Multi Variation Drop Down are PREFILLED.....and it LIMITS Customer Options!

[lytecordz]

So...this is kind of a deep dive techy questions...but its a problem.  I have a listing with 3 variation drop downs....for example, color, size, and style.    I have noticed that when I access the listing directly from the search return page......the variation drop downs are PREFILLED.   This can be a big problem, and limits what options the customers can actually see.  For example...lets say it prefilles the fields with RED,  MEDIUM, and TANK TOP......but the customer actually wants a BLUE medium tank top. Unless the customer knows to change the drop downs back to "SELECT"......the listing totally limites all of the options they can even see in each particular field.   This is kind of hard to explain......but......it seems like it would be much better if the variation drop down always showed up blank, so the customer can fill them in stepwise according to their needs....that way it always show ALL the variation options available. Does this make any sense to anyone? If so, does anyone have a fix? 

[pjcdn2005]

I've never noticed that so I searched for a couple of things to see how that worked. If I search for something fairly generic such as summer dress, all of the dropdowns are empty but if I search for red summer dress the dropdown for color comes up as red of course but surprisingly, the style and size dropdowns also have a choice filled in rather than showing 'select'.  It works the same if I search for medium summer dress and medium is one of the options, it will also choose a color and style rather than leaving those ones as select.   I don't know why it would prefill the other options but  I do think that most who shop online know that they can click on those arrows to see the choices available. 

[lytecordz]

 I would hope so.....but I'm sure there are some people who click the drop downs "out of order" so they may not actually ever see all the listings that are available. Not even sure what the advantage is to having the drop downs pre-filled......seems it would be better to let the customer make their own selections. 

[chrysylys]

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@lytecordzwrote:

For example...lets say it prefilles the fields with RED,  MEDIUM, and TANK TOP......but the customer actually wants a BLUE medium tank top. Unless the customer knows to change the drop downs back to "SELECT"......the listing totally limites all of the options they can even see in each particular field. 

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If a buyer searches for 'tank top, red, medium', why would you want them to have to make that selection again?  Or be presented with empty fields?  Once in the listing, if they decide they want blue instead of red, they can make the change.

[lytecordz]

  Like I said....it's kind of a deep dive, but here is an example I just did.  I did a search for "Striped Blue Shirt".   I click on the first listing, which was item ID 263574569962 on my return window.  The item was prefilled with a light blue striped shirt.....size 2X.    When I went to change the color.....perhaps to see if the seller offered any other blue type shirt in the variations....they were all showing as out of stock.  This is because he was out of stock on size 2X on everything OTHER than light blue striped.  People read things from top to bottom......so it is human nature to want to select the top drop down FIRST.  So unless a customer has the presence of mind to change the SIZE dropdown first (if they don't need a 2X)....they could be led to believe the seller is out of stock for that style on ALL sizes.   Whereas, if the customer DOES change the size dropdown first, they are presented with a whole new range of options.  Do you see what I'm saying???  Unless the customer knows to change all the dropdowns back to select, they really don't see all the options the seller is offering on that item, which could lead them to just navigate to another listing.   This could be prevented if the dropdown fields were just left unselected for the customer to fill in on their own. 

[lovtaco0]

I understand what you're saying. Variation listings can have a single attribute like color. If that's the only attribute and eBay pre-selects a color it's still easy to see the other colors available.

Variation listings can also have multiple attributes like color and size. If you only have one size left in the color eBay selects then it limits what buyers will see unless they revert the drop-downs back to select.

This is a nuisance for listings with one attribute. It is hiding information when a listing has more than one attribute and sellers can be missing out on sales because of it. I saw the same thing happening with search the other day. Variations are pre-selected when I click on a listing even when my search is very general. This may have something to do with testing for product-based search. It could also just be that search is screwed up even more than it was before.