A brief announcement from eBay Spain, signed by eBay Canada, states they have changed the default search format results back to Time Ending Soonest.

UPDATE – 25 Sept - Deepest Apologies to everyone, it seems I misread something (or an announcement has been quietly rewritten without an edit note – wouldn’t be the first time I’ve encountered that).  The announcement as it currently stands reads that –

The Best match search will be amended to favour distance and that items from domestic Spanish sellers with good DSRs will be presented first.

I know that’s not what I read before I posted on Tuesday, otherwise I would not have presented the paragraph below (in the original post). It does however explain the Canadian signature to the announcement, as Canada were the first to announce weighting for distance and domestic sellers.

The crowd goes wild – I know this is what many sellers have been begging and pleading for in the UK.  And not just the sellers, I’ve seen many forum posts from buyers demanding eBay ditch both Best Match and New Search, and return to the default of Time Ending Soonest with the option to switch to the standard alternatives (Newly Listed, Cheapest First, Closest First etc.)

The truth is that Buyers and Sellers understand those choices, how they work, and how to use them.  The degree and volume of non-relevancy under the new tools have alienated many users on both side of the transaction, and it has depressed GMV for too many sellers.

AuctionBytes ran a piece this week stating that eBay informed sellers on Friday of a glitch that prevented some listings from showing up in search results. The company followed up yesterday with an announcement that it had been resolved and that credits would be issued for all items impacted.

I am left wondering how long it will be until the eBay platform goes into total meltdown on the back of too many faulty direction changes and software implementations?

However, as with the Spanish Announcement, and the USA compensating sellers for lost visibility, there are signs that some at least within eBay, are beginning to recognise where they have gone wrong this last year.

Ed