Although this is currently a test I’d expect to see it roll out for all users in the near future. Back in November eBay removed the shops module from eBay.com, and now their testing in the UK unless some surprising results come up the shops module is pretty much history.
It’s also worth noting that for both eBay.com and eBay UK SIF listings (shop inventory format) are no longer available. When much of a sellers inventory could be hidden from the main search results there was a strong case for higher shop visibility. Today Best Match is supposed to surface the best matching listings across the entire site so driving traffic to shops appear less of a priority. Having said that some categories attract browsers who want to pick and mix from a selection from a single seller so removing matching shops could affect some more than others.
eBay say that the module is very rarely used (except by sellers) and the reason for it’s removal is to speed up page load times. I have a better idea for them though… how about removing some of the off-eBay adverts as that’d save a fair amount of bandwidth!
7 Responses
“how about removing some of the off-eBay adverts as that’d save a fair amount of bandwidth!”
What Chris said.
non of this bothers us
we have a resident witch doctor, a water deviner, a crystal ball, tarot cards,
voo doo dolls, a Ouija board, a couple of scare crows, a gargoyle or two, and a wife,
and if all the above fails we can roll our trouser leg up
The module is rarely used because ebay have ruined the shop search by moving the tab on the homepage. Shop search is now dead anyway – they might aswell scrap the lot.
In one of my selling categories, the 2 sellers that occupy the top two spots of the matching ebay shops have many duplicate listings and make claims along the lines of “UK’s largest stockist” etc.
I always wondered, with the introduction of best match, what the advantage of Duplicate BIN listings brings, and came to the conclusion that the sellers wanted to be the Top Matching Ebay Shop.
JMHO
The link could be better worded, e.g something like:
“Browse shops with items matching your search”
Plus: What Whirly & Chris said about offsite ads.
OK it’s only a test.
But this would lead to further erosion of where a ‘smaller’ shop seller can get named visibility with his/her range of similar niche products.
Removing the prominent SHOPS tab didn’t help much either.