Searches are bringing up items that are not available, how do I stop this?

[i-once-was-bump]

When I do a search for an item and it is a multiple sizes and colours listing I am constantly getting items that have sold out in the size I want so it is really annoying and a waste of time.

It is not until you go to the actual listing and then go to choose the size that you find out that it is not available.

Is there anyway to exclude these items from a search when the search is based on size?

It adds about an hour to the time it takes just to buy a cardigan and if you want a bra then that really does add several hours because the size might be available but not the cup size or the cup size is available but not the bra size and then if you add colour to the search it is just too much time wasted looking at items that are not actually available.

If sellers want to improve their sales and get people to stay with or come back to ebay then they need to stop wasting buyers time.

[lyndal1838]

Yes Bump, I have had it a couple of times, mainly in the nightwear category....it is very annoying.

My main concern was the size.....colour did not really matter.

[digital*ghost]

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@i-once-was-bump wrote:

Is there anyway to exclude these items from a search when the search is based on size?

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Probably not via a keyword search, unless you want to exclude all variation listings where the seller has put sizes in the title or there are combination choices, but possible via refinements in the left-hand menu. 

[i-once-was-bump]

I am happy to see the variation listings if they have my size still available.

One evening I looked at about 20 items and nearly all of them were only available in size 16 but the listing title cleary stated 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26.

Once a size has been sold out  they should have to take down the listing and redo it

[digital*ghost]

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@i-once-was-bump wrote:

Once a size has been sold out  they should have to take down the listing and redo it

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What they really need to do is not put sizes in the main title of variation listings. The names of variations are searchable by keyword, so it's completely unnecessary and results in exactly this kind of issue when an item sells out. 

If they only had a reference to sizes and names etc in the variation names, when a size is sold out, it will not show up in search results for that size.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Bump, yes it is annoying.

There was a thread a little while back about listing items singly versus multilistings.

The majority of responses were single listings with pertinent information in the title, or change the multilistings as items sold.

Digi, if the size were not in the title, but stock levels maintained accurately, that would be OK for searches like "black dress" but searching for "black dress x" in the title is simpler (where x is your size) and weeds out a lot of unsuitable items immediately.

There is also the additional limits one can place on sizing from the left hand side options; and that can help to narrow down items, but a lot of items still fall into the no size mentioned category for that! (Often the cheaper Asian multilistings, but some others one might want to see!)

[digital*ghost]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:


Digi, if the size were not in the title, but stock levels maintained accurately, that would be OK for searches like "black dress" but searching for "black dress x" in the title is simpler (where x is your size) and weeds out a lot of unsuitable items immediately.

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If a seller lists a black dress in multiple sizes but doesn't put the available sizes in the title, just in the variations, then searching for black dress X will only result in black dress X being in the results if they are available. You know the size you're searching for is in stock (if it's not in the title) purely because it's in the search results.

[amber-eyed-girl]

If you search not by title only, true, but I search title only, which to me screens out lazy sellers, because I do not want to have to sort through thousands of unsized in the title items, which are mostly from Asia, where they will put a lot of sizes in the description to cover that...then may or may not have stock and I do not want to buy from them anyway.

Sellers should be listing items with enough information to separate them from the swamp of Chinese and Korean goods...

One way is to size their garments for a search.

[digital*ghost]

Here is a perfect example to demonstrate what I mean:

Crop Top Women Gym Fitness Wear Yoga Pilates Sports Top Ladies Exercise Clothing

That is a variation listing with no variation details in the title. If you search for that title, it will come up in the results.

Blue is out of stock, so if you add blue to that search, it will not show up in results because there is technically no listing for it. 

[digital*ghost]

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@amber-eyed-girl wrote:
If you search not by title only, true, but I search title only, which to me screens out lazy sellers, 

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I always did my listings that way, and I didn't do it because I was lazy, I did it to avoid buyer frustration from my listings appearing in results when what they were looking for wasn't available.