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Sort by Best Match
 

Ok after 14 years of selling on eBay, I have finally figured out and perfected utilizing the sort by Best Match to try to see trends and predict sales as well as predict buys on eBay for resale as far as identifying trends based on popularity and so on. In other words you are using the algorithm not only to identify trends but for product price research as well.

About a year ago, I realized that I could run 2 browsers one with Firefox with my seller account logged on and on Chrome I have all cookies off and I have my items page pulled up, stuck in the Best Match without any AI trending what I just looked at with other similar items if I decided to open that page.

If you refresh every few seconds like I do, you can see items popping into first 50 matches and it is weighed according to a list of variables like buyer feedback and buying history I would guess also.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

I've never tested it myself but I can see where you're coming from and why listing clicks would push it up the search...temporarily.

But by the same token I can see the algorithm being programmed to recognise that many clicks and no sales should should push them further down the search. Short term gain, long term pain. It's a metric on our traffic dashboard so clearly monitored and may be important to them in some way. Just a thought.

I've said it on another thread, the 'best match' ranking is surely driven by those who pay for visibility via their endless promotions backed up by being a Top Rated business seller with many sales of that particular item.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

I use the Best Match with no cookies on Chrome logged off with my e mails on the Chrome browser and on Firefox I am logged in with my eBay seller account and sometimes logged in to the eBay.UK site as I do quite a bit of mostly buying within the UK. I use this view on Chrome as an overview and will often go to the 4th page to see which item is not performing very well and can decide if I wish to promote or otherwise. If I need detailed, in depth data analysis or metrics for an individual item, then I will utilize the metric reports provided by eBay to see what traffic looks like in typically the last 7 days.

I believe. However, I am not completely certain is that the more frequent times that hit the refresh button on Chrome that it may possibly be in real time and I believe that buyers are actually viewing the item especially, if there is an item that popped in the first page from the 2nd, 3rd and, sometimes from the 4th page.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

That sounds like the old-school approach when CASSINI was king and there were no paid ads. Paid promotions are god now. The only thing that counts to eBay is fast conversion for revenues and more pieces of the pie i.e.(paid promotion). Don't think for a second those "recommended" rates are there for shiggles. It is more than likely the average or highest bidder of giving up revenue to be seen first by a customer. Most accounts competing for that piece of the pie are already top-rated, so they don't care how old it is.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

Also, data gathering like Terapeak back in the day is obsolete. eBay will gladly give you the same data in the "recently sold" price comparisons. They know exactly what they are doing and know sellers use that information to push sales and compete.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

Still many people seem to rely on Terapeak

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

I'm curious about their methods for the software. I used it back in the day and it just didn't provide much for my method of finding new products. It was far too price-oriented/volume versus true discovery of hot trends. I felt the data was on old products that had existed for a while and everyone already there had a corner on the market.

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

I'm with you on that - feels like focus on older products

Re: Sort by Best Match
 

I guess everyone is already doing this
In my case, I even open a V.P.N to check how things are trending in some countries.
I use a browser that deletes cookies and cache with every restart