New search system could take eBay searchers away from accessory sellers.
As a searcher, I’d think people would see Best Match as a welcome change in technology. At eBay, Jamie Iannone, VP of Buyer Experience, summed up the move as one focused on relevance. It’s also going to consider the seller in terms of finding relevant listings:
In addition to sorting based on relevance, Best Match will also sort based on sellers who provide great buying experiences and the small percentage of sellers that don’t. Making greater use of Detailed Seller Ratings and sellers’ overall rate of buyer dissatisfaction enables us to reward great sellers on the site with increased listing exposure, and reduce negative buying experiences from sellers with high rates of buyer dissatisfaction.
StartupNation’s look at Best Match so far hasn’t left Kevin Harmon impressed:
As one of eBay’s largest sellers, I was very excited to hear about BM. After all, anything that would help buyers find my listings in the giant sea of eBay driftwood sounded great to me! It should have been a big boost to my sales.
Weeellllll, that’s not exactly what went down.
What went down on March 3rd were my pageviews for all my eBay auctions. I don’t mean a slight hiccup – I’m talking about 40% down. And oh yeah, if people aren’t looking at my auctions, then they certainly aren’t buying anything. So sales are down 40% as well.
Seller ratings have hurt, Harmon claimed. Even with 98 percent positive feedback, it’s enough to damage placement in search. “eBay wants a seller to have > 99% positive rankings,” he said. Check out the rest of his post for a scorching assessment of the shift to Best Match in search.
