eBay

valueaddedresource · ‎05-24-2023

Among other things eBay is testing out in search right now, I noticed they have inserted a horizontal scrolling module for Newly Listed items that appears just below the first 4 results (which are reserved for Promoted Listings Advanced).

Not seeing ads in those scrolling slots yet, though I expect that is "coming soon" based on presentations from eBay Open last year.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Changes-To-How-Promoted-Listings-Display-In-Search-Coming-Soon...

One thing I did notice is every item in the horizontal module was also repeated in the regular list of results on page 1, sometimes within 1 or 2 slots...which is not a great buyer experience in my opinion.

Anyone else seeing Newly Listed or other scrolling modules like this in search?

wastingtime101 · ‎05-24-2023

Do you also see it in gallery view?

I'm not seeing it on this browser or ID in list or gallery view. I'll have to do some testing with other IDs and browsers.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but looking at your screenshots I don't like how it's set up in list view because 4 sponsored ads followed by the scrolling gallery pushes the organic results down too far. Then I start singing the Rawhide song changing the lyrics from "rolling" to "scrolling" and it gets stuck in my head for days. If they changed it to 2 sponsored ads then the newly listed insert followed by organic results that would be better.

As long as sponsored ads aren't integrated into that newly listed insert.

And as long as the newly listed insert is limited to best match results and doesn't appear when you sort by price, location or (obviously) by newly listed.

I'm surprised eBay hasn't put a scrolling gallery of sponsored ads in search view yet - although that would probably screw up their promoted listings Advanced "top slot" thing they have going.

GLORIOUS!

valueaddedresource · ‎05-24-2023

@wastingtime101 here's what it looks like with a different search in gallery view.

Interesting that some of the ones that are the duplicate listing show only the starting bid in the Newly Listed window, but below they show the BIN too.

Can confirm only seeing it in Best Match at this time, not in any other sort option.

Agree with your points about how it pushes organic results further down, though I doubt they are going to go back on the top 4 spots being reserved for Promoted Listings Advanced at this point.

I fully expect we will see ads in these modules sooner rather than later, based on the presentation from eBay Open Last year where Director of Product Search Ads Pravesh Katyal said:

And finally, we'll go through a couple of key changes to ads. Some of these are already in place, and some of these are upcoming. Number one, ads in top four slots, to give you some history, ads in the search river were interspersed throughout the river. You would see ads as well as organic results mixed with each other in the search river, but that's changing.

Soon you will see clearly demarcated ad placements such as the top of search ad placement, middle of search ad placements as well as bottom of search ad placements. Each of these ad placements will have a number of ad slots. Ads will be shown in a continuous and clearly demarcated manner. We think that makes it much easier for buyers to identify and to interact with the ads, and more importantly it gives an ability for sellers and advertisers to target specific ad placements.

So in the future, you will have an ability to target a specific placement such as the top of search ad placement or a bottom of search ad placement. We think that that will provide you even greater flexibility on how you control your cost and how you gain visibility on search, and again, as I mentioned, it's also good for the buyers because the buyers can clearly identify the ads and have better interaction with them...

toomuchstuffagain35 · ‎05-24-2023

Yes and I'm in LIST view because that's what I like to see (even though ebay seems to think gallery should be the default for everyone) and it's interrupted by these scrolling galleries. It's annoying as hell.

"If a product doesn't sell, raise the price" - Reese Palley
"If it sold FAST, it was priced too low" - also Reese Palley

wastingtime101 · ‎05-24-2023

Thanks for the gallery view screenshot.

The newly listed insert needs a clearly defined border around it. The way it currently appears is a visual duplication of search results since newly listed are generally near the top of best match. If the insert had a clearly defined border that would help.

I wouldn't mind eBay replacing the top 4 PL ad slots with a promoted listings insert with, of course, the first 4 placements in the insert going to PLA. Your screenshot shows 4.5 listings in the insert before scrolling is required so that PLA placement would be just as prominent as it currently is.

And that would be better for organic results if there was one ad insert followed by the newly listed insert followed by gallery or list of organic results.

I'm not opposed to these changes, but they have to get the visual appearance right. At the moment that part needs work.

GLORIOUS!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎05-24-2023

@valueaddedresource I'm not seeing it when signed in on Chrome, but when signed out I am seeing it, both in Gallery and List view. Agree, I think this is probably a test of what Pravesh was describing. I assume these will eventually be the top 8 newly listed PROMOTED items, since Pravesh is with the Ads team.

Time will tell.

Or maybe they'll even disclose some of this tomorrow at the Seller Check In. (Though I wouldn't bet on it)

frugality_inc · ‎05-24-2023

All by design to funnel clicks into PLs. I am so glad I began pivoting two years ago when eBay began repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.

Why can't we have a platform that focuses on the customer experience?

valueaddedresource · ‎05-25-2023

Today's test is now Trending Items instead of Newly Listed and it looks like watchers may be what is being used to determine if an item is "trending".

Also in brief testing not seeing any duplicated listings on page one with the Trending module but not sure if that is intentional on eBay's part to "fix" that issue or if it's just a matter of how Best Match may handle Newly Listed and Trending differently.

Results for "Jordan 1" in gallery and list view:

And "Tiffany ring" in gallery and list view:

valueaddedresource · ‎05-25-2023

@wastingtime101 wrote:
Thanks for the gallery view screenshot.

The newly listed insert needs a clearly defined border around it. The way it currently appears is a visual duplication of search results since newly listed are generally near the top of best match. If the insert had a clearly defined border that would help.

@wastingtime101 definitely agree on the visual appearance, especially the defined border - that would make a huge difference!

After the presentation at eBay Open last year, I suspected these modules might look something like what eBay was doing at the time to highlight Authenticity Guaranteed in searches for sneakers (screenshot from October 2022):

While I would still much prefer a more visible, clearly defined border all the way around (not in barely visible light gray) I think even something like that first block with text about Authenticity Guarantee could at least help to visually differentiate the horizontal scroll module from the rest of search results a bit.

But then of course that would be sacrificing space that could be used to display an item, which makes it even less ideal, especially once they start putting ads in these spots.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎05-25-2023

I wonder to what extent--whether populated with PLs or not---they will really increase sales velocity. And what is the risk that will decrease it?

I get that ebay wants even more spaces to cram with PLs, but if the additional PL revenue actually comes at the cost of decreased sales velocity, will the increased revenue exceed the sales velocity decline?

I suppose that's one of the things being tested....

I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but as usual, I can think of a long list of things I'd prefer to see ebay prioritizing.

siamjane8 · ‎05-25-2023

First off who really cares what is trending?? If i am searching for a particular vintage car part- that is what i want to see- and i want to see every last potential listing of that genuine vintage car part that is available in ebay........ not a bunch of PL window tint and steering wheel covers that are "trending"....

When will ebay finally get it- people dont want to waste time searching through unrelated PL window tinting. Stop hiding all the relevant listings and show people what they search for and SALES WILL INCREASE

I searched for a 1965 cadillac steering wheel yesterday....... is there any question of what i am expecting to see??? Ebay choose to show me a generic accessory leather steering wheel cover for a 2011-14 cadillac.

I mean really?? I had to go to google to find actual genuine original steering wheels on ebay !?? The search is so bad here it just turns people away. The platform is crumbling around them and they are investing in "trending" carousels. RELEVANCY is the key to sales- not cheap tricks and PL

valueaddedresource · ‎05-25-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I wonder to what extent--whether populated with PLs or not---they will really increase sales velocity. And what is the risk that will decrease it?

I get that ebay wants even more spaces to cram with PLs, but if the additional PL revenue actually comes at the cost of decreased sales velocity, will the increased revenue exceed the sales velocity decline?

I suppose that's one of the things being tested....

I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but as usual, I can think of a long list of things I'd prefer to see ebay prioritizing.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques agree on all counts. There's the immediate question on the buyer experience side of whether or not this type of display will convert better, which is presumably what they are testing, but there could also be longer term implications, in my opinion.

Right now I'm only seeing 8 items total in the scrolling module, but as we know on listing pages those scrolling ad modules sometimes have 20+ spots so they could certainly expand this in the future.

Also as we know from previous answers from the ads team, items in those scrolling ad modules on listing pages have impressions counted even if the user doesn't scroll right to bring them into view on their screen.

I imagine these scrolling modules in search work the same, whether PL or not, which then gets into questions of how will those impressions feed into algorithms and over time could that cause problems due to lower click through rates?

valueaddedresource · ‎05-25-2023

And now my test has gone back to the Newly Listed module and I am once again seeing the duplicates, so that's definitely a function of eBay giving newly listed items that Best Match page one bump.

zamo-zuan · ‎05-25-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
I wonder to what extent--whether populated with PLs or not---they will really increase sales velocity. And what is the risk that will decrease it?

I get that ebay wants even more spaces to cram with PLs, but if the additional PL revenue actually comes at the cost of decreased sales velocity, will the increased revenue exceed the sales velocity decline?

I suppose that's one of the things being tested....

I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but as usual, I can think of a long list of things I'd prefer to see ebay prioritizing.

My concern with these new features being rolled out isn't just if it will increase sales velocity, but how is this affecting eBay's traffic/statistics systems, and therefore the algorithms?

As discussed recently, there's some major glitches where traffic isn't even being tallied correctly. And now this new horizontal scrolling module is showing many of the same results shown on the page already. Is this giving 2x the impressions?

No matter how we look at it, it's a problem for tracking ads/traffic...

If it IS giving 2x the impressions, then it's lowering the click-through rates as even if the buyer clicks, it's a 2/1 impression/click ratio.

If it is NOT giving 2x the impressions, then the items are being given an advantage that isn't being tracked.

Add advertisements to the mix, and both of these issues affect the ad systems.

If they change it so that the item only shows up in the vertical results OR the horizontal results, this is a negative as well, considering somebody might not check one or the other.

The increase of impressions is either going to give new items more momentum at the cost of an advantage over older listings, or it's going to stall momentum by a sudden burst of extra impressions without the click through rate possibly being able to keep up.

It's extremely frustrating that they are changing more things that will make traffic/ads/statistics difficult to track, and will make the algorithms even harder to balance, when those underlying systems were already in bad shape...