eBay has an unrivaled selection of more than 1.1 billion listings, but sometimes all that selection can be a lot of work to sort through. When you are looking for microwave ovens on eBay, there are almost 10,000 different listings. And as you scroll through the results, you’ll see listings for the same product again and again, just from different sellers. But wouldn’t it be nice to see the product you’re looking for just once in the search results, grouping together all seller listings so you could easily find the best deal? Plus, if that particular microwave wasn’t what you wanted, you wouldn’t want to see it repeatedly in the results.
That is where our new Grouped Listings view comes in. For many searches, you’ll now see a [Group Similar Listings] button above the search results that enables you to condense like offerings in your search results so it’s easier to find what you really want.
When you group the listings for that microwave oven search, those 10,000 listings condense over 10X into the 953 unique products they represent. We’ve also made the functionality “smart”-- the button will not appear in cases where most of the listings you’d see are unique like antique teapots.
We’re using our vast repository of structured data across a wide range of products to group these listings, taking into account everything from unique identifiers like UPC codes and model numbers to product features obtained through artificial intelligence that understands natural language. Our search relevancy algorithms then leverage machine learning to show you the best offer for that product directly in the search results.
Our new Grouped Listings feature is just another step toward evolving our search experience from focusing on individual listings to being structured around products. In the coming months, you’ll continue to see us enhancing the experience and expanding our investments in this area. Grouped listings is currently live on desktop in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia, and will be available on mobile soon.
Jon Glick is Vice President of Search Product at eBay, where his focus is on streamlining the search experience so it’s easier for people to find what they are looking for and get the best deals.