Time to run removed from search results for fixed price eBay listings
eBay have removed the time a listing has left to run from fixed price listings on eBay UK. Previously in the search results page eBay displayed the time remaining on both fixed price listings and auctions but now the time is only shown for auctions. Buyers can still see how long an item has left to run by visiting the view item page.
In a way this makes sense – fixed price listings are not sorted by Time Ending Soonest, but by Best Match. Those listings at the top of search results may have up to 30 days left to run, and if they are Good Til Cancelled listings may run indefinitely.
eBay say that the change is to simplify the search experience and to enable buyers to identify which items are auctions from those available to purchase immediately.
Should it make a difference to purchases whether or not the time left is displayed for fixed price items? The chances are if they’re not sold they’ll be relisted anyway but some sellers believe it gives an additional incentive to buyers if they think they’ll lose the item if they don’t purchase immediately. However unless the buyer choose to sort listings by time ending soonest they’re probably not seeing fixed price listings about to end in any case.
What do you think about the change? Do you believe it will affect buying behaviour or will it not make any difference to sell through rates?
Many thanks to TameBay reader Joe for the heads up on this site change.
JD says
2:47 pm on 21/05/2011
I take it, for now at least this is just a UK feature? If so this could at least be contributing to my decreased proportion of sales to the UK vs ROW.
eBay have been fiddling the timing of GTC BINS for some time now. Not often seen because eBay will not let you look at the last page of a substantial search unless you tab through by 7 pages at a time.
By constructing the right search and timing the viewing I have seen my items with 30days and 3mins to run. Which means they never got anywhere near to the top of a TES search where there were reasonable numbers of results.
Removing the time will certainly prevent me and others from seeing this again. Although I suspect that the practice will continue.
I am not sure about sales effects. My own most frequent searches are done with ‘Time Newly Listed’ to pick up on any gems that may have been badly mis-described/priced – especially BIN’s! Not having a time will probably lead me to look too far into the results each time.
At times in the past I used to get sales spikes when a clutch of BINS would sell within 24 hours of the end time. I guess with BINS never getting to the top of most substantial TES searches then there is already a lost sales opportunity. This will be most felt by sellers of the less unusual collectors items etc where there is no chance of multiple sales elevating the BM search standing.
Please tell me what is wrong with my thinking!
Joe says
2:49 pm on 21/05/2011
I’m on the fence with this one, I think I need a bit more time to see the difference if any.
I do feel eBay should have announced it though.
Warren says
4:14 pm on 21/05/2011
People seem more incline to buy when the listing was about to end, so my eBay sales will proberly drop further now as a result.
ebuyerfb says
6:16 am on May 24th, 2011
eBay’s official response to this is that the sales towards the end of the listing are due to their promotional emails. I never bought that explanation but that is what they claim.
ncb says
5:36 pm on 21/05/2011
As a buyer I don’t like it at all, I like to know how long an item has left be it a Auction or a BIN but maybe thats just me and what I’m used to.
As a seller I’m concerned at the effect it will have on sales as I’m worried it will be negative, lets hope I’m wrong.
Chris says
6:56 pm on 21/05/2011
I have noticed that there are a number of potential buyers who will “Watch” a BIN until the last few days and then buy it(obviously some do not I occassionally get emails from them asking me if I am going to relist as they forgot to buy it before the end). Surely if you want an item you should buy it rather than “Watch” it until the last day or few hours before buying it. I susperct that they really want it but are hoping that they will find it cheaper elsewhere(occassionally I get emails asking me if I would accept a lower price for it).
Joe says
7:02 pm on May 21st, 2011
I currently have a BIN with 19 watchers on it. I have 300 in stock and to my knowledge nobody else is selling the same item on eBay.
I really don’t understand so many watchers on a BIN.
Hereford United fan says
7:21 pm on May 21st, 2011
Probably 19 competitors waiting to see if it is worth listing….
John says
8:14 pm on May 21st, 2011
Joe, I think that the watchers on a BIN may be previous buyers – certainly we have many watchers on popular BIN’s. Ithink it may be a part of the Best Match algorithm but I may be wrong! John
Joe says
10:36 pm on May 21st, 2011
Doubtful that any competitors could list it as I bought up all the last remaining stock from the manufacturer
Chris says
8:38 am on May 24th, 2011
I have one Book that everytime it is relisted within a day or so it has a Watcher who never buys. When the listing ends and I relist he’s back again. I just don’t get it. There are a couple of other copies of this book listed but I am the cheapest(and I suspect that mine is the best condition) but the watcher never seems to want to actually buy it. I don’t get it.
Gary says
8:18 pm on 21/05/2011
You can still BIN search by “time ending soonest” and “time – newly listed”. It looks odd that there are no times in the result. eBay should remove these methods of BIN search if they are no longer displaying end times.
And when you do a time search for “All items” the BIN’s sit in between auctions so from this you can work out approximately when a BIN ends by viewing the auction times above and below. It would be safe to assume that the BIN would end sometime in between the 2.
Given that eBay shops can be set to display listings in time order I’m wondering how relevant this now is for an ebay shop?
What is considered to be the best default setting for sequencing shop listings?
I’m hopeful that the result of this move is that watchers will do less watching and more buying.
Old Hand says
11:25 pm on May 21st, 2011
I watch BINs for several reasons.
I’m thinking about it, maybe I buy if I’m feeling flush. (I have a policy of spending funds rather than keeping too much surplus in the bank.)
I’m interested but the price is too high so maybe it gets relisted at a lower price.
There is less urgency to BIN as fewer are bargains than auctions but when a BIN is a bargain it has to be bought quickly. As a general rule I’d say the less information is available to buyers the less they are likely to make an informed buying decision. Bad buying decisions will incur more returns/INRs.
99% I buy antiques/collectibles so my comments may not apply to commodity items.
Gary says
8:25 pm on 21/05/2011
It definitely makes BIN listings stand out in search when scrolling rapidly and BINs look easier on the eye without a time next to it.
Thinking about it, this may encourage more BIN sales if they are easier to spot in search so on balance I see it as a positive.
Dave the rave says
3:11 am on 22/05/2011
Well eBay should give you the option to display it for BIN if you prefer it.
After all eBay allows you to customize the veiws yourself with some other fluff such as item number!?!
board_surfer says
9:07 am on 22/05/2011
“to enable buyers to identify which items are auctions from those available to purchase immediately.”
And the big black and red Buy It Now symbol wans’t enough of a clue??
Either Ebay think we button up the back or they think buyers are as dumb as a box of rocks!
Gary says
9:53 am on May 22nd, 2011
Trouble is auctions also contain “By it Now” buttons so it can be confusing.
At least now an auction with a BIN button is a lot clearer. It will probably make auction BIN’s even less popular than they already are as a result of the new 40% rule.
There is a sense that eBay actually don’t want auction sales to have the BIN option.
Mark T says
11:14 am on 22/05/2011
This will stop sellers ascertaining whether their items are in the “correct” order in best match.
jake says
4:00 pm on 22/05/2011
all the latest changes are for 1 reason only and that is to generate more re-re-re-re listing fees….sorry eBay you have made a real dogs dinner for most sellers the 40% BIN is idiotic and that alone has destroyed our sales this month…listing fees are just getting ridicules thank Goodness our Amazon sales are growing faster and faster
longtimer says
12:10 pm on 23/05/2011
I never use best match, it is biased to big seller from whom I don’t want to purchase. So I always sort either by ending soon or by lowerst price + ship.
My favorite sellers often lower fixed prices towards the end of the listing, so I want to know when it is supposed to end. So Ebay again missed the mark – they have no idea how people use their platform. So they will make me work harder and that means less.
Gary says
12:40 pm on May 23rd, 2011
Thats true. I lower my prices towards the end of a BIN listing cycle rather than at the beginning and there are clearly watchers who understand their favourite sellers practices who follow listing end times anticipating this move.
Had not thought of this so maybe eBay should rethink or at least give the seller the option of showing BIN end times or not.
Old Hand says
1:44 pm on May 23rd, 2011
eBay aren’t interested, they are trying to be an Amazon-like online mall with the cheapest prices on standard products. Small sellers can’t compete in that market. Tough.
Chris says
8:43 am on May 24th, 2011
With Best Match I always, especially with large and heavy items which are likely to be expensive to ship, go for Closest. After all there could be one just down the road while just about every other option is likely to give me one in London or Manchester or Scotland.
longtimer says
12:11 pm on 23/05/2011
I want to clarify that in my previous post by “BIN” I meant their fixed price.
“My favorite sellers often lower their fixed prices towards the end of the listing, so I want to know when it is supposed to end.”
ebuyerfb says
6:15 am on 24/05/2011
This makes no sense. If I have a listing that is about to expire in 2 hours I want my potential buyers to know this. Just because I have left over inventory doesn’t mean I’m going to relist in perpetuity. I don’t care if the results are sorted by best match or not, my listing is about to end. If it is GTC then go ahead and remove the ending time because that doesn’t really exist but don’t do it when I specify an actual end time.
This does not simply things making it easy to spot auctions. To spot an auction all you need to do is look for the word “bids” or simply click the tab that removes all fixed price listings from search.
It is bad enough that I have difficulty finding when a listing ended or if the item was purchased vs running out of time.
Chris says
8:27 am on 28/05/2011
I was browsing this morning and I noticed that while Trader BIN’s were undated the Private Sellers BIN’s still had dates on them. Why the differance? After all whatever the real reason for Trader BIN’s dates being removed it must be the same for Private Sellers
JD says
11:11 am on May 28th, 2011
Were the Private Seller BINs on 30 days and the Trader Seller BINs on GTC?
Logically a 30 day listing has an end time, but GTC no end time.
JD says
10:00 am on May 29th, 2011
Times to Run seem to be diplayed when using gallery view.
Or is this just more testing?