eBay Tests Search Quick View & Scrolling Newly Listed & Trending Modules
eBay is testing out changes to how search results are displayed including Quick View in search and adding a horizontal scroll module for Newly Listed and Trending Items.
First, as predicted when eBay rolled out Quick View for Stores in January, they are now testing also adding Quick View to search results.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
It appears to currently be an A/B test with only some listings opted in so eBay can measure impacts on clicks and conversion.
That could cause some issues if sellers were not consulted or asked for permission first, especially if the test negatively impacts sales.
Here's how it works:
When you hover over the main image, it shows a magnifying glass on listings that are in the test.
This particular iteration requires you to click directly on the magnifying glass icon to pop up the Quick View module - if you click on the title or anywhere else on the image it will just take you to the regular listing page.
The big question I have is how will Quick View in Search work with Promoted Listings ad attribution?
Will a click on the magnifying glass of a sponsored listing results in an ad fee if the buyer checks out without clicking through to see the full description first?
I've reached out to eBay and will update once more information is available.
eBay is also testing inserting a horizontal scrolling module with Newly Listed items that appears in search results directly below the first 4 listings.
That placement is crucial as the first 4 spots are reserved for Promoted Listings Advanced ads.
At eBay Open in 2022, Director of Product Search Ads Pravesh Katyal gave a presentation about changes to Promoted Listings search placement that were "coming soon" - including using horizontal scrolling modules like this.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
And finally, we'll go through a couple of key changes to ads. Some of these are already in place, and some of these are upcoming. Number one, ads in top four slots, to give you some history, ads in the search river were interspersed throughout the river. You would see ads as well as organic results mixed with each other in the search river, but that's changing.
Soon you will see clearly demarcated ad placements such as the top of search ad placement, middle of search ad placements as well as bottom of search ad placements. Each of these ad placements will have a number of ad slots. Ads will be shown in a continuous and clearly demarcated manner. We think that makes it much easier for buyers to identify and to interact with the ads, and more importantly it gives an ability for sellers and advertisers to target specific ad placements.
So in the future, you will have an ability to target a specific placement such as the top of search ad placement or a bottom of search ad placement. We think that that will provide you even greater flexibility on how you control your cost and how you gain visibility on search, and again, as I mentioned, it's also good for the buyers because the buyers can clearly identify the ads and have better interaction with them...
While I am not yet seeing listings with the "sponsored" tag showing in the Newly Listed module, I expect it's just a matter of time before we start seeing more of these modules appearing in placements on search results pages including ads.
One thing I did notice in all of my test searches is every item shown in the Newly Listed module also appeared a second time somewhere in the regular search results on page one, sometimes even just one or two results away.
We can see these are the same listings by hovering over the result and comparing the item numbers in the URL.
Having repeated listings is not a great buyer experience and also brings up questions about how eBay will account for these double listings in reports.
If the same listing is shown twice on the same page, does that count for two impressions in seller traffic reports?
It also raises questions about what will happen when eBay eventually uses these modules for ad placements.
The Promoted Listings FAQ says each listing will only be shown once in a search result, either the promoted version or the organic version, but not both.
Can the same promoted listing appear in more than one placement on the same set of search results?
No. An individual listing will only appear once in the same set of search results. If your listing is promoted, it will either appear as a promoted listing or an organic listing.
However, we've seen in the past that this is not true when you use any sort option other than "Best Match".
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Will eBay stick to that policy once they start adding horizontal scrolling ad modules to Best Match search as well?
eBay is also alternatively testing a similar module that is Trending Items instead of Newly Listed.
It appears they are using Watchers as the criteria to determine if an item is "trending" and so far in testing I am not seeing duplicate listings on page one with the Trend Items module.
I suspect the difference may be that eBay Best Match sort usually gives first page placement to newly listed items for a certain amount of time, making it much more likely for duplicates to appear on page one with the Newly Listed module than with Trending Items.
Hopefully we'll get some more insight into these tests at tomorrow's Summer Seller Check In - stay tuned!
Liz Morton ~ Founder
