eBay

zamo-zuan · ‎07-27-2018

One of the product identifier fields "Other Part Number" is no longer appearing in search results!

An example is if you search the Motors > Motor Mount category for "A4229".

Our listing has this code in the Other Part number field. Our item costs $29 right now.

If you search and sort it by PRICE (and NOT best match), our item will not show up, and have a message about "only showing relevant results".

Yet any numbers contained in MPN, Interchange Part Number, etc, are still searchable.

It seems that only Other Part Number is not searchable right now!

I do not know if this is intended or not. But in the past, we were advised to put the top priority codes in MPN, second priority in Other Part Number, and the rest in Interchange Part #.

Now, it seems that advice has turned against us...

zamo-zuan · ‎07-27-2018

Slight update... Interchange was searching at the time I made the post for this item, but now when I search other items by Interchange Part #, the same results happen?

So is MPN now the only field that is giving correct matches???

If that is the case, it's going to destroy the Motors category! Auto parts aftermarket has dozens of different codes for the same auto part made by different manufacturers!

There's 2 common "interchange numbers" that the auto aftermarket uses in our category to be able to search for specific parts on a vehicle.

Now, there's apparently no way for them to search by this code, so buyers will ONLY be able to find your items if they are searching for your exact MPN!

gramophone-georg · ‎07-27-2018

Neither the fitment guides nor the field to enter year and model of vehicle have worked for a week. I've NEVER seen any supposedly serious ecommerce site have so many ongoing problems with basic programming as eBay. Not a day ever comes where everything works.

Chaos is NOT an "industry standard".

dinpavent0 · ‎07-27-2018

I sell a lot of OEM used parts and sell alot of OEM new clips, retainers, etc. I always try to put most detail about item in title. Reason being, I learned most people are not mechanics and are looking for a part to fix their car cheaply, whatever, so they don't even use part numbers. I have had a majority of my customers say they don't even use part number, they simple put in name of part and the year and model of car. So my suggestion is too make sure you fill out the parts compatibility chart. It is a pain especially if you use turbo lister like i do, since you have to add each car one at a time. Too time consuming. But if you list it directly on ebay it is much quicker to fill out vehicles it fits. I always check OEM sites, see exactly what years and models it fits, and use those vehicles, because ebay catalog doesn't have that information especially on OEM parts. What im suggesting works best tho. I always put part number in but most time it is not what a regular person is going to search by unless they get part number from their dealer. Hope this helps anyone who sells in these categories.

zamo-zuan · ‎07-31-2018

@dinpavent0 wrote:
I sell a lot of OEM used parts and sell alot of OEM new clips, retainers, etc. I always try to put most detail about item in title. Reason being, I learned most people are not mechanics and are looking for a part to fix their car cheaply, whatever, so they don't even use part numbers. I have had a majority of my customers say they don't even use part number, they simple put in name of part and the year and model of car. So my suggestion is too make sure you fill out the parts compatibility chart. It is a pain especially if you use turbo lister like i do, since you have to add each car one at a time. Too time consuming. But if you list it directly on ebay it is much quicker to fill out vehicles it fits. I always check OEM sites, see exactly what years and models it fits, and use those vehicles, because ebay catalog doesn't have that information especially on OEM parts. What im suggesting works best tho. I always put part number in but most time it is not what a regular person is going to search by unless they get part number from their dealer. Hope this helps anyone who sells in these categories.

Yeah, we use the part compatibility charts.

Problem is, a lot of our repeat customers use the product identifiers to find their items. And as the above poster mentioned.. vehicle search is not working to well either.

I also have more information regarding what I discuss in the OP - it does not seem this is related to Motors. This is the result of changes of how product identifiers appear in search, period. It seems each category has one "favored" identifier it uses as a primary product code, and that's the only one who matches a search. All the other product identifiers are "matching less"???

dinpavent0 · ‎07-31-2018

That is crazy. I take time to fill out all the part number sections like interchange number etc so people can find parts since even some oem parts have several numbers all for same part. Molar /Chryslerarts have many numbers. Ebay needs to fix these issues. Making these listings is very time consuming for sellers and for it to not work in search results? There have been a lot of problems on eBay. I try different things to try and make sure my items come up in searches. Also I noticed yesterday the parts compatibility was not working when I was listing parts for my husband's store.

zamo-zuan · ‎07-31-2018

@dinpavent0 wrote:
That is crazy. I take time to fill out all the part number sections like interchange number etc so people can find parts since even some oem parts have several numbers all for same part. Molar /Chryslerarts have many numbers. Ebay needs to fix these issues. Making these listings is very time consuming for sellers and for it to not work in search results? There have been a lot of problems on eBay. I try different things to try and make sure my items come up in searches. Also I noticed yesterday the parts compatibility was not working when I was listing parts for my husband's store.

Exactly. This is havok on the Motors site. Our impressions/visibility issue seems to have resolved since June and we were finally going up.

Then we were wondering why last week the statistics started acting funny again. And our marketing team found this.

It's not just motors either. We're a high risk category for this issue due to how interchange codes work in the aftermarket. But product identifiers as a whole are harder to find now.

EBay should be HELPING users find items, not LIMITING visibility even more!