Question for ebay sellers

[tincan630]

Just curious if sellers have experienced slower sales since ebay has changed the search format?  I used to be able to "motor" through searching on ebay because clicking on the search for anything bar anywhere in ebay would give me a drop down menu of MY previous searches or typing the first letter of a word would autofill MY previous searches. Now to find what I want I must constantly return to advanced search. Not fun anymore, just tedious and I'm spending less time and money on ebay.  I've complained repeatedly and get zero satisfaction from customer service. Curious if this has affected sales because that may get ebay's attention????????????

[inhawaii]

My sales are slow ... but i don't blame the search engine, GTC, managed payments, the new seller page or the alignment of the earth and the moon. 

I truly believe that when my sales are slow, it's because nobody wants to but the stuff that i'm selling.  Period.

Of course it could be any or all of those other things.   Who knows?

Good luck and stay safe.

[pikabo-icu]

I will say the search tweaking is a pain..

Even shopping as a buyer & a long time eBayer, I've had HUGE issues with the search.. It took me some time to realize they were "omitting some results"  I have no idea WHY they were omitting them but had to tick a box to "see all".  Imagine how it would be for a newbie or just casual eBay shopper.. 

Like @inhawaii said, it could be or maybe things are just slow..

Too many variables to know for sure..

[moldy5]

I agree inhawaii, very well said!  Have found that if I just relist old stuff over & over, sales go down. They've seen my stuff, didn't want them then, don't want them now. Have done very well lately due to getting off my fanny & doing some actual work.  Listing trying to go under what others are selling things for. New things daily with researching prices & best I can do pictures & an informative description.  

    Have had great luck past  few weeks due to finally getting some weird car parts/tools/guy things. The work is hard when you don't know what you're selling! Thankful hubby has all the right answers-it's his stuff after all!

I also don't blame eBay, inflation, lost jobs, bad weather-you know, all the easy things to blame. When I feel it's MY own fault by being a lazy seller!  Good luck to you & try to list something new daily.

[chapeau-noir]

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@tincan630 wrote:

Just curious if sellers have experienced slower sales since ebay has changed the search format?  I used to be able to "motor" through searching on ebay because clicking on the search for anything bar anywhere in ebay would give me a drop down menu of MY previous searches or typing the first letter of a word would autofill MY previous searches. Now to find what I want I must constantly return to advanced search. Not fun anymore, just tedious and I'm spending less time and money on ebay.  I've complained repeatedly and get zero satisfaction from customer service. Curious if this has affected sales because that may get ebay's attention????????????

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This is a pain because they've started making search criteria 'sticky' and unless I'm using the same sort criteria I have to start all over again.  I'm not sure if this affects search effort much, though - Amazon is absolutely terrible when it comes to bad search organization and I think a lot of people are used to this.  It's a pain as a seller when I'm trying to do comps, though.

[luckythewinner]

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@tincan630 wrote:

 ebay would give me a drop down menu of MY previous searches or typing the first letter of a word would autofill MY previous searches.

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Are you sure this was eBay doing this, and not your browser's auto-complete feature? 

[a*growing*girls*closet]

I so agree with you and inhawaii.  I’ve been fortunate that my sales are still good.  I try to work on my store every day and today I sold an item that’s been listed for over 4 months.  I thought of taking it down and donating it and now I’m happy I didn’t.  No complaints but plenty of work.  I blame myself when sales are slow and no one else.  I chose this and think it’s fun with some bumps in the road.  

[tincan630]

Pretty sure it's ebay's new search format.   Cleared my browser info for both Chrome and Firefox and can't get back to what I'm used to .  Clicking on the search bar now gives me "recent searches" "saved searches" and "saved sellers", typing the first letter of a word gives me a list of ebay suggestions which are of no interest to me.   Only place that still allows me to search for  what I want  is advanced search

[eburtonlab]

eBay has apparently eliminated the option to "hide eBay suggestions" which previously allowed the saved browser form data to appear in the search drop-down (instead of eBay's chosen suggestions). As you indicate, it is still possible to see those search keywords by going to the Advanced Search page and using the search box there.

It is difficult to say how many users relied on that particular feature, or how many benefit from the new feature that replaced it in most searches.

Previously the "hide eBay suggestions" has come and gone several times, so it may return again.

You may be better off finding a more convenient way to keep track of your previous searches that does not rely on using the Advanced Search page -- such as bookmarking or saving individual searches so that you can find them again without relying specifically on eBay's user interface.