eBay Rolls Back Major Store-Search Initiative

eBay is rolling back a recently released initiative that displayed eBay Store items at the end of eBay.com main search results. eBay said the initiative had unintended consequences. eBay's announcement brought a firestorm of criticism in the "Stores Forum" from many sellers, who said that they had seen good store sales with the new search. (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=21).

Several sellers wrote to AuctionBytes, saying that they had adapted their eBay businesses to the new search change when it was implemented in February, and now had to make changes again, just a month later.

Tuesday's announcement indicated that over the next couple of weeks, eBay would make search the way it had been, with up to 30 Store inventory listings appearing only when there are 30 or fewer Auction-Style or Fixed Price listings in a buyer's search results.

eBay said buyers had found searches were producing too many results and results overall were sometimes less relevant than they used to be. eBay also said Auction-Style and Fixed Price listings were harder to find for buyers, "so sellers of these items have unintentionally been put at a disadvantage."

eBay said it would discontinue the feature while it further tests and refines it.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200603281301262.html

A "Town Hall" meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 10:00am PT, with Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America. eBay users are invited to submit questions related to the search roll-back.
http://pages.ebay.com/townhall/

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