eBay Stores sellers,

As noted in today’s Announcement Board post, in the next few weeks we will change the expansion of Store Inventory listings in search results to revert back to the way search worked in early February.

As you probably recall, in early February we started to include all Store Inventory listings within the main eBay search results. The main goal was to improve buyers’ shopping experience by showing more listings. But in the few weeks since we launched this feature, it’s become clear that it has had some unintended consequences. Many buyers have found that their searches are now producing too many results, and that search results overall are sometimes less relevant than they used to be. In addition, Auction-style and Fixed Price listings are harder to find for buyers, so sellers of these items have unintentionally been put at a disadvantage.

So that we can better understand the impact to the marketplace, we plan to make search the way it was in early February, with up to 30 Store Inventory listings appearing when there are 30 or fewer Auction-style or Fixed Price listings in a buyer’s search results. Buyers who wish to broaden their search results with all Store Inventory listings, will still be able to do so by selecting a box in the Search Options area on the search results page.

We will then further test and refine other options for providing more exposure to Store Inventory listings. We think this is the right decision to obtain optimal results for both buyers and sellers.

If you have questions or would like to voice any suggestions about this decision, there will be two Community events for you to attend:

1) Town Hall with Bill Cobb –Wednesday, 3/29 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America, and his leadership team will answer your questions on this decision and any eBay-related topic. You can submit questions in advance here.

2) eBay Stores Brown Bag Lunch –Thursday, 3/30 at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time
The Stores team will host their monthly Brown Bag Lunch on the eBay Stores Discussion Board.


We also suggest you review additional details on this change in our FAQ.


Sincerely,

eBay Stores Team