eBay

vintagequeennyc · ‎01-30-2019

Does anyone think there’s any hope of eBay fixing the search algorithm or going back to what we had before April 2018?? Seems like they are way to stubborn to admit they’ve killed the site with it and backtrack.

Like many sellers here, once they rolled out the change last year, my sales have had a very sharp drop off. I am struggling to make the same amount I made in 2017 when I had HALF the amount of listings I have now.

I personally believe buyers are making less purchases because they are not finding what they want in search. They’re being shown **bleep** from big box and China sellers. To get to the good stuff, I often have to scroll through loads of **bleep** listings. It’s exhausting.

The eBay AI thinks it knows that buyers want but they’re wrong! I’m having no problem selling stuff on other sites yet here, I’m struggling.

No to mention blackouts! Every month I can always expect that for a good 1.5-2 weeks, my listings are being blacked out or dropped so low in search that they might as well be hidden. I go from making daily sales to NOTHING overnight. No sales, no offers even coming in. My sales become a ghost town for half the month.

Wh y has eBay started doing this so much more recently? It almost makes one think that they turn you off when you reach a certain amount in sales to spread around the sales to others to keep the ruse going because they are hemorrhaging buyers. Rinse and repeat.

And then buyers abandon eBay because they can no longer find the kind of stuff they used to be able to find. 1% growth is a JOKE. Guarantee most of that game from fees from sellers and very little from buyers.

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-30-2019

Wh y has eBay started doing this so much more recently? It almost makes one think that they turn you off when you reach a certain amount in sales to spread around the sales to others to keep the ruse going because they are hemorrhaging buyers. Rinse and repeat.

I have read posts that have stated no matter how much they list, and they increased their listings, they seem to be held to a certain dollar amount.

And then buyers abandon eBay because they can no longer find the kind of stuff they used to be able to find. 1% growth is a JOKE. Guarantee most of that game from fees from sellers and very little from buyers.

Ebay ran a lot of promotions and discounts to entice buyers to buy to get that growth; they also ran commercials to entice new buyers to the site and Ebay collected increased FVFs due to increased sales.

allstar-comics · ‎01-30-2019

More items listed divided by same number of sales equals the new Ebay My sales sell through has been steadily declining with each batch of ebay changes. Sadly I feel it might hit a new level of bad this coming year. Does anyone get the same results on search ? I can look with key words and get a set of matches and an hour later with the same key words get completely different amount of matches

castlemagicmemories · ‎01-31-2019

I'm really sorry to hear the your STR has been steadily declining. I'm hoping things greatly improve for you.

If you search newly listed, your results should be changing as new listings keep being added. Ending soonest should bring up different results as listings drop off. Best Match can be stagnant.

I looked for an item recently and only found one listing. However, when I clicked on it, it showed me at least 6 other listings that were not shown in the general search. Why, I don't know. Buyer who aren't interested in the one listing shown may not bother to click on it to find the other listings.

coolections · ‎01-31-2019

Something to ponder:

Lets say there are 100,000 clothing sellers but only 10,000 clothing buyers.

Should 10,000 sellers always be shown and the other 90,000 hidden ?

Should Ebay change the best match default to allow all 100,000 to rotate ?

Should sellers with most seniority stay on top & newer sellers wait their turn ?

Should sellers with the least returns stay on top ?

Should sellers with the highest sell-through rate stay on top?

Someone is always first and someone is always last, there is no way around it.

Without the usual more advertising to bring in buyers, just curious what would you do with a 10:1 ratio to keep 10% of the sellers happy ?

The way it looks now Ebay changes the default rotation using a method of many variables. I do not believe they purposely hide sellers items and have never seen one bit of proof of that. The only way something is not visible is when there are more listings then pages available. Would you add more pages so buyers have the opportunity to search even more listings ? I think it would be counterproductive as there are no buyers now willing to spend hours searching that many pages as it is. Thoughts ?

allstar-comics · ‎01-31-2019

The old search pre Cassinni was just fine. You could customize how you wanted to search items easily and matches actually made sense. Now to get to advanced search which many ebayers dont even know exists it takes a bit of work. People want to see what matches their key words not Cassinnis interpretation of that. Frustrating the buyer by showing them what you want them to see seems counterproductive

spittser · ‎01-31-2019

Thank You! I could not have said it better myself.

Best Match? Best Match for who? I've never understood why anyone would use that for their search parameter unless they're a newbie and do not understand the common sense search options. Search by newest listed, ending soonest, highest price, lowest price. Everyone gets the same exposure as long as there is no other manipulation. I know there has to be a default and in my opinion, ending soonest makes sense. Of course, that should also be a field that the buyer can customize to fit their taste. This was how search worked for the first 10-15 years of eBay and no one complained. You know, when sell through rates were 75-85%, what was there to complain about? I have never understood the eBay leadership's refusal to acknowledge the failure of Cassini and their stubbornness to make a meaningful change and scrap this monstrosity. I would hate to think how much money eBay and us sellers have lost over the years due to this one massive mistake. It's the driving force behind the majority of eBay's issues and their inability to have meaningful growth.

tunicaslot · ‎01-31-2019

I preferred the old search myself. I can't believe someone is explaining search to a long time seller with almost 40,000 who obviously know what they are doing. I'm sure you could teach me a few things.

coolections · ‎01-31-2019

@tunicaslot wrote:
I preferred the old search myself. I can't believe someone is explaining search to a long time seller with almost 40,000 who obviously know what they are doing. I'm sure you could teach me a few things.

@tunicaslot

Who is explaining search you speak of ? But with that said, I guarantee I can teach you how as I have no problems searching even with this new system. For starters use the options to the left of the screen. If you still don't like best match, change the default to ending soonest, lowest first etc. It's all about keywords you use. There are so many sellers (and buyers) who type either a complete sentence, or a two word search to find an item. It's a must to be specific and to the point.

luckythewinner · ‎01-31-2019

@spittser wrote:
Best Match? Best Match for who?

Best Match is designed to benefit eBay, not to benefit sellers.

tunicaslot · ‎01-31-2019

@coolections wrote:
@tunicaslot wrote:
I preferred the old search myself. I can't believe someone is explaining search to a long time seller with almost 40,000 who obviously know what they are doing. I'm sure you could teach me a few things.
@tunicaslot
Who is explaining search you speak of ? But with that said, I guarantee I can teach you how as I have no problems searching even with this new system. For starters use the options to the left of the screen. If you still don't like best match, change the default to ending soonest, lowest first etc. It's all about keywords you use. There are so many sellers (and buyers) who type either a complete sentence, or a two word search to find an item. It's a must to be specific and to the point.

I don't need to be taught - but neither does the poster who has more than shown his worth as far as a seller. You may not have problems and I usually don't but there have been times - that yes - search does not pull up what I searched for - I still prefer the old style search with no AI assistance TY!

zamo-zuan · ‎01-31-2019

@coolections wrote:
Something to ponder:

Lets say there are 100,000 clothing sellers but only 10,000 clothing buyers.

Should 10,000 sellers always be shown and the other 90,000 hidden ?
Should Ebay change the best match default to allow all 100,000 to rotate ?
Should sellers with most seniority stay on top & newer sellers wait their turn ?
Should sellers with the least returns stay on top ?
Should sellers with the highest sell-through rate stay on top?

Someone is always first and someone is always last, there is no way around it.
Without the usual more advertising to bring in buyers, just curious what would you do with a 10:1 ratio to keep 10% of the sellers happy ?

The way it looks now Ebay changes the default rotation using a method of many variables. I do not believe they purposely hide sellers items and have never seen one bit of proof of that. The only way something is not visible is when there are more listings then pages available. Would you add more pages so buyers have the opportunity to search even more listings ? I think it would be counterproductive as there are no buyers now willing to spend hours searching that many pages as it is. Thoughts ?

For search to perform as best as possible, it should ideally try to match the search phrase to the best matching 10,000 buyers. That doesn't exactly perform as well as it did in the past, though, due to many of the issues discussed on here recently (catalog issues, UPC issues, etc). Nearly half the search results are sponsored listings that often don't even match the search phrase.

Sadly, eBay does not seem to agree with the sentiments you have, either. Just look at the recent explanation of why they let Teespree come in and create 23 million listings in the tshirt category. The response was they believe this was a "success" and "good for everyone in the category because it brings more eyes to t-shirts category".

They seem to be under the impression that it doesn't matter if the category is flooded with listings, nor does it matter if there's more buyers than sellers. They seem to 100% believe that more listings = brings more buyers.

Let's be clear about the issue as well... eBay WANTS there to be more listings than buyers. They are even giving companies like Teespring discounts that eBay stores are not receiving, which allows them to create the ludicrous amount of listings flooding the category.

If people on here have been saying the problem was clothing was "already flooded with too many products"... how on earth is it constructive that eBay added 23 million more listings to a category already having issues doing to be flooded...?

This has made the problem exponentially worse.

jason_incognito · ‎01-31-2019

I tend to not have an issue with sell through because I am careful about what i list and what price I list it at.

I have a whole garage full of stuff that i could list, but research tells me that it would be a waste of my time.

"Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything" Colin Kaepernick the new face of NIKE

hillbillymedia · ‎01-31-2019

@allstar-comics wrote:
More items listed divided by same number of sales equals the new Ebay My sales sell through has been steadily declining with each batch of ebay changes. Sadly I feel it might hit a new level of bad this coming year. Does anyone get the same results on search ? I can look with key words and get a set of matches and an hour later with the same key words get completely different amount of matches

Yes. I get different results constantly using the same search words and categories. My wife and I have side by side desks and PC`s. She can do the identical search from her account as I do from mine and the results are routinely different. I`m not saying ebay is deliberately "hiding" listings but......the algorithm is NOT showing them all. As a buyer I want to see ALL my options and narrow search on my own. I don`t want a bot to narrow it for me.

"There`s always barber college" - Dalton - Road House

eburtonlab · ‎01-31-2019

@spittser

I know there has to be a default and in my opinion, ending soonest makes sense. Of course, that should also be a field that the buyer can customize to fit their taste.

The "Customize" option in the "View" -- where you choose list or gallery view of a search -- has default options that can be set for all your searches. It's easy to miss if you never switch between list and gallery views.

I use almost all the sort orders at various times except for "best match", which I don't really understand. The others are self explanatory and seem to work consistently for me. I can usually defeat most of the 'smart search' features except for silent keyword substitution, which can raise havoc with my carefully crafted exclusions.