Testing the new ebay Search Results page.
Recently ebay have been making more and more default searches as “Best Match” rather than ending soonest, or lowest price first. This means that ebay will decide in which order to display listings to the user, and takes into account low seller ratings and miscategorised items. This has not posed too many problems in itself, as it is easy to revert back to the previous preferred results order - mainly ending soonest.
Over the last few days, ebay has been trialling a complete new look to the search results, and this has caused a number of concerns from sellers over lack of visibility, and from buyers as it is now not user friendly.
It also seems to go against the current drive against sellers with low DSR scores for low DSR P&P scores. The first search I put in was for a 4GB memory card, but not only did it pull up 1GB memory cards, one of the first to be displayed was charging £5.99 for P&P on the 1GB memory card.
In a move that does not impress eBay Store owners is that the small list of matching shops has now been pushed further down the left hand navigation bar - well underneath the now commonplace “sponsored links”. This shot also shows how it is now more difficult to filter further choices, such as Auction or BIN only, item condition, and seller location. Nor is there any indicator of seller feedback, which is not only useful when browsing listings, but also allows other sellers to quickly spot their competitors, or buyers to avoid particular sellers without having to view the entire listing.
There is a small link to customise the search though which will display more information, but sellers can not rely on buyers to making these changes, and indeed it’s hard enough to explain the basics to some ebay members, let alone explain the variations in search parameters…
Another view shows a slightly more familiar list view -
And also a Gallery view -
Judging by the feedback on other discussion groups, nobody involved in the trial is enjoying this, and posing as a newbie to eBay myself, I can not see how this layout would entice me to buy, or even to stick around and try to find what I wanted.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Hi
The new search layout is a real stinker. I will be making very few listings as long as that piece of junk is the defaut.
It’s slow, cumbersome and inaccurate. It looks, feels and operates like software that has only just entered Alpha testing, let alone has been lumped onto an unsuspecting public.
Unfortunatly the majotity will never find the well hidden “opt-out” and will simply go and shop elsewhere on the internet where the user experience hasn’t been trashed with a frustrating and counter intuative front end.
Don’t suppose you’ll listen, you never do. For now I’ve just set up an eBid account and will move most of my listings there from now.
Regards,
Ben
New Search Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/eBaySch/petition.html