Time for a gripe. My sales have plummeted this month and suddenly as opposed to being slow from the start. Given that it's a 'short' month with only 28 days, I'm sitting at 55 per cent of my normal sales dollar volumes on Feb. 26.
Sales were steady all through the Calculated Shipping debacle including to international buyers but fell from a cliff about 12 days ago. Coincidentally, this was right about the time ebay began to widen and rollout its new Product-Based search.
I've posted about that elsewhere. https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/eBay-Playbook-Reveals-Phased-Rollout-of-New-Search/m-p/3...
I cannot, of course, prove my sales have vanished as a direct result of the new search experience but I will tell you that my listing(s) don't show in search when the search results are grouped via Group Similar listings on ebay.com. Even when the UPC matches. Nowhere among the 'grouped' listings. Because they are not created on ebay.com? Maybe. That's what I understood of the ebay rep told me during the Q&A portion of one of the unrelated webinars I partook in last week.
I've run the searched on ebay.com with both of my main product lines, Cars and LEGO minigfigures. When the listings are searched in the regular way, I start to see mine within the first 15 items. When the search results are grouped, they are nowhere to be found among the various groupings. Not at all.
Obviously, this is a problem. At first I thought it was due to many Canadian UPCs not matching their American counterparts but I checked it against the ones that are the same UPC across Canada and US (or with the US-based stock I have for sale) and the problem is not just that. Even with UPCs that match, my listings are MIA.
Anyone else seeing this when they run searches of their own ebay.ca-created item listings on ebay.com within the confines of Grouped Listings? Please share your findings.
Anyone else seeing this when they run searches of their own ebay.ca-created item listings on ebay.com within the confines of Grouped Listings? Please share your findings.
You peaked my curiosity so I did a search on a couple books that I have listed.
First one Be My Baby Ronnie Spector - No UPC or ISBN in this listing.
1. I searched Be My Baby - obviously got all kinds of returns with the words be my baby not related to the book I was selling. However my book was at the top of the list in my search which was set to Time ending Soonest.
The Group by Similar Items box was there so I clicked it and my book disappeared altogether. Not only that, the search did NOT group by similar items. For instance you would think that group by similar items would put this book in a group with others that are the same, and group Be My Baby records in another group, and Be My Baby children's books in another group, and items with just the word Baby in another group and so on. But that is not the way it worked at all. The group that showed up still had Be My Baby with all different category/type items.
When I ungrouped my book was back at the top of the list with either Ending Soonest or Best Mach selected
2. I narrowed down the search to Be My Baby Ronnie Spector
My book was at the top of the list but there was no Group Item Button, so I could not check further.
I tried the search again with just Be My Baby and lo and behold the Group Items button is gone now. Oooops now it's back - LOL migraine coming on
Second Search The Arrival of BB King - this one has an ISBN in the listing
1. Searched BB King. My book came up at the top of the list with Ending Soonest selected. The Group items button was there. When I clicked the group items button my book was still at the top of the list with Ending Soonest and with Best Match
2. Searched Arrival of BB King. Mine came up at the top of the page with Time ending soonest and Best Match.
There was no Group Listings Button.
Conclusion: Search does seem to be changing with regards to the button being there or not being there, but based on these 2 books it seems when my search criteria is very broad i.e. Be My Baby & BB king - the button is THERE
When I narrow down the search criteria Be My Baby Ronnie Spector & Arrival of BB King - then the Group Items button is NOT there.
I am quite concerned right now with UPC codes and ISBNs. For awhile I was getting a match on almost everything
The last few batches of listings it has been a waste of time entering it, because either nothing shows up or it shows up but puts the item in the wrong category. Once it puts the item in the wrong category, I have to go back and change all my item specifics which is very time consuming because I have to get the item again and look up all the information - dates, publisher...
Well, that satisfies my curiosity for now. Maureen, if you are at all prone to migraine, I would suggest leaving this alone for a bit. You won't nail anything down with the information changing all the time. Just joking of course. I get that this is a serious issue, but trying to nail it down well...Good Luck
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