Is eBay's awful search function the reason for eBay's decline in the UK?

[poshboutique2]

The search algorithm on eBay is a total nightmare if you are in the UK. Random results unrelated to your initial search show up in their hundreds, as well low value items from Chinese sellers. It is positively discouraging to buy from eBay, especially on the app which is what most use.  And the so-called 'filters' are time consuming and fiddly to use. Even after applying filters you're left with items totally unrelated to your original search. I am sure people give up and try another platform. Contrast this to Vinted which is an absolute pleasure to use as a buyer. Their search is super effective and really easy to use - finding the items that you want as well other related items based on your initial search. I've bought more from Vinted than I expected to because they make it so easy to find items that I love.

eBay's search is a mess and I actually think this is a major reason for their declining sales in the UK.

[theelench]

I agree with you about the data centers, that's why some sellers report sales coming in clusters with zero sales in between and that some of the clusters all come from one area, (say) N.Wales.

In some off my small Saved Searches I've found an item of interest, not saved it and the next day can't find it again.  But a day or two after it re-appears on the Sold page.

As you say ebay will always find some results for a buyer's search, but I'm never sure I'm seeing everything that's listed.

As an aside and going slightly off-topic, I think it's all those data centers spread all over the world that makes sellers reluctant to trust ebay with their NINO, probably with good reason.

[theretrodetective]

Yes I have notice this fluctuation myself and I also seen a good youtube video about it proving that ebay does indeed sometimes show your items and sometimes doesnt. They did this by creating sales graphs for various accounts and then tracking when sales picked up and when they slowed down. There was never any consistency which should be expected. It always spikes for a few days and then down to nothing for a few days. And I also get the same location wise, a different area at a time. One day ill have loads of offers or sales from people in France, etc etc. 

Annoyingly ebay have decided that the day to show my items is on a Monday. I always do rubbish saturday sunday when it should be peak selling time in my market, and then I always have a brilliant Monday. Its not too bad because I like having a good start to the week but I still wish my items were just shown consistently. I refuse to pay promotion, never had to and never will. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

A lot of online vendors have poor search facilities.

If they dont have what you want they like to offer alternatives.

However, some go overboard and start suggesting stuff not even remotely related to what you want.

What annoys me is sponsored listings that anything like what I am looking for.

[c_of_e84]

I am sure there are throttles and manipulations, with so many listings and so few buyers they have to do it or sellers would quit on mass, they drip feed us just enough sales so we keep listing, that way they can boast about how big ebay is, how many members they have and how many items they have listed, however the claim about active members is questionable, I have business account and a private account, that makes me 2 active buyers yet I am one person!

[theelench]

I agree with you again about the throttles and manipulation.  I used to sell pretty regularly on ebay ( 1 or 2 items a month) with an annual total of around 20 -- 25  items,  a level that I found acceptable as a private seller, selling in a vintage glass niche and without ever Promoting my listings.  I shouldn't need to promote popular one-of items.

When the pressure started to Sponsor listings, sales dropped to 13 items for both '22 and '23 and then to 5 in '24.

Meanwhile, on another smaller site for those same years, selling the same sort of items my sales were '22 -- 17,  '23  --  24,  '24  --  28, which I think shows that my items were still searched for and bought, when they could be found, which has never been a problem there.

I think they also show what a disaster the change-over to using I.S to search with was for collectables on ebay.  Combined with throttling back sales to try to get me to Sponsor my listings has made me give-up on ebay altogether.   (Along with several other reasons.)

I'm certainly not going to pay ebay Sponsorship for a service that is nothing like as good as it was in the past.  Sales in 2025 on the other site have been dismal, IMO, because of the continuing Cost of Living Crisis and also the continued freeze on Tax Allowances.  I just don't think listing on ebay is worth the effort if  additionally I also have to try to overcome ebay manipulating sales to try to squeeze Promotion Fees out of the few it allows me to make.

[insidethe93]

MAIN 'SEARCH'

'Search' has seemed to deteriorate quite a lot in recent years, just my perception. It's reduced what I buy as it's easier to keep to known sellers and/or to very specific sub-sub-subcategories.

'search' is important - it's a vital tool. And buyers usually have limited time. If buyers PERCEIVE it as poor or possibly biased, they WILL go elsewhere.

SELLER'S SHOP 'SEARCH'

Over the past ?two years I've also had problems with the 'search' box in seller "shops". I mentioned it once in a thread, the glitch was fixed, but several times it's come back. The glitch is that you enter a search term in said search box, wanting to search just that seller's items, and it treats it like you're searching the whole of eBay UK, taking you out of the seller's shop to a general eBay page.

For instance, once I wanted to search "flower" on a seller's page, to narrow down from their 1K+ items, and it took me from the seller's page to a general eBay page with "flower" showing in the main eBay search box, and returning an overwhelming number of results (hundreds of thousands, if I recall). I went Back and searched by scrolling through most of the seller's "shop" - tedious and took ages, but you can't count on buyers to persevere.

So this seller's shop 'search' is a glitch that eBay knows how to repair yet it comes up again from time to time, and you don't know how long the glitch will last. I know it's lost sales from me, who knows how many lost sales from others.

BOTH 'SEARCH'

Improving 'search' should be a technical issue, relatively straightforward!

The problem with lost sales is that it's hard to ascribe the reason(s) unless eBay asks the customers. One single multiple-choice question would do it:

Do you think eBay's 'search' is:

A. Poor.

B. Very poor.

C. So depressingly poor you lose the will to live.

(Thanks, "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" radio show.)

[insidethe93]

Just been reminded of another annoying glitch with ebay's main 'search'. It's that a new search returns results as if for your previous search. It happens to me every so often, varies from mildly inconvenient to hugely inconvenient.

For instance: just now I searched "crystalline circles" (eBay's main 'search'). But then I realised stupid forgetful me already owns the complete Crystalline. So I searched for what I originally meant: "petals and paper", and close to the top of the results it showed me some for Petals & Paper mixed in with some Crystalline, actually more Crystalline as presumably it's a more popular sales range.

In life's big picture this is all minor. But with the capable technology long in existence, I'd hope for better. I can try searching again later, but some might simply buy elsewhere. I could even buy new from the manufacturer, but I hoped for a declutterer selling it cheap secondhand.

The glitch happens only every so often. Has anyone else had it? It needs a permanent fix please, as does the seller shop 'search' glitch mentioned in my earlier post, so I'll keep an eye and maybe post in Technical.

[theretrodetective]

Pretty sure its just how the algorithm works. It thinks "maybe if we show him it again he might buy it, hes searched it before so we know he has interest in it" etc. Youll probably get a notification tomorrow as well "dont miss out on the crystalline you were looking for, buy now before its gone" 🤣

There are loads of "glitches" in the search that ive also pointed out in other threads. I think its half algorithm manipulation, half ancient system propped up like a dead body with strings attached.

[insidethe93]

I think you must be only mostly right, as the Crystalline/Petals & Paper glitch went away after I posted here (as I said, for me it comes and goes), but you're spot on about notifications and ads for Crystalline now appearing everywhere.

With a lot of items the "half ancient system...", as you vividly put it, doesn't realise, as a human would, that you only want one of something at a time. E.g. if you buy an engagement ring  there'll be loads of ads to help you build up your engagement ring collection 🙂

[catbatfink]

Terrible now , very frustrating 

[vonmanstein1943]

I am finding going to google to find an item is fast and you find what you want fast , a set of brake pads not brillo pads from china , then transfer to ebay and its a thousand other ways to sell you something else , fair enough its business but every page is like agony in slow motion downloading garbage you dont want even for free . i find i cant afford the wasted time and the answer for me to how was your buying experiance is torture , everything is so so slow except the payment part , which is funny isnt it , the payment part is like therapy its all over by then , except ive lost more hair , Thank You 

[rugbyguy1960]

The whole ebay experience is now a total nightmare nowadays.

As things are now, I will not sell on here again, and i only buy what I can't easily find anywhere else, and even then i only buy from 2 or 3 sellers that are still here. 

[c_of_e84]

Thats increasingly becoming the way forward when searching may online platforms not just ebay, its faster and more accurate and surrounded with fluff and variables you dont need, ebay search is geared towards doom scrollers who dont realy know what they want.

[c_of_e84]

All that and now think of going through it all on a 5 x 3 phone screen waiting at a bus top in the pouring rain, two hopes, Bob and No.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I've been using Google search too, and if possible I buy direct from the retailer's own web site instead of an online selling platform, although I have bought some things from the well-known non-American site.  When I stopped buying on ebay last March, I didn't imagine that I'd never need to buy here again, but so far I haven't had a problem buying whatever I've wanted elsewhere.  I used to buy several items a month on ebay, and I'm sorry about withdrawing support from the individual sellers here, but I'm not willingly going to feed the hand that's bitten me by forcing SD on to me.

[theelench]

Out of interest are you using google All, Shopping, Images or some other part ?

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I usually use Google Shopping.  They've just changed the format (and also .co.uk is now defaulting to .com) so it remains to be seen whether the new format is more useful or whether they've gone down the ebay route of making every update worse.

[theelench]

I use google shopping all the time when browsing or price researching.  I think they are still tweaking the new format but so far it's been a disaster for my sales on another site.  No visibility at all, whereas before I could find some of my items there every day of the week.  2024 - 28 sales, 2025 - 5 sales, 2026 - so far zero.

I've managed to get some of my searches to show ebid on the "Shops" filter but so far the only way to get individual items shown to the public is by heavy discounts and then only for 24 hours.

At the moment its virtually an ebay and etsy only advertising site, with the occasional other site mentioned, perhaps once or twice on a page.  

I hope either the public finds out how to use the new format to pull up some competition or someone complains about it.  I'd love to know who to complain to ?

It's a disgrace that US tech giants are dominating google shopping .uk to the almost total exclusion of UK sites, just like ebay uk filling searches with .com ads. unless buyers know how to use filters to keep them at bay.

[c_of_e84]

I tried bon an za last year and they did throw a lot of effort at listing on google but didnt realy help.

[c_of_e84]

I have found I am getting more customers driven to my own websites from google AI, must admit I was shocked but my stats show about a 60% conversion rate.