We’ve recently noticed that eBay are tinkering around with watched items. So, what’s new this time? Well, they’ve added a little “Hot” icon, (a cute little flame symbol) in their search results. It’s so buyers can see how many other eBayers have added an item to their watch list.
eBay introduced Popular items, replacing eBay Pulse back in 2012. So, we’re a bit confused.
What also has us puzzled is why eBay has placed so much importance on watched items? Auctions have now largely been replaced by Buy It Now listings. We know that watching an item is all part of the thrilling auction process.
Do buyers really care about how many people are watching an item?
Nevertheless, many people do add fixed price Buy It Now items to their watch list. Take clothing for example; can’t decide, but there’s only one top left in your size? Add it to the watch list just in case! People also add items that they are potentially interested in, but aren’t ready to buy. Naturally, there are bookmarks and wish lists, but I myself am guilty of adding items to my watch list in a gung-ho fashion.
Back to eBay Pulse, it often seemed to be full of spam. It was not unusual to see an item appear and then have 50 watchers within a day. Curiously, the 50 watchers would reappear as soon as the item was relisted.
This led some of the more cynically minded sellers to wonder whether certain buyers were enlisting friendly eBayers to watch their items.
Right now, we’re not sure whether the watched items affect eBay’s current Best Match Search. We also don’t know if it will impact the new Cassini search engine. However, it does appear that a fair few sellers are sure that they can boost the likelihood of their items appearing in searches just by getting them watched.
Are sellers spamming their own watched items with multiple IDs?
So, this got us thinking and we’re curious about how many people may be spamming their own items with multiple IDs. Does it make a difference and have spammers seen their sales increase? Are there secret ‘watchers rings’ on eBay?
These are all very legitimate questions and ones that many sellers would like answers to. Most buyers don’t seem to care how many watchers are on an item. They either like it or they don’t. If they want it, they simply click Buy It Now. Nevertheless, if more watchers boost an item’s position in Best Match, we think there’s a legitimate need for adding spam watchers. One thing’s for certain, eBay certainly seems to think that the number of ‘watchers’ are important, or at least important enough to be experimenting with this test
