EBAY'S BEST MATCH PRODUCT SEARCH RESULTS DEFY LOGIC

[best-buys-com-au]

Can anyone explain how ebay's Best Match search works.

In my listings, for example, if one types in Spirax 550, my listing at $4.95 + Postage of $5.00 = $9.95 comes up automatically as the 14th listing in ebay's Best Match. 

When I change the sort box to "Price + Postage : lowest first" my listing rockets up to first place.

Every Spirax 550 is identical, so why does ebay's Best Match not automatically list my listing at the top of the selection?

This is just one example. I have just checked 50 on my listings and 47 of the 50 had the same result, moving from as low as 30th to 1st place when changing the sort option to "Price + Postage : lowest first"

Cheers

Noel

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Best Match is not a search that ranks items according to price.  If it was, there would be no need for the “price + postage : lowest first” search option.  You may feel that your item is the best match for consumers, but in thinking this you are using the words “best” and “match”, as well as the phrase “best match” in a literal way.

So, your ranking in Best Match search results is based on other criteria.  What are the criteria?

eBay have closely guarded the algorithm that Best Match uses, but there are some online articles about Best Match.  Here is the most recent one I could find:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2017/9/1506019578.html

and here is is an older one:

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2013/1/1358216976.html

So it seems that there are things a seller can do to influence the ranking of their product in Best Match.  One would be the Title of the item, Another would be to not keep going to their item pages and adding to the page views as page views without a sales conversion may influence the ranking i.e. likelihood to sell.

You May find these to be helpful:

http://www.webretailer.com/lean-commerce/ebay-cassini-search-engine/

and from the USA forums

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Selling/11-Cassini-Helps-for-Sellers/td-p/18949907

and this google search

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=ebay+best+match+ecommercebytes&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGt42m7p3X...

[best-buys-com-au]

Thank you for your input, I will certainly take a look at the links.

It just seemed to me that when I buy on ebay, and I frequently do, if ebay indicate that the Best Match for what I am looking for is a particular listing, then the listed product brought to my attention should be the best matching product to what I am looking for.

That said, if there are many identical products listed on ebay, as is the case with a branded item like Spirax 550, then Price including Postage should be the only surviving criteria.

As a buyer I place confidence in ebay's search process to find the closest product to what I seek, and then to impose the next and most obvious buyer criteria of price. Everything else seems to me to be irrelevant to me (as a buyer).

The problem with surrendering to computer processes beyond the essentials, particularly when heading down the advisory path of "Best Match" is that the buyer is often then provided with erroneous advice, like when I recently shopped for a used ride on mower, ebay's "Best Match" advisory service pointed me to a list of products where the top 5 were all "Pick Up Only" mowers located between 700 and 900Kms away from where I am - that's just absent any intelligence - and that can not in any reasonable way be considered a Best Match for me. For ebay to suggest that is a "Best Match" is misleading.

Ebay should not pretend to be capable of providing "Best Match" advice - that's misleading the buyer, and I would go so far as to say that "Best Match" has no place on ebay and should be removed from the sort options, let alone be set as the default search result outcome. 

I do, however, look forward to reviewing the links you have directed me to, and I thank you for the time you invested in pointing me to them.

Regards,

Noel

[chameleon54]

You are missing the point. BEST MATCH is not what is best for the buyer or what's best for the seller. Its about what is best for Ebay.....

It shows items from the bulk selling, Chinese junk sellers with false claims of being based Australia first because they return the most money in fees to ebay. Then it might show a promoted listing if you are lucky, cause that seller paid extra fees to ebay. Then comes the listings from the bigger Australian sellers who could sell ten times as much as a smaller seller and so pay higher total fees. Then there might be a listing from a new small seller that ebay wants to get properly hooked for the longer term. Whatever scraps are left are divided amongst the plebs that are left.

And in all seriousness, best match places a lot of emphasis on sell through rate. The higher the number of sales per listed item a seller achieves, the higher they feature in search rankings with best match. This results in them achieving even more sales because they feature higher up the listings.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@best-buys-com-au wrote:

Thank you for your input, I will certainly take a look at the links.

It just seemed to me that when I buy on ebay, and I frequently do, if ebay indicate that the Best Match for what I am looking for is a particular listing, then the listed product brought to my attention should be the best matching product to what I am looking for.

That said, if there are many identical products listed on ebay, as is the case with a branded item like Spirax 550, then Price including Postage should be the only surviving criteria.

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if you continue with this thinking you will continue to be disappointed.  The thing you have to keep telling yourself is “this is eBay, it doesn’t have to make sense to them!”

[heihachi_73]

Best Match basically randomises search results, probably weighted towards their highest paid stores (e.g. anchor stores like Harvey Norman) being nearest to the top. The last time I looked for my own listings for PS2 games under Best Match they were well beyond the 500th item, while illegal pirated (burnt) CDs were on the very first page!

[digital*ghost]

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@best-buys-com-au wrote:

That said, if there are many identical products listed on ebay, as is the case with a branded item like Spirax 550, then Price including Postage should be the only surviving criteria.

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I know others have said this already, but Best Match does not mean Best Price. If you think about it, I am sure you will find some other things that would  (or could) factor into a purchase decision, aside from total amount payable.

eg is the seller reputable, what is their return policy, have they sold thousands of the product with no apprent issues, or sold none - eBay has attempted to create a search algorithm that takes these things into account, and will also actually show different results to different people making the same search, based on their buying preferences and history. If someone prefers to buy free-post items, they will be more likely to see free-post items, if they've made the same search several times and not bought any of the top results, it's possible ebay will show them different results. 

This allows for eBay to convey that while sellers can do some things that may improve their rankings, they can remain ultimately vague about it and leave us hoping it's fluctuating, unpredictable (in some cases) rankings will favour us on occasion.