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How does Best Match really work?
Much has been written about eBay's Best Match. Sellers must remember that Best Match is written with the buyer in mind (not the seller). The point of a search result page is to give that specific buyer what he/she is looking for.
Start here: http://ssc.channeladvisor.com/howto/optimizing-ebay-best-match-results
http://andrewminalto.com/top-search-position-on-ebay/
Also, criteria do change over time. We know "free shipping" now accounts for more than 50% of all eBay transactions. Why? Because buyers want "free shipping". So, expect Best Match to give some additional value to listings offering "free shipping". Because of high shipping costs in Canada, Canadian sellers often find themselves not competitive with American sellers.
We also know that "fixed price" listings now dominate eBay's marketplace, accounting for more than 80% of all transactions. Auction listings now account for less than 20%.
Listings offering multiple quantities and having shown some sales do get priority. Why? Because that is what buyers want. And they have proven it by purchasing from those listings.
Does "Best Match" really care about your feedback rating? Not really but keep in mind that many buyers do.
Search engines offer hundreds of links explaining "Best Match". Some of that information may be useful. Some is quite questionable. Expect to spend hours getting a feel for it. There is no "silver bullet".
Finally, it is important to remember that "Best Match" is written with American buyers and sellers in mind. Their playground... their rules.
Good Luck.
"The less html that you have in your description area the better."
I totally agree. I am a "KISS" kind of guy.
When listing at fixed price, do not use the word "auction" in your listing. I would also avoid "win". Buyers do not "win" anything. They purchase goods and pay for the privilege.
As suggested by others, I would delete most or all of the comments about shipping costs or shipping time. The information is provided in short form in the "shipping" tab (ship within one day, shipping $xxx). I would also delete the sentence asking for feedback and DSR rating.
@amya4295 wrote:Thank you very much for your comments. I really appreciate the close look and information. I know that my Canadian shipping is high but it's unfortunately accurate and I never over charge. I have stared doing some free shipments within Canada when it qualifies as lettermail but for bigger items and a shipping rate of about $14 to the West cost, that is really hard and impossible to build into the price. I will try a few more of these ideas even if It is at a loss to me to see if it works. I will cleanup some of my conflicting text as well. I may have gotten a bit lazy, using the same template for years but adding new requirements that eBay wants without removing some of the old. Thanks again!
That is entirely incorrect. Any additional charges that the customer has top pay is an over charge. YOU can make shipping any amount you want it to be. You, alone, are segmenting a cost in your mind, adding it as extra, and rationalizing why it is just.
Since free shipping is becoming the norm, any shipping charge is an over charge. It is a way of thinking. Please reference to Femme's ongoing tutorial about shipping costs excluded to included.
Regardless of that aspect, I have been told that "best match" has more to do with what customers buy as opposed to what they look for. Specifically, the words spoken to me were: "It does not matter what they search for, it matters what they buy".
You are looking for what you want to look for, is that what you are buying? Often it is not. eBay has figured this out. Best match is frustrating to sellers because we want to see what we want to see, our way. What eBay is returning is what customers actually buy.
As an extreme example, if everyone who searched dog collars ended up buying a frying pan, best match for dog collars would be frying pans because that is what those searchers bought.
Best match also, depending upon category, wants the item condition box filled in, pictures at the top, item specifics filled in. The more relevant information the search engine finds, the higher the placement in best match. The search engine also wants black type, ordinary font, stated or free shipping, the longer the return period the better.
It probably sees spelling mistakes and poor grammar.
" in your experience would that give me more visibility in Best Match?"
No.
" With all of the issues in shipping some international countries would you recommend that I start to sell internationally?"
Not at this time with the items you currently offer.
All in all, what you offer in your listings (quality, service, pricing) is what sells. "Best Match" is nice but it is NOT as important as some sellers think. Many buyers use specific search terms which makes "Best Match" largely irrelevant. Others search using "lowest price" or "highest price" instead of Best Match. Others (the few remaining auction buyers) search on the basis of listings ending soon. Finally some want to see newly listed items
Keep in mind that what you see with Best Match when doing a search is NOT always what buyers will see. Best Match works on factors relevant to the buyer, not the seller.
With 800,000,000 (yes - eight hundred million) listings available on eBay every day, it is impossible to predict how long anyone of your listings would be on the first page of a Best Match search results. It depends largely on how many listings are available in each specific category. A few months ago, analyzing one of the most popular categories, it was calculated that - on average and all other things being equal - a seller's listing would be on the first page for less than one minute.
So do not worry too much about it as there is little you can do about it. Concentrate your efforts in making your listings attractive to potential buyers, keeping every aspect of each listing positive. That listing is meant to sell.
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