Power Sellers Unite

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

eBay sellers have discovered another glitch in eBay Stores search. This glitch prevents eBay's search tool from finding all of a seller's Store inventory once a buyer has clicked on a Store category. Last month, users uncovered a glitch in which searches in eBay Stores did not bring back all results on default "Title & Description" searches, a problem that now appears to be fixed.

eBay sellers have complained of deteriorating search in eBay Stores since March of this year. They blame eBay's new marketplace, eBay Express, and the rollout and subsequent rollback of "Stores in Search."

The recently identified Store Search glitch prevents buyers from finding items from all Store inventory if they conduct the search within a Store category. For example, if a buyer clicks on a Storeowner's "Clothing" category and then conducts a Store search for the word "Tiffany," they won't find Tiffany items that are listed in the seller's Jewelry category. A buyer would have to go back to the Store home page or switch to the Jewelry category in order to find items in the jewelry category, but would most likely assume the seller did not carry Tiffany items.
more.. link to news article

2BOYSandTOYS · Joined: 14 Mar 2005 Posts: 10095 Location: Kansas

I've known about this (thru experience) for some time - it's not new at all....Just goes to show ya - search is screwed up even for the big boys...

Bummer 4 sure for all store owners and customers!

Thx for sharing PSU! :D

pjrcoffee · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 634

Seems to me not a glitch at all. I would expect to see only clothing with Tiffany in the description ( if there is any) in the search mentioned. That is the most logical way to drill down to find exactly what you are looking for. You set the categories so if jewelry is under clothing then, yes, Tiffany should appear but I doubt that is how the hierarchy was set up. Most people do not look for jewelry under clothing.

With so many items for sale on eBay the search function would be unusable if you could search for any key word from anywhere and find every occurence of the word everywhere in the site. Talk about information overload! The same applies to stores.

Feebay has many flaws but they're not wrong every time and in every way.

HowardH · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 159

I'm in the process of shutting down my store. It has not been worthwhile. I'm also scaling back my regular listings -- I sell less stuff on other sites, but I actually make more money because I get to keep more of what I make.

Too bad Google Checkout isn't quite ready for prime time. I hate to admit it, but ebay may have called that one correctly. I think, however, that Google Checkout may eventually be the PayPal killer. Anybody who has more than a few hundred Dollars a month on a consistent basis is probably better off with a merchant account than with PayPal.