A significant number of eBay sellers surveyed do not understand recent changes eBay made to search, and a third of respondents said eBay's recent changes to search and its new TRS program have caused their listings to appear lower in search results. In addition, 60% of respondents to a recent AuctionBytes survey of readers rated eBay's recent changes to search as "bad."

AuctionBytes asked eBay sellers about the new program and other changes that began rolling out site-wide in late September. The survey was open from October 8 - 19 and garnered almost 1,000 respondents. AuctionBytes published Part 1 of the survey results last week that focused on the launch of eBay's new Top Rated Seller (TRS) program (Link to Part 1 of survey results). Part 2 focuses on changes to search.

When asked if they understood eBay's recent changes to search, 38% of respondents said yes, 36% said no, and 26% said they were not sure.

When asked what they thought overall of eBay's recent changes to search, 6% said good, 16% said neutral, 60% said bad, and 18% said "I don't know."

Respondents were asked how eBay's recent changes to search and the new Top Rated Seller (TRS) program affected their standings in search; 10% said their listings appeared higher; 19% said no effect; 36% said their listings appeared lower in search results; and 35% said they were not sure.

eBay introduced a new Search Visibility tool to help sellers evaluate how their Fixed Price and auction-style listings are performing in search results. When asked if the Search Visibility tool was helpful to them as a seller, 50% said they didn't know, 43% said not helpful, and 7% said it was helpful.

Results Filtered by Top Rated Sellers
When looking at survey results exclusively from those sellers who reported their listings as displaying the TRS badge, there were some differences in responses. However, TRS sellers were nearly identical to the general survey population when reporting on whether they understood the changes to search, and were also very close in their answers to the question on whether they believed eBay's new Search visibility tool was helpful to them as a seller.

When TRS sellers were asked what they thought overall of eBay's recent changes to search, 12% said good, 25% said neutral, 43% said bad, and 20% said "I don't know."

When TRS sellers answered how eBay's recent changes to search and the new Top Rated Seller (TRS) program affected their standings in search; 22% said their listings appeared higher; 26% said no effect; 19% said their listings appeared lower in search results; and 33% said they were not sure.

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