoughts will probably be relatively positive (based on what we've seen being tested so far), if not....they'll hear my thoughts about that too. 😉

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  I zoomed out to try to get a screen cap of what I'm seeing:

(five rows of five listings each, for a total of 25 listings).

This is probably as close as the testing has come to what they "promised"...of course, it is still only a test...