eBay Explore Tests Downvoting To Let Buyers Rate AI-Powered Recommendations
eBay's AI-powered fashion recommendation tool is getting a few upgrades, most notably a thumbs down feature that allows users to provide instant feedback to eBay about the relevance and quality of the results being displayed.
The latest updates were recently revealed by Senior Product Manager AI, David Lie-Tjauw, on LinkedIn, touting curated interest modules, downvotes, size preferences, and better personalization as improvements to the product - though October seems a little late for a Summer Product Release.
eBay Explore was first introduced back in April, along with other AI-powered fashion initiatives like Shop The Look, and the ability to set size preferences was added in August.
Liz Morton
The early experience struggled with relevance, especially when using the "visually similar" function.
Other early critiques noted the tool didn't appear to take seasonality into account (suggesting heavy winter coats in April) and that it often suggested items that were out of stock.
I choose Casual to start. The first thing I noticed is many of the items shown were fall and winter. Lots of puffer jackets and heavy sweaters. I did see one dress that caught my eye and when I clicked on it found it to be out of stock.
Sellers were also not thrilled with the fact that Explore results only display the item price, condition and brand - but not the seller name, feedback or anything else that would allow a seller to stand out or draw attention to their brand.
They also expressed concerns that on the desktop version, these results do not take you directly to the item page, displaying a quick view pop up window instead that allows the buyer to go directly to checkout without seeing the description where flaws or important seller provided information may be disclosed.
Adding a thumbs down option to downvote certain results is also likely to raise seller concerns about whether those votes will impact their search rankings and sales based on algorithmic signals eBay may use to determine placement and visibility.
So far, it appears the feature is only being tested in the eBay app.
The familiar heart icon on the right still functions as usual, adding the item to the user's watch list if selected.
If the thumbs down icon is selected, the user receives a thank you message and a link to "tell us more."
The feedback options under tell us more are clearly geared toward rating the relevance of the results, with the user being able to select "I don't like the brand", "not my style" or "other" but eBay does not provide any clear information about how those answers may be incorporated back into AI training and machine learning processes.
Even if this feedback doesn't directly impact seller rankings or ratings, there could still be possible downstream algorithmic effects - especially for sellers who may focus on specific brand or style niches.
The decision to test downvoting is particularly interesting when you consider that before joining eBay in 2023, Lie-Tjauw was a Product Manager at Twitter from 2020 to 2023 - a time when the social media site also tested adding a thumbs down feature as a way to provide feedback on offensive or irrelevant tweets.
David Ingram
That test was later abandoned and while the idea of bringing downvotes back to Twitter/X has been floated several times since, the thumbs down has not yet made a come back on the platform.
Many users have bemoaned the degradation in relevance they've seen in eBay's main search functionality over the last few years, especially as Promoted Listings Cost Per Click Ads began taking over the top spots - for a price.
A buyer who is truly looking only to purchase Nike shoes likely doesn't appreciate competitor brands being shown at the top of search, and I'm sure brands don't particularly appreciate this kind of keyword CPC hijacking either.
Beyond irrelevant ad stuffing, eBay search results are often just bad - like this embarrassing incident where an apparent glitch caused onsite search to show random and extremely irrelevant results for trading card searches.
Liz Morton
I'll admit, having a way to provide instant feedback to eBay about the often terrible results of their image-based search functionality would be nice too - assuming of course that it doesn't hurt sellers (who are not at fault for eBay's poor image recognition) technical performance and that eBay actually uses the feedback to improve the feature.
Like so many things eBay does, whether or not downvoting for Explore is helpful or would be a good thing to expand to regular search depends entirely on the execution - and unfortunately eBay does not have a strong track record in that area.
Do you give downvoting in eBay Explore a 👍 or 👎? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
