eBay

wastingtime101 · ‎10-15-2022

We choose with our stores whether we want to add rows that feature categories and listings on our storefront. I set my preferences months ago when the new store layout went live.

Today I notice eBay has added a featured row for something I did not select in my settings.

I went to the Hub to manage my store and the row they added is unchecked in settings, so I couldn't turn it off if I wanted to.

Anybody else seeing this?

GLORIOUS!

devon@ebay · ‎10-17-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@zamo-zuan ebay has been doing live tests for years, as have a lot of other platforms.

I can accept testing, but I have trouble with the lack of communication when tests are performed. I'm very tired of ebay's favorite game: Glitch, Test, or New Feature?

This company would do well to improve its seller communication, but no matter how often we plead, we're right back to playing this game.

devon@ebay elizabeth@ebay

Could you please check into this? Some sellers are seeing "Featured Categories" on their store homepage, and these "Featured Categories" were NOT put there by the seller, and if the Seller goes into edit his store home page, there is no way to remove the Featured Categories ebay has supplied.

I would assume the correct team to ask about this is the Stores Team.

Hey @my-cottage-books-and-antiques! I have reached out to the Stores Team on this and as soon as I hear a response from them we will be sure to share that information with you.

Devon,

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-17-2022

Thanks devon@ebay !

zamo-zuan · ‎10-17-2022

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@zamo-zuan ebay has been doing live tests for years, as have a lot of other platforms.
I can accept testing, but I have trouble with the lack of communication when tests are performed. I'm very tired of ebay's favorite game: Glitch, Test, or New Feature?
This company would do well to improve its seller communication, but no matter how often we plead, we're right back to playing this game.
devon@ebay elizabeth@ebay
Could you please check into this? Some sellers are seeing "Featured Categories" on their store homepage, and these "Featured Categories" were NOT put there by the seller, and if the Seller goes into edit his store home page, there is no way to remove the Featured Categories ebay has supplied.
I would assume the correct team to ask about this is the Stores Team.

I can also completely agree with the "game" you mention being frustrating. To make it worse, eBay has moved the goal posts before and said "glitches" became "new features" after not being fixed for years.

With that said, I still think there's some issues with how eBay tests on live data. Usually tests are simulated before moving to a live server to get a better idea how things are going to function. And if they do decide to move forward with testing on live data, there's at least some notice to sellers. Furthermore, to silently choose different people to add to "tests" just seems ingenuine.

This is a particularly sore spot for us when the tests in question made it so that 1% PL investment did nothing. TWO YEARS before this became "the norm" on eBay. In other words, we had an unfair environment requiring us to PAY MORE than other sellers for TWO ENTIRE YEARS.

I don't think calling that a "test" fully grasps the nature of what it was, considering during that time we were #1 in our category, and that extra percentage adds up to a whole lot of money on their behalf.

wastingtime101 · ‎10-17-2022

@wastingtime101 wrote:
The only thing I have not tried is adding categories then attempting to un-feature categories. I don't want my account to get stuck with them if I add them voluntarily.

We did some testing with GF's account. Added a featured categories by selecting 2 categories, thereby replacing eBay's auto-forced row. Then we completely removed the featured categories we added.

All looked "normal" with no featured categories row on the store. The uppermost row was featured listings row (newly listed). Until ...

Approx 24 hours later eBay's forced featured categories row came back!

I'm leaning strongly towards "test" on this one.

Glitch is still a possibility, but I don't think it's an intended change / phased roll out at this point. If it was a phased roll out we'd see it on all browsers, not just a select few.

GLORIOUS!

valueaddedresource · ‎10-18-2022

@wastingtime101 wrote:
@wastingtime101 wrote:
The only thing I have not tried is adding categories then attempting to un-feature categories. I don't want my account to get stuck with them if I add them voluntarily.
We did some testing with GF's account. Added a featured categories by selecting 2 categories, thereby replacing eBay's auto-forced row. Then we completely removed the featured categories we added.

All looked "normal" with no featured categories row on the store. The uppermost row was featured listings row (newly listed). Until ...

Approx 24 hours later eBay's forced featured categories row came back!

I'm leaning strongly towards "test" on this one.

Glitch is still a possibility, but I don't think it's an intended change / phased roll out at this point. If it was a phased roll out we'd see it on all browsers, not just a select few.

@wastingtime101 curious if you are also seeing a difference in Chrome when incognito?

I'm still seeing the forced featured categories in a regular Chrome window, but not in incognito for the same stores.

I'm guessing cookies may have something to do with it and that makes me lean more toward this being a test as well.

wastingtime101 · ‎10-18-2022

Checked Safari in private mode and the forced row is showing @valueaddedresource.

GLORIOUS!

fern*wood · ‎10-18-2022

Mine were gone yesterday, but today they are back. weird Still featuring an item that sold already.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-18-2022

@valueaddedresource yes, I choose "test" in the ebay "Guess the Change" game.

Hopefully we'll hear from devon soon with the stores team's response.

Maybe we should turn this sort of thing into a real game, with prizes...be the first one to guess correctly, get a free ebay mug or something.

the-hook-and-the-loop · ‎10-18-2022

Probably a new way to squeeze promoted listings in front of buyers. I'm just guessing, but I would bet these are counted as promoted when clicked on and sold.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-18-2022

@the-hook-and-the-loop I think this comes down to what I said before: ebay has internal data that convinces ebay that having a "featured categories" section in the store increases sales, and ebay has decided if sellers aren't going to put that row in their store, ebay will. And ebay will choose what to show, probably using its AI (which ebay probably thinks knows more about which category to show than you or I)

It's not so much about PL fees, as it is about more FVFs.

wastingtime101 · ‎10-18-2022

@the-hook-and-the-loop wrote:
Probably a new way to squeeze promoted listings in front of buyers. I'm just guessing, but I would bet these are counted as promoted when clicked on and sold.

Nothing about it is tied to promoted listings. PL don't exist on a seller's storefront. I think there was a short-lived glitch a couple years ago where that happened and the ads team rectified the situation.

GLORIOUS!

ittybitnot · ‎10-18-2022

yes, I choose "test" in the ebay "Guess the Change" game.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

@valueaddedresource

I am going with a rollout of an intended change (aka unwanted enhancement). Why else would they be seemingly rolling it out (to more browsers) and reinserting it after the user discovers how to DELETE it?

Hopefully we'll hear from devon soon with the stores team's response.

Sometimes I think poor devon@ebay must be the most ignored blue/employee at eBay. Not his fault of course, but the "correct teams" rarely seem to ever get back to him with any information. People here seem to ask important questions that the correct teams choose not to address in an exact manner anyway.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-18-2022

@ittybitnot This thread has a fair bit of confusion in it----As far as I know, no one has figured out how to delete the "Featured Categories" row provided by ebay. The row provided by a seller can, of course, be deleted. But this is like the ebay provided videos in the gallery that some sellers have....the seller can't remove it. (I believe the seller can add his own video, but he can't remove the ebay video.)

What is unclear----I don't see that anyone has tried this---is what happens if a seller who has the ebay supplied row, adds his own row? Does he end up with two featured categories rows, or does the act of adding his own remove the ebay provided row?

Anyone want to try this?

wastingtime101 · ‎10-18-2022

Read post 64 @my-cottage-books-and-antiques.

GLORIOUS!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-18-2022

@wastingtime101 Thanks...I missed that. So it does seem that adding your own featured categories row will eliminate the ebay added row, but if you remove your own row, ebay will add one for you...again.

So, I wonder if their testing something like this: Featured categories will be automatically placed by ebay, but you can override it by choosing to manually add featured categories. Or of course, it could come down to : "Good news, sellers! You no longer need to add featured categories, as we now add your best categories automatically..." with sellers being given no choice at all.

Here's hoping we hear from the Stores team pretty soon....

I can definitely think of some things I'd rather see them doing right now, like adding the ability to insert our own custom titles for the listings rows....we have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up and our Holiday title choices are "Holiday" (which one? ) or .....Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Not real helpful for Q4.