Hi everyone,
On April 1st, 2025, we noticed an unusual situation on one of our listings that we’ve never encountered before.
We offer this product in New condition and also in Used – Like New condition. Under normal circumstances, the New offer consistently wins the Buy Box and is shown by default on the product page.
However, on April 1st:
- The Used – Like New offer started winning the Buy Box at times.
- The default condition on the product page occasionally switched between New and Used.
- Sometimes the Used offer was displayed above the New one, even when not selected as default.
- These changes were noticeable throughout the day as we refreshed the product page.
This had a direct impact on our advertising. Compared to our daily average, impressions dropped by more than 98% — since the New offers weren’t consistently in the Buy Box, and Used listings cannot be advertised.
After going back and forth with support, we couldn’t get a clear answer — only a generic explanation that Buy Box placement is determined by algorithms.
By the end of the day, we decided to disable the Used – Like New offer, just to see what would happen — and it seems that ad impressions started returning to normal, which supports our suspicion that the Buy Box behavior was the root cause.
We’ll be monitoring closely today to see how things go.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is this normal behavior we just haven’t encountered before, or possibly some change being tested?
Appreciate any insights or similar experiences.
