Should eBay Favor Local Sellers in Search Results?

by: COVID-19

Delivery speed = Least important. Lowest price (w/ postage factored in) = Most important. eBay once again is emphasizing the wrong thing in its obsessive quest to EMULATE Big Bro Amazon. eBay = IDIOTS.

by: Ric

They will do this, and then announce a crackdown on sellers who are alleged to be conducting cash transactions outside of eBay to circumvent the outrageously high fees.

by: Rexford

Look everyone.  eBay filed a patent. (insert eyeroll)

And as for
I feel very strongly that a buyer should be able to find what they are looking for without their key words' searches being manipulated by an algorithm.

by: I Must be Crazy

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of selling on eBay? If my buyers are going to be local, I can place items on plenty of other sites at a lower cost.

First, it is only a patent, probably filed not so much to implement, but to get ahead of the next guy who thinks they might have the same idea. The majority of patents amount to nothing. If eBay is flirting with the idea of implementing such a practice, (which I think they already can if they choose) it is a half a$$ed solution to FBA and other entities that can offer better fulfillment.

I still see clustering of sales on a regional basis. Not all of the time, but it certainly happens often enough to notice. Been going on for years.

by: Bill

eBay is trying like heel to emulate the sales that other sites are getting because they are loosing ground so the idiots in the ivory tower will try to come up with some "new" way to try to boost sales. The problem is very simple to fix but all they worry about is the price of the stock that they are gifted each year and try to figure out how to put more money in their pockets. A plan that is doomed for failure.

by: JohnGermaine

Nope, not getting recently and NEVER have gotten that many sales from local sellers.  My stuff sells to back east, I am in California.  It's always been like that.

Set the default results back to "Expiring Soonest" like it used to be so folks don't miss out on things. It worked well.

by: Snapped

“ My stuff sells to back east, I am in California. It's always been like that.”

Imagine that. eBay ‘favoring’ search results to maximize their FVF potential on shipping.

Then again, if it’s shipping “free”, it’s likely sellers would be fine with a local ‘favoring’, since their (shhh!) embedded carrier costs are likely factored for worse case. So that’s win-win. Well, except for the local buyer who pays the ‘excess’ actual ship cost.

Ideally, eBay should cease ‘favoring’ anybody. Let the (their!?) buyer filter that choice.

by: Geetar

This is why promoted listings is now obsolete. It is doing no good unless you are in the region where you sell. All your doing is paying more to sell in your own area.

by: Paul W

Well they do not so far. Since eBay makes a few cents more on higher label prices, nearly all my sales are to zone 8.  I get more sales to Puerto Rico than nearby California.  

by: Denny

When I sold on e-bay my stuff always went out west to places like Texas and California. I live in Michigan.  

by: VaGent

My experience led me to believe that eBay prioritizes the most distant sellers/buyers. Remember they make full final-value-fee on S&H.....

by: Denny

Well there you go VaGent. Same scammers as usual.

by: Lightning

I don't care where it goes, as long as it sells.  Get that stuff the heck out of here!  But then, I have pretty much flat rate or free shipping, so the destination is not a factor as far as eBay fees.  

I do save a few bucks on shipping expense if the package is more local.  i get about equal activity from both coasts where the high population areas are, not so much from the middle.  I'm in the East.

For those who have weighty items and have to ship to high numbered zones, yeah, that's a problem.

by: Mark4

Facebook Marketplace for local sales, its free cash in the driveway sales, no hassle.  

by: aris 2

I wasn't even aware Ebay was doing that. Not that I care because I don't see much 'local' buying.
A lot depends on what you're selling too.
In other words, I can use media mail for all of my shipments. All Media mail has to go thru Warrendale Pa. for package inspection before it heads to the destination.
Unless I get someone at our main post office who's feeling generous and puts my packages in the outgoing 'Priority' basket, buyers who live more than 20 miles from my location still have to watch their package go all the way to Pennsylvania first when looking at tracking, before it makes it's way back to my state.
It's frustrating but it's the reality of the USPS.  

by: shut1968

Ebay can't catch up.. won't happen.

The ONLY thing they can do to fix the site is to go back to being Ebay and quit trying to be everyone else.. they had a "classifieds" section.. it didn't work..

Now that Facebook is becoming a major contender since adding shipping options I feel once they work the bugs out both Ebay and Amazon are gonna be left in the wind.

You wanna fix it?  Go back to being Ebay, quit trying to be everyone else.. stop charging listing fee's period, quit restricting how much new sellers can list (even Amazon doesn't do that) and quit treating your sellers like sh*t.

That's how you fix Ebay.

by: GovyGirl

I'm in Oregon and rarely sell anything to Oregonians. Most of my sales are in New York and Florida followed by Texas.

by: angryllama

I totally expect eBay to (%&()_ it up if they DID try to give a BUMP to sellers who are CLOSER to the enquiring BUYERS, but IF they did it properly I would see it as a plus vs. current situation.

I'm in SE Texas and even though TEXAS is VAST and has THREE of the TEN largest USA cities by population, (Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas/Ft.Worth).
So far in 2021 I've had THREE sales to Houston area, ONE to San Antonio, and NONE to Dallas/Ft Worth.  Same period of time I've had more than a DOZEN to West Virginia..   The other thing that IRKS me about the lack of LOCAL buyers is that I FREQUENTLY ship SAME DAY and NEVER more than ONE BUSINESS day after payment.