eBay has the best Product Search in the world. Period. Sorry, Google. What’s more, eBay actually executes more searches than Google each day. Significantly more. Like 7-8 times more. (ref: comScore, investor reports)
eBay Product Search wins on quantity and quality. Don’t believe me? Do the following searches on Google, Amazon, and eBay:
- nike dunk low size 11
- nike dunk low sz 11
My results (as of this writing):
- Google: 188, 370
- Amazon: 20, 1
- eBay: 432, 439
It gets better. A rough analysis of overlap (the actual items found by “nike dunk low sz 11″ that are also found by “nike dunk low size 11″):
- Google: less than 50%
- Amazon: 0%
- eBay: more than 96%
That means on eBay, I’ll get about 400 results regardless of which phrase I searched and only miss out on about 10 items from the other search query. Google and Amazon expect customers to be savvy enough to know to do two searches using “sz” and “size” to see all the relevant products.
eBay Product Search is not perfect either. What would the three do if the customer didn’t specify the word “size” at all? What if they did the search using UK sizes? European sizes? In the US, we call them “sneakers.” The Brits would say “trainers.” My Dutch friends search for “sportschoenen.” Sneakerheads might look for “sneaks” or “kicks.” Should I be expected to search several hundred permutations to get a complete view?
So what are people searching for on Google? According to Google Zeitgeist: “Facebook,” “YouTube,” “Yahoo,” “Hotmail,” and “Google.” For general knowledge, breaking news topics, or blind searches, Google is the champ. That’s why I made it a point to say eBay has the best PRODUCT search in the world. eBay couldn’t tell you the lyrics to “Sweet Home Alabama.” eBay won’t show you a map to get to Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles on Pico. eBay doesn’t have the steps for jailbreaking your iPhone. Nor should it.
So let’s see what’s happening on Google Product Search. It varies ever so slightly depending on what market you look at, but worldwide, the top search terms for 2009 are (according to Google Zeitgeist): “ipod touch,” “macbook,” “laptops,” “acer,” “iphone,” “canon powershot,” “lcd,” and “ipod.”
Going by Apple’s Q309 report, they sold: 2.6M Macintosh computers, 10.2M iPods, and 5.2M iPhones. Microsoft reports it sold 1.7M Xbox 360s in Q309. Canon PowerShot cameras are no more than about 4M (Canon’s total camera division sold $529M in Q309, so I’m being very generous here).
So. The most searched products on Google map to about 24M devices, all with the same structured data and pre-defined attributes. Guess what? If you searched for that on apple.com, newegg.com, bestbuy.com, or bol.com, you’ll get exactly the same results as you would on Google. Exactly the same specs. Exactly the same stock photos. Not so sexy. You know who I’m going to buy from, the one who ships it to me the fastest and cheapest.
That’s great for electronics. But what about clothing? Cars? Jewelry? Art? Houses? Plumbers? I don’t search for these things the same way I search for the latest iPod and I’m guessing you don’t either.
It’s sheer lunacy to expect even the most brilliant of minds to come up with one unified finding experience that covers all these categories. Not unless you’ve perfected a USB-powered mind-reading cap. If you have, let’s talk.
It would also be foolish to dismiss the fact that the level of sophistication of online shoppers has increased as well. 14 years ago, when eBay first started, online commerce was confined to the BBS’s and consisted mostly of collectibles and hard-to-find electronic components. These days, people are used to buying their books over the web. People buy cars sight unseen online. We stream our music and movies. When was the last time you spoke to an actual travel agent?
eBay is uniquely positioned to dominate and revolutionize Product Search. But it has to rethink how it approaches finding. We BUY things, but we GO SHOPPING. Shopping is not a cold, lifeless, mechanical process. It’s emotional. It’s impulsive. It’s an experience. To have the best Product Search experience anywhere eBay needs to focus its energies on 4 key areas:
- Experience
- Inventory
- Discovery
- Value
Experience
eBay has to break its obsession with the single search bar with category dropdown. Do you really think I want to search all eBay categories for Prince tickets? So why bother bringing me ticket stubs from his 1985 concert in Hartford, Connecticut? If I had wanted that, don’t you trust that I would have been smart enough to explicitly look in memorabilia or collectibles?
Giving me more product finder dropdowns on the sidebar isn’t going to help either. eBay has to think about how real people look for real things. I don’t expect to search for work boots the same way I search car parts for a ‘69 Chevy Camaro. Choose function over form. I’m not going to mind that I have to use a different interface. In most cases, I’ll even thank you for the difference.
Boyfriends are drilled into memorizing the 5 C’s of picking an engagement ring. So why not offer me product sliders like this from Blue Nile?
Some categories lend themselves better to image-based search. Some are entirely price-driven. Some work better as browse, while others are query explicit. They won’t all be the same. Don’t try to make them to be.
Inventory
eBay.com has over 100M items with more than 10M being added and sold each day. Mix in all the eBay international sites, eBay Stores, eBay Classifieds Group sites, Gmarket, Tradera, Half.com, ProStores, StubHub, and Rent.com and you have around a quarter of a billion items. I think you’re pretty well-covered for most things you might look for. So you aren’t really impressing anyone bringing me back 3412 pages of search results for “iPod.” In fact, you’re actually discouraging me from looking on eBay because the volume is so overwhelming.
“But Serge, what about all the mom and pop sellers on page 112 who won’t get a shot at your business?”
Sorry, they don’t get it anyway. You think I am going to have the patience to go through 112 pages of iPods? Name me three people in your family who would. The only shot they have is if they can get it to me faster at the cheapest price. But you already have those sorts in the search results, so what’s the point? Now, Ella’s Bling’d Out iPods Emporium might just be what I’m looking for because they offer the gold grill collection with the iced out case edition. How would I know that was on page 113?
Some items are commodities, so price and shipping will rule. Others lend themselves to customization and personalization. Some are truly unique and one-of-a-kind. Why return those all in the same results? How are you benefiting either the Seller or the Buyer in that situation?
Celebrate the unique. eBay has the most unique, varied, and abundant inventory in the world. People don’t just come to eBay to find the latest Dell desktop. They come to eBay for the overclocked, liquid-cooled, see-through case, neon cable sheathed, desktop with the Elmo custom-painted mouse. Think about how you give that item the proper spotlight in a search result.
Come for Dell. Stay for Elmo.
Discovery
Discovery goes hand in hand with inventory. eBay has an incredible opportunity because of its inventory. One of the eBay companies, Marktplaats.nl, just launched www.hippas.nl. At any given time, there are probably no more than about 3000 live items on the site. You don’t want a million items on Hippas. Why? Because Hippas is meant for high-end women’s fashion. The type of customer who doesn’t want to see the same 132,000 items that were there yesterday. How would that stylish lady find the iconic and rare Chanel 2.55 bag in a sea of inventory? She wouldn’t. But given that inventory is a manageable size and the fact that items turn over so fast (that Chanel bag was gone the day it got listed) she has motivation to come back every day to discover new finds. And she does.
How can Craigslist, with its decidedly low tech interface be so dominant? Because people enjoy coming back each day to see what new things have been listed. Because listing an item is dead-simple and joyous. Because things turn over so quickly that they see fresh items. Because older items are explicitly and unapologetically demoted to the bottom of the results list.
For two great examples of finding experiences that encourage the shopper to browse and highlights their great inventory, visit: www.charlesandmarie.com and www.thinkgeek.com.
Think about the real world. You’d think people wouldn’t have the patience to go through those ubiquitous bins of miscellaneous knick knacks at the store, but they do. Why does it work? Because these people look for the thrill of that unexpected find. That rare UK release of Michael Jackson’s album. The complete Automan series on DVD. A script with Hitchcock’s notes in the margin.
Why do they have those aisles of candy, usb flash drives, magazines, and soda lining the checkout line? Impulse shopping. I never knew my life was incomplete without a Sharpie Micro Marker to put on my keychain. Now, thanks to Fry’s my life is complete.
Value
At the end of the day. Value rules. However you define value–and it will vary from customer to customer, from item to item–it is a significant part of your decision on whether to buy something. I’m not just talking about price here. I’m talking value. What value does a car have? It symbolizes freedom, independence, style, practicality, performance, and much more. So finding that beloved addition to your garage should evoke those same feelings, it should enhance that experience.
A computer memory upgrade is valued for the brand, performance, and price. So my finding experience should highlight that value. Artwork is about aesthetics, emotion, and taste. How does sorting on shipping and price help highlight that value? A goose-down comforter is valued for its fill power, thread count, and baffle. Finding should help me search on these values.
Drive value.
eBay has the best Product Search in the world. Let’s keep it that way. Let’s make sure every member of the eBay Inc. family can say the same.