eBay

siamjane8 · ‎12-16-2023

I saw that an eBay moderator said that the search team has seen all the complaints about irrelevant eBay search results and is going to make changes in 2024.

Wonderful news. It has gotten worse month over month for the last 7 or so years. Sarah decline in showing what people actually type in the box.

What do you think they need to focus on?

Less PL add placement?

less manipulation and more focus on accurate organic results?

I think they finally realized that buyers must use Google to find eBay listings because the dumb AI eBay search engine can't find active ebay listings!

mam98031 · ‎01-09-2024

@luckythewinner wrote:
@siamjane8 wrote:
I saw that an eBay moderator said that the search team has seen all the complaints about irrelevant eBay search results and is going to make changes in 2024.
eBay makes constant changes to the search.

True, but Ebay announced in December 2023 that we had some big changes coming to the search function in 2024. They just didn't tell us when or what changes yet.

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

barry658 · ‎01-09-2024

Why so optimistic? eBay web site developers get paid for making changes, not for improving the web site. If the reverse was the case, the site would still look like it did originally. Bad management + No oversight = Bad results.

siamjane8 · ‎01-09-2024

@luckythewinner eBay makes constant changes to the search.

Lucky...of course they do. No doubt weekly if not more often tweaking..... But we here are obviously talking about what eBay perceived as major changes that will effect its accuracy....... Otherwise eBay would have started "we will continue to make search algorithm changes as normal in 2024"...... But they specifically stated they will be making changes for to user feedback about irrelevant results. Dceo also pointed out to wall street that the search changes will certainly effect Google placement but hopefully not in a negative way. Sounds like a possible big change to me.

Either way, I doubt it can get much worse so might as well let them have at it.

rugerskick · ‎01-09-2024

i think we need to wait and see the changes before declaring its wonderful news. Ebay has a way of making things worse while claiming they are making things better.

siamjane8 · ‎01-10-2024

that is certainly the truth! Ebay track record is "lets throw something at the wall and see what sticks lol

luckythewinner · ‎01-10-2024

@mam98031 wrote:
@luckythewinner wrote:
@siamjane8 wrote:
I saw that an eBay moderator said that the search team has seen all the complaints about irrelevant eBay search results and is going to make changes in 2024.
eBay makes constant changes to the search.
True, but Ebay announced in December 2023 that we had some big changes coming to the search function in 2024. They just didn't tell us when or what changes yet.

The OP said a moderator mentioned it, not that eBay announced it. Do you have a link to an announcement? I can't see it anywhere in the eBay announcements.

Ecommercebytes has a story, but after reading it that story appears to be based solely on a single post by a board moderator:

"Our Search team is consistently looking into refining our search and is working on making changes that we are hoping to have implemented early in 2024. I will be sure to have this example and feedback sent over to them"

That is a hopelessly vague statement that would always be true of the search team no matter what time frame is offered, and offers no insight into what the changes relate to.

brightlightbookseller · ‎01-10-2024

They're constantly changing the search feature (well, not literally constantly, but often). The question is whether they will evolve or devolve it. Only time will tell. Hopefully you're right and they've listened, and then that we get lucky and they implement changes in the right direction, though personally I don't use eBay often enough as a buyer to know what search improvements are needed.

5150waffles · ‎01-16-2024

This might explain why my sales are going crazy. I sell vintage auto parts under ebay motors. Used to get hidden by a bunch of unrelated Chinese garbage. Now I'm literally selling every day. Last year I was selling once week or less.

mam98031 · ‎01-16-2024

@5150waffles wrote:
This might explain why my sales are going crazy. I sell vintage auto parts under ebay motors. Used to get hidden by a bunch of unrelated Chinese garbage. Now I'm literally selling every day. Last year I was selling once week or less.

Unlikely any changes have been made yet. It was just stated they were coming in 2024, not that they were starting at the beginning of 2024.

With that said I am VERY happy your sales are good. That is always something to cheer about !!

mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999

siamjane8 · ‎01-17-2024

I switched up what i was listing list past week and found that the search was so dismally disgusting - I had forgotten how absolutely bad it was! The previous week i was researching and listing late model car parts and was able to get decent results for comps....... This week i went back to 1940s-1970s car parts and searching using a description of what the part actually was turned out to be painful again.

The search is definitely geared 90% towards just item specifics instead of "understanding what is typed in the box and searching the titles of the listings. So many times i would get 0 or 1 result and then go to google or google images and magically was shown 5-10 active ebay listings!!!!

Worse yet was when ebay would show me one of the actual item i was searching for and then 20 promoted unrelated items that have nothing to do with my search.

Ebay search is still just trying to emulate Amazon but ebay is a marketplace of vintage and unique items- so the search needs to be accurate for that. If only people were shown what they were typing in the search box- sales would start to recover.

siamjane8 · ‎01-25-2024

@luckythewinner I'll have to try and remember where i saw it but the CEO Jamie also made a specific reference to changing the search in 2024 during a meeting with shareholders. I wonder there are any changes to what they were planning to do since they laid off over 1000 employees this past week? CEO said it was necessary to lay off another 9% ebay's workforce because expenses outpaced growth.......... again- you cant have growth without bringing new buyers in (need to advertise), and you cant have growth if the "buyers" dont buy because they cant find what they search for once they are here. We are seeing play out what was predicted by many years ago- Promoted listings only provided a small temporary bump in revenue while systematically undermining search relevancy and buyer experience and overall sales and growth for the platform.