Changes to the display of eBay.co.uk listings on eBay.com: reduced visibility

[mandy]

*****Changes to the display of eBay.co.uk listings on eBay.com****** 


We want to tell you about tests affecting the display of eBay.co.uk listings on eBay.com.

For several years, items listed on eBay.co.uk have also appeared in the default search results on eBay.com, our US site. As eBay.co.uk has grown over time, the volume of items listed on eBay.co.uk that appear on eBay.com can make it difficult for US-based buyers to find and buy the items they want.

We are currently testing different options for displaying UK-listed items on eBay.com, with the aim of balancing the needs of buyers with the visibility of items listed on eBay.co.uk. As a result, items listed on eBay.co.uk will no longer be guaranteed to appear within the default search results on eBay.com. This is consistent with the current search settings on eBay.co.uk, which do not show items listed on other eBay sites by default.

Any seller who wishes to ensure that their listings appear in the default search results on eBay.com will need to list those items directly on the eBay.com site. Please note that such listings will not be eligible for any pricing promotions run on eBay.co.uk.

We thank you for your understanding and we appreciate your support in helping to make eBay a great place to buy and sell.

Regards,
The eBay.co.uk Team

[mandy]

An update from eBay, an article from Auctionbytes, and seller reaction:

eBay UK announcement:

***Testing different ways to display international items on eBay.co.uk***

As you may be aware, we have recently removed items that are listed on eBay.co.uk from default search results on eBay.com in the US.

Over the coming months, we will be testing different ways of displaying international listings on various eBay sites worldwide, with the aim of appropriately balancing the needs of domestic sellers in each market with those of exporting sellers from other countries.

The first of these tests, which will begin at the end of this week, will display items listed by US sellers on eBay.com by default in a few selected categories on eBay.co.uk. We have selected categories where imports from the US to the UK already represent a significant proportion of trade in the category. US listings will be displayed by default on eBay.co.uk in these categories if a seller offers PayPal, has at least 100 feedback with at least 98% positive, and has set a postage price to the UK. SIF listings will not be displayed.

The categories in which this test will run are:

    * Business, Office & Industrial: Medical/ Lab Equipment
    * Clothes, Shoes & Accessories: Women’s Accessories
    * Collectables: Clocks
    * Collectables: Disneyana
    * Collectables: Knives/ Swords
    * Consumer Electronics: MP3 Players
    * Jewellery & Watches: Watches
    * Stamps: United States
    * Toys & Games: Games

This test will run for around two months, during which time we will measure the impact on UK sellers, US sellers and the behaviour of UK buyers. We will be running similar tests in the future in which we show UK listings by default on other eBay sites, with the aim of giving them the most appropriate visibility worldwide.

Auctionbytes:

eBay users in the UK got more bad news on Thursday when eBay announced more details about its tests of the way listings appear on non-domestic sites. In February, eBay changed the way British listings appear on the US eBay.com website: previously, items listed on eBay.co.uk also appeared in the default search results on eBay.com, but now, they are no longer guaranteed to appear there. Yesterday, eBay announced that US listings would appear on the UK site in certain categories.

That means UK sellers are getting less exposure because their listings do not appear on the US site, but face added competition from US sellers whose items will appear on the UK site by default in some cases, if they specify worldwide shipping...

full article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m03/i09/s01

UK seller reaction: http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?thr...1200095850

[mandy]

The effect on sellers:

Peter Jones says his business has been 'decimated', with sales down 90%.

Mr Pugh emailed to say that 'what I once sold in a day now takes over a week'.

The .com is important to sellers as it receives many more hits than the UK site, as well as providing easy access to 300 million American consumers...

full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/wo...560987.stm

[BellisimaJ.]

While I feel badly for the affected UK sellers, this policy change by ebay is long overdue.

American sellers on ebay have never been included in search results on other ebay sites unless they maintained accounts and paid listing fees on those sites. The listings of sellers from other countries on the US site has long been seen by US sellers as unfair to them. And it was unfair, damn it!

Kudos to ebay for changing this policy.

[mandy]

The latest update:

**Developing cross-border trade on eBay.co.uk*** 

We wanted to share our plans for the development of cross-border trade on eBay.co.uk during the rest of 2007.

In February, we reduced the visibility of UK items on eBay.com, as they had reached a level where they were significantly impeding domestic trade on eBay.com. We are aware that a small percentage of sellers, who relied in whole or in part on US buyers, were significantly affected by this reduced visibility.

Since then, we have been planning how best to display some UK items on eBay.com and some US items on eBay.co.uk so that cross-border trade can thrive without impeding domestic trade on either site.

UK items on eBay.com

From 19th June, we will be conducting a test on eBay.com during which we will show UK items to a small percentage of US buyers. The test will include four variations, each of which will be seen by 1% of US buyers:

  1. UK items will appear in main US search results
  2. UK items will appear in main US search results, as long as the item is located in the UK, the seller is registered in the UK, and postage costs to the US have been specified
  3. UK items will appear in the ‘international expansion’ box in US search results
  4. UK items will appear in the ‘international expansion’ box in US search results, with the same conditions as the second variation

These variations will allow us to evaluate the best way to display UK items on eBay.com without harming domestic trade on eBay.com. We also expect that they will allow us to evaluate which UK categories are most suitable for visibility on eBay.com.

This test will run for about a month, ending in mid-July. We expect to take a final decision at the end of August on how we will display UK items on eBay.com.

US items on eBay.co.uk

We are also mid-way through tests in which we display US items on eBay.co.uk. These are slightly different to the tests above: we are showing US items by default in a small percentage of UK categories, as long as those US items offer Paypal, specify postage costs to the UK and are listed by sellers with 100 Feedback at 98% or greater positive.

Since March, we have been running the test in the following categories:

    * Business, Office & Industrial: Medical/Lab Equipment
    * Clothes, Shoes & Accessories: Women’s Accessories
    * Collectables: Clocks
    * Collectables: Disneyana
    * Collectables: Knives/Swords
    * Consumer Electronics: MP3 Players
    * Jewellery & Watches: Watches
    * Stamps: United States
    * Toys & Games: Games

We will now be switching off the test in these categories, so that US items will no longer appear in them by default. In their place, we will be adding the following categories to the test:

    * Antiques: Ethnographic Antiques
    * Collectables: Advertising
    * Computing: PDAs
    * Consumer Electronics: Gadgets
    * Health & Beauty: Bath & Body
    * Health & Beauty: Make-Up/Cosmetics
    * Health & Beauty: Skin/Face Care
    * Home & Garden: Pet Supplies
    * Musical Instruments: Guitars
    * Photography: Film Cameras
    * Sporting Goods: Golf

This second phase of the test will last until the end of July, and we expect to take a final decision at the end of August on how we will display US items on eBay.co.uk.

Our goal with these tests is to create an environment, both on eBay.co.uk and on eBay.com, in which sellers who want to access overseas markets can do so without damaging the domestic trade in those markets. We also aim to balance the need to test carefully and thoroughly with the need to implement changes promptly so that sellers who trade overseas can do so effectively.