The listings quality report will be deprecated on February 28, 2023.

[diliber1]

I noticed in the Seller Hub that they are deprecating the listing quality report. This report shared how you as a seller performed under certain categories and showed what may be rejected by Google Store search Results.

Has anyone seen any formal announcement about this that they can point me to? Do we know if there will be an equivalent replacement?

"The listings quality report will be deprecated on February 28, 2023. Users will no longer have access to this report as of that date." 

[itscalledapostingid]

Wow. I never even got around to trying that thing out.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

devon@ebay   Could you check into this? Is this going away, or is it going to be replaced with a tool with similar functionality? I know some sellers who view this as an indispensable tool, and I'm sure they will want to know just what is going on here. 

[valueaddedresource · Accepted solution]

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@diliber1 wrote:

I noticed in the Seller Hub that they are deprecating the listing quality report. This report shared how you as a seller performed under certain categories and showed what may be rejected by Google Store search Results.

Has anyone seen any formal announcement about this that they can point me to? Do we know if there will be an equivalent replacement?

"The listings quality report will be deprecated on February 28, 2023. Users will no longer have access to this report as of that date." 

---

@diliber1 I don't believe they've made a public announcement, but it honestly doesn't surprise me.

When the listing quality report was first introduced it was an absolutely mess - tons of wrong data, stuff didn't line up right. etc.

To ex-VP Seller Experience Harry Temkin's credit, he actually joined the community specifically to respond to our questions and concerns about it (his account has since been made "anonymous" since he left the company in 2021, but you can still see he sign the posts).

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/New-Listing-Quality-Report/m-p/31502684/highlight/true#M168502...

I was pleasantly surprised when the team responsible for the report reached out to me for a Zoom call to discuss the issues and they did make a lot of improvements, but I've kind of seen the writing on the wall with it obviously not being a priority since Harry left.

They had announced in the Fall 2021 Seller Update that enhancements to the report were coming in September 2021, but they never rolled out, kept getting pushed back, and obviously at this point will never actually see the light of day.

https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/resources/seller-updates/2021-fall/business#research

Listing Quality Report
Earlier this year, we launched the Listing Quality Report. This report is a downloadable document that provides you with analysis at listing and category level. It suggests specific actions you can take to optimize your listings and categories. You can use the report to help boost your views, impressions, and sales. It was designed with input from the seller community to make sure it matches the needs of your business.

To keep improving the report, we’ve made some updates.

This month, the Listing Quality Report will be available to download in three formats:

A PDF “one-page summary”
An Excel “full report” with one tab per category
A CSV “raw data” file, to be exported for further analysis

In the past, you could see the analysis of your 10 categories with the most live listings. You’ll now be in control of which categories will show up in the report. You’ll also have the option to keep the existing analysis, using the top 10 categories with the most live listings.

devon@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  - can you check with the appropriate team about @diliber1 's question on whether or not there will be an equivalent replacement please?

[valueaddedresource]

I think the worst part of losing this report might be the section that showed Google Shopping rejections and reasons why they were rejected.

I hope at the very least eBay plans on making that data available to sellers in some other format, but given how things have gone in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if that reporting ends up only being available to sellers who opt in to Offsite Cost Per Click ads, whenever they officially launch them.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/We-had-to-start-testing-Promoted-Listing-Advanced-Now-eBay-wan... 

[namtrag1]

Deprecate

Does this mean that eBay is going to disapprove of this reporting or are they getting rid of the reporting?

I think the authors of that news item better read the dictionary for use of a better word to explain what they are actually doing.

[valueaddedresource]

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@namtrag1 wrote:

Deprecate

Does this mean that eBay is going to disapprove of this reporting or are they getting rid of the reporting?

I think the authors of that news item better read the dictionary for use of a better word to explain what they are actually doing.

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@namtrag1  that message likely came from the developer team responsible for the report - deprecate is common language for when programs are no longer supported/maintained/available.

But it would be fair to say I did deprecate this report fairly harshly when the beta version first came out. 😂

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@namtrag1  

"In several fields, especially computing, deprecation is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing it or prohibiting its use. Typically, deprecated materials are not completely removed to ensure legacy compatibility or back up practice in case new methods are not functional in an odd scenario.

It can also imply that a feature, design, or practice will be removed or discontinued entirely in the future"

Source: Wikipedia

So, it appears to be correct usage, just a usage you appear to be unfamiliar with.

[itscalledapostingid]

It's pretty common to see the word referring to software in this way...meaning it's on it's way out; obsolete and will be removed or retired.

Some dictionaries have been updated to indicate this use.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

ebay's Brian Burke, from today's (Jan 3, 2023) ebay for business podcast:

"My understanding of why it was is being retired is it was a beta so it didn't go out to everyone. We learned a lot from it and they're gonna evaluate what pieces of it to include down the road or in the future. But for now the listing quality report will be retired."

So, sounds like there might be some sort of replacement or partial replacement in the future, but for now, I guess ebay decided giving us a lot of free data about our business wasn't such a good idea. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

ebay's Brian Burke, from today's (Jan 3, 2023) ebay for business podcast:

"My understanding of why it was is being retired is it was a beta so it didn't go out to everyone. We learned a lot from it and they're gonna evaluate what pieces of it to include down the road or in the future. But for now the listing quality report will be retired."

So, sounds like there might be some sort of replacement or partial replacement in the future, but for now, I guess ebay decided giving us a lot of free data about our business wasn't such a good idea. 

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I guess we've reached the "if we just call everything a permanent beta test, we never have to explain anything or be accountable for deliverables" phase of the tech-led reimagination. 😂

This is a 2 year old feature that had been rolled out to most sellers for single item buy it now listings in multiple countries, promoted extensively by third party partners like Teikametrics, List Rank Sell, Frooition and more, had official tutorials and instructional videos/content created and had promised improvements that were supposed to be included in the Fall 2021 Seller Update (that never happened)....if this is still a beta test at this point then my 21 year old son is still a toddler. 🙄

"Evaluate what pieces to use down the road in the future" is likely code for package up data we provided for free for two years and find a way to monetize it, either directly or by dangling it as an incentive to get sellers to upgrade to a higher store level or participate in new and ever increasing ad revenue generating schemes or....

[zamo-zuan]

Let's be honest here. EBay doesn't make replacements when they remove this type of thing.

They didn't make any replacement for all the growth pages they removed.

They didn't make any replacement for the listing recommendation export they removed.

They didn't make any replacement for the Year to Year market/seller comparison charts/Sellers Hub suggestions they removed.

It seems every time they have a section with information that is actionable (and useful) they remove it... And all that does is make it harder on sellers as we have no guidance on what eBay's system might be seeing as problems or benefits in our listings, as well as making it harder to assess issues that inevitably face our stores every time new glitches arrive in each update. 

Again, let's be fully honest. Listing information has taken a back seat to promotions in eBay's strategy. So they're adding more and more tools to the Marketing tabs, and the Listings report does nothing but guide peoples attention elsewhere and/or prove that those things don't really matter as much at the end of the day.

They had their "Automated Listings Suggestions" that nobody did, but don't worry, there's multiple new listing tools in the pipeline to "replace" the removed listing quality report!

[toomuchstuffagain35]

If a site like Bonanza can provide a "listing quality" assessment (right there when you're doing the listing) and a report that shows which listings were rejected by Google and why, you would think a supposed self styled "tech company" like ebay would be able to as well.

But what do I know?

After all how many years did Bonanza have a background removal tool before ebay got hip to it?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@toomuchstuffagain35  I'm actually been wondering if they aren't going to incorporate some of the LQR into the Listing flow....

[iamonourside]

I've been trying to use and understand the LQR, periodically downloading it over the past two years. It isn't something that needs to be followed monthly, let alone daily, for a small seller like me.  I've followed community posts about it as well.  In that regard, I thank  @valueaddedresource  and @my-cottage-books-and-antiques for posts on the matter, and @zamo-zuan  on posts on analytics generally.

I'm a very analytical person but still found the LQR report to be hard slogging, second only to the traffic report. The report suffers from poor layout, incomplete and inaccurate labeling, obvious data errors, and lack of data notes answering obvious questions.

Yet, the report is helpful on the margin soI am disappointed it is being discontinued. My bet is it is being depreciated exactly for that reason. (IMO, eBay word choice is never accidental, nor about clarity and simplicity, and everything to do with [attempted] manipulation of the readers' minds.).

The report is marginally helpful in the things eBay wishes I didn't know:  That promotional listings and other marketing efforts make no difference in sales.  An observation that @valueaddedresource  hit upon in his/her post back in May 2021, "eBay is showing 0% of listings using Promoted Listings "

 https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Introducing-the-Listing-Quality-Report/m-p/31829954#:~:text=eB...