Why do amazon hide some product listings from natural search results?
We have recently noticed that amazon intentionally hide some listings from natural search results. To find this out, we simply searched for our product using keywords from the product listing title, and then filtered the results by price in ascending order - we could not then see our listings (we were searching from the main search bar in “all departments”)…
We have raised this with amazon and just had it verbally confirmed that they do indeed hide some listings from search results - the person I spoke with was quite ambiguous about why but one thing she did hint towards was “sales velocity” - this doesn’t really make sense though, as surely if they don’t display your listings then you will never achieve any sales velocity so its a catch 22 situation.
It’s a little concerning that amazon don’t display all listings and make it a fair playing field for sellers/merchants.
Does anyone else know more about this topic and why amazon purposefully hide listings - without actually giving sellers any warning?
PS. The products themselves are all “active” listings without errors and warnings etc.
Many thanks
Why do amazon hide some product listings from natural search results?
We have recently noticed that amazon intentionally hide some listings from natural search results. To find this out, we simply searched for our product using keywords from the product listing title, and then filtered the results by price in ascending order - we could not then see our listings (we were searching from the main search bar in “all departments”)…
We have raised this with amazon and just had it verbally confirmed that they do indeed hide some listings from search results - the person I spoke with was quite ambiguous about why but one thing she did hint towards was “sales velocity” - this doesn’t really make sense though, as surely if they don’t display your listings then you will never achieve any sales velocity so its a catch 22 situation.
It’s a little concerning that amazon don’t display all listings and make it a fair playing field for sellers/merchants.
Does anyone else know more about this topic and why amazon purposefully hide listings - without actually giving sellers any warning?
PS. The products themselves are all “active” listings without errors and warnings etc.
Many thanks
81 replies
Seller_DJCaLsroslyPV
This thread:
Is a current discussion regarding that very topic. There are a variety of views as to the reason, but no actual proof of any being particularly accuracte. So ‘the jury is still out’, as they say.
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
I always assumed amazon displayed all listings in their natural search results - so if you put them in price order, you could find your items.
However, it seems amazon purposefully “hides” or suppresses listings - I could understand why they would do this if there were issues with a listing eg. Poor images, doesn’t comply with policy etc, however to just hide 3rd party sellers listings as and when they feel seems very harsh - it isn’t giving every seller an equal chance of selling their items. How is a seller ever supposed to build up their sales velocity ranking if amazon doesn’t show the listings to potential buyers in the first place?
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
Also, this doesn’t seem to be treating customers fairly either - if a customer is searching for items from low price to high, they should be presented with all available items and be allowed to filter this down themselves. However customers are having products which may be suitable for them (and even cheaper etc) intentionally hidden by amazon without them even knowing - so they are not being presented with true available options.
When I next buy something on amazon and I use the price filter I will always now be thinking “these won’t actually be all the products which may be available as amazon are hiding some from my search”!
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Yes, they absolutely do this (not the same as visibility rotation - your items are visible to anyone with the ASIN etc. but just not available through natural searches). Quite how intentional it is I am not sure. (I find Amazon incessantly incompetent and quite capable of doing this unintentionally.)
I got a call from seller support yesterday morning about my request to merge two ASINs. I have often noticed that, after some merges of ASINS, the items disappear when using a natural search and can only be found if you have the actual ASIN. I pointed this out to the woman who called me and asked her if she knew why. She said no. She confirmed that it was true in this case by trying herself. I asked her if she could make the item visible. She said no. I asked her if she could find out why it had happened. She said she didn’t know. I asked her if she would enquire of someone who did know and get back to me. She said she would. I then told her that I had had this reply to that question over a dozen times and that no one who had ever said yes in her department had ever got back to me and that if she got back to me with an answer I’d eat my hat. She laughed knowingly. I then asked her if she saw the irony - that if you merge ASINs in order to correct the chaotic Amazon catalogue you often got punished because your item then sometimes becomes invisible to natural searches. She said yes and that she totally agreed with me and that it was crazy.
That said, it often does not remain true forever. A few days or a few weeks on, you might be able to find the item by means of a natural search. Someone knows why, but that person isn’t someone you’ll ever get to talk to. The people we get to talk to at Amazon appear to be ignorable by everyone else at Amazon. Talking to seller support is like talking to a primary school kid in the playground and asking him to sort out the demon headmaster. It took them two and a half months and fourteen emails to merge these two duplicate ASINs. That’s how useless they are.
Seller_74ijaPS0pKj8Q
Their algorithm deliberately hides low price items in order to push higher priced items on customers. Have you ever noticed that all the chinese 25p items never show in search results? They are there, but Amazon doesn’t like to make it easy to find them. Amazon hides them. Also, you might run a search and get 2,000 items but when you sort from highest to lowest price they filter a large percentage out and you end up with only 89 items, for example. It’s really very frustrating when you want to find a good deal.
Seller_OPIGLOYfyTIdQ
Yes, that’s correct and I personally getting fed up with this manipulation.
Was searching for a 3D filament and the good brand is just burred
somewhere on 5 page or does not show at all. It showed up on a page that
appears after the purchase. So whats the point of this.
Seller_1vyLJePYDN9hf
The short answer to this, as with nearly all questions about Amazon’s dubious practices, is “to make more money”. If you are yourself losing sales as a result, rest assured they are getting those sales (and associated fees) from someone else.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Amazon has definitely hidden some products from the search results. They sent me numerous e-mails informing me, that they are going to hide products, which do not comply with the image or product page standards.
I would advise you to check all your listings to see if there is anything what you need to improve.
Seller_XcWd0bjg62i66
We have also had it basically confirmed to us by Amazon that they do this with some listings. They might not show in search results, even priced high to low, until they achieve higher sales. But then how are they supposed to achieve sales if they cannot be seen in search results?! As you say, catch 22.
We created a listing a month or so ago, and it is still not showing in search results when filtering from price low to high, we see where it should be based on it’s price but it isn’t there.
The listing is as good as it can be, high resolution images, of just the product on a white background, good descriptions etc, very detailed.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It seems there are different standards at work in different parts of the catalogue.
There are countless books and CDs with poor or missing images which still appear in title/subject search results.
Why do amazon hide some product listings from natural search results?
We have recently noticed that amazon intentionally hide some listings from natural search results. To find this out, we simply searched for our product using keywords from the product listing title, and then filtered the results by price in ascending order - we could not then see our listings (we were searching from the main search bar in “all departments”)…
We have raised this with amazon and just had it verbally confirmed that they do indeed hide some listings from search results - the person I spoke with was quite ambiguous about why but one thing she did hint towards was “sales velocity” - this doesn’t really make sense though, as surely if they don’t display your listings then you will never achieve any sales velocity so its a catch 22 situation.
It’s a little concerning that amazon don’t display all listings and make it a fair playing field for sellers/merchants.
Does anyone else know more about this topic and why amazon purposefully hide listings - without actually giving sellers any warning?
PS. The products themselves are all “active” listings without errors and warnings etc.
Many thanks
Why do amazon hide some product listings from natural search results?
We have recently noticed that amazon intentionally hide some listings from natural search results. To find this out, we simply searched for our product using keywords from the product listing title, and then filtered the results by price in ascending order - we could not then see our listings (we were searching from the main search bar in “all departments”)…
We have raised this with amazon and just had it verbally confirmed that they do indeed hide some listings from search results - the person I spoke with was quite ambiguous about why but one thing she did hint towards was “sales velocity” - this doesn’t really make sense though, as surely if they don’t display your listings then you will never achieve any sales velocity so its a catch 22 situation.
It’s a little concerning that amazon don’t display all listings and make it a fair playing field for sellers/merchants.
Does anyone else know more about this topic and why amazon purposefully hide listings - without actually giving sellers any warning?
PS. The products themselves are all “active” listings without errors and warnings etc.
Many thanks
Why do amazon hide some product listings from natural search results?
We have recently noticed that amazon intentionally hide some listings from natural search results. To find this out, we simply searched for our product using keywords from the product listing title, and then filtered the results by price in ascending order - we could not then see our listings (we were searching from the main search bar in “all departments”)…
We have raised this with amazon and just had it verbally confirmed that they do indeed hide some listings from search results - the person I spoke with was quite ambiguous about why but one thing she did hint towards was “sales velocity” - this doesn’t really make sense though, as surely if they don’t display your listings then you will never achieve any sales velocity so its a catch 22 situation.
It’s a little concerning that amazon don’t display all listings and make it a fair playing field for sellers/merchants.
Does anyone else know more about this topic and why amazon purposefully hide listings - without actually giving sellers any warning?
PS. The products themselves are all “active” listings without errors and warnings etc.
Many thanks
81 replies
81 replies
Seller_DJCaLsroslyPV
This thread:
Is a current discussion regarding that very topic. There are a variety of views as to the reason, but no actual proof of any being particularly accuracte. So ‘the jury is still out’, as they say.
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
I always assumed amazon displayed all listings in their natural search results - so if you put them in price order, you could find your items.
However, it seems amazon purposefully “hides” or suppresses listings - I could understand why they would do this if there were issues with a listing eg. Poor images, doesn’t comply with policy etc, however to just hide 3rd party sellers listings as and when they feel seems very harsh - it isn’t giving every seller an equal chance of selling their items. How is a seller ever supposed to build up their sales velocity ranking if amazon doesn’t show the listings to potential buyers in the first place?
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
Also, this doesn’t seem to be treating customers fairly either - if a customer is searching for items from low price to high, they should be presented with all available items and be allowed to filter this down themselves. However customers are having products which may be suitable for them (and even cheaper etc) intentionally hidden by amazon without them even knowing - so they are not being presented with true available options.
When I next buy something on amazon and I use the price filter I will always now be thinking “these won’t actually be all the products which may be available as amazon are hiding some from my search”!
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Yes, they absolutely do this (not the same as visibility rotation - your items are visible to anyone with the ASIN etc. but just not available through natural searches). Quite how intentional it is I am not sure. (I find Amazon incessantly incompetent and quite capable of doing this unintentionally.)
I got a call from seller support yesterday morning about my request to merge two ASINs. I have often noticed that, after some merges of ASINS, the items disappear when using a natural search and can only be found if you have the actual ASIN. I pointed this out to the woman who called me and asked her if she knew why. She said no. She confirmed that it was true in this case by trying herself. I asked her if she could make the item visible. She said no. I asked her if she could find out why it had happened. She said she didn’t know. I asked her if she would enquire of someone who did know and get back to me. She said she would. I then told her that I had had this reply to that question over a dozen times and that no one who had ever said yes in her department had ever got back to me and that if she got back to me with an answer I’d eat my hat. She laughed knowingly. I then asked her if she saw the irony - that if you merge ASINs in order to correct the chaotic Amazon catalogue you often got punished because your item then sometimes becomes invisible to natural searches. She said yes and that she totally agreed with me and that it was crazy.
That said, it often does not remain true forever. A few days or a few weeks on, you might be able to find the item by means of a natural search. Someone knows why, but that person isn’t someone you’ll ever get to talk to. The people we get to talk to at Amazon appear to be ignorable by everyone else at Amazon. Talking to seller support is like talking to a primary school kid in the playground and asking him to sort out the demon headmaster. It took them two and a half months and fourteen emails to merge these two duplicate ASINs. That’s how useless they are.
Seller_74ijaPS0pKj8Q
Their algorithm deliberately hides low price items in order to push higher priced items on customers. Have you ever noticed that all the chinese 25p items never show in search results? They are there, but Amazon doesn’t like to make it easy to find them. Amazon hides them. Also, you might run a search and get 2,000 items but when you sort from highest to lowest price they filter a large percentage out and you end up with only 89 items, for example. It’s really very frustrating when you want to find a good deal.
Seller_OPIGLOYfyTIdQ
Yes, that’s correct and I personally getting fed up with this manipulation.
Was searching for a 3D filament and the good brand is just burred
somewhere on 5 page or does not show at all. It showed up on a page that
appears after the purchase. So whats the point of this.
Seller_1vyLJePYDN9hf
The short answer to this, as with nearly all questions about Amazon’s dubious practices, is “to make more money”. If you are yourself losing sales as a result, rest assured they are getting those sales (and associated fees) from someone else.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Amazon has definitely hidden some products from the search results. They sent me numerous e-mails informing me, that they are going to hide products, which do not comply with the image or product page standards.
I would advise you to check all your listings to see if there is anything what you need to improve.
Seller_XcWd0bjg62i66
We have also had it basically confirmed to us by Amazon that they do this with some listings. They might not show in search results, even priced high to low, until they achieve higher sales. But then how are they supposed to achieve sales if they cannot be seen in search results?! As you say, catch 22.
We created a listing a month or so ago, and it is still not showing in search results when filtering from price low to high, we see where it should be based on it’s price but it isn’t there.
The listing is as good as it can be, high resolution images, of just the product on a white background, good descriptions etc, very detailed.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It seems there are different standards at work in different parts of the catalogue.
There are countless books and CDs with poor or missing images which still appear in title/subject search results.
Seller_DJCaLsroslyPV
This thread:
Is a current discussion regarding that very topic. There are a variety of views as to the reason, but no actual proof of any being particularly accuracte. So ‘the jury is still out’, as they say.
Seller_DJCaLsroslyPV
This thread:
Is a current discussion regarding that very topic. There are a variety of views as to the reason, but no actual proof of any being particularly accuracte. So ‘the jury is still out’, as they say.
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
I always assumed amazon displayed all listings in their natural search results - so if you put them in price order, you could find your items.
However, it seems amazon purposefully “hides” or suppresses listings - I could understand why they would do this if there were issues with a listing eg. Poor images, doesn’t comply with policy etc, however to just hide 3rd party sellers listings as and when they feel seems very harsh - it isn’t giving every seller an equal chance of selling their items. How is a seller ever supposed to build up their sales velocity ranking if amazon doesn’t show the listings to potential buyers in the first place?
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
I always assumed amazon displayed all listings in their natural search results - so if you put them in price order, you could find your items.
However, it seems amazon purposefully “hides” or suppresses listings - I could understand why they would do this if there were issues with a listing eg. Poor images, doesn’t comply with policy etc, however to just hide 3rd party sellers listings as and when they feel seems very harsh - it isn’t giving every seller an equal chance of selling their items. How is a seller ever supposed to build up their sales velocity ranking if amazon doesn’t show the listings to potential buyers in the first place?
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
Also, this doesn’t seem to be treating customers fairly either - if a customer is searching for items from low price to high, they should be presented with all available items and be allowed to filter this down themselves. However customers are having products which may be suitable for them (and even cheaper etc) intentionally hidden by amazon without them even knowing - so they are not being presented with true available options.
When I next buy something on amazon and I use the price filter I will always now be thinking “these won’t actually be all the products which may be available as amazon are hiding some from my search”!
Seller_FsJDV29M8OAqj
Also, this doesn’t seem to be treating customers fairly either - if a customer is searching for items from low price to high, they should be presented with all available items and be allowed to filter this down themselves. However customers are having products which may be suitable for them (and even cheaper etc) intentionally hidden by amazon without them even knowing - so they are not being presented with true available options.
When I next buy something on amazon and I use the price filter I will always now be thinking “these won’t actually be all the products which may be available as amazon are hiding some from my search”!
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Yes, they absolutely do this (not the same as visibility rotation - your items are visible to anyone with the ASIN etc. but just not available through natural searches). Quite how intentional it is I am not sure. (I find Amazon incessantly incompetent and quite capable of doing this unintentionally.)
I got a call from seller support yesterday morning about my request to merge two ASINs. I have often noticed that, after some merges of ASINS, the items disappear when using a natural search and can only be found if you have the actual ASIN. I pointed this out to the woman who called me and asked her if she knew why. She said no. She confirmed that it was true in this case by trying herself. I asked her if she could make the item visible. She said no. I asked her if she could find out why it had happened. She said she didn’t know. I asked her if she would enquire of someone who did know and get back to me. She said she would. I then told her that I had had this reply to that question over a dozen times and that no one who had ever said yes in her department had ever got back to me and that if she got back to me with an answer I’d eat my hat. She laughed knowingly. I then asked her if she saw the irony - that if you merge ASINs in order to correct the chaotic Amazon catalogue you often got punished because your item then sometimes becomes invisible to natural searches. She said yes and that she totally agreed with me and that it was crazy.
That said, it often does not remain true forever. A few days or a few weeks on, you might be able to find the item by means of a natural search. Someone knows why, but that person isn’t someone you’ll ever get to talk to. The people we get to talk to at Amazon appear to be ignorable by everyone else at Amazon. Talking to seller support is like talking to a primary school kid in the playground and asking him to sort out the demon headmaster. It took them two and a half months and fourteen emails to merge these two duplicate ASINs. That’s how useless they are.
Seller_YSVJTvJFHSin4
Yes, they absolutely do this (not the same as visibility rotation - your items are visible to anyone with the ASIN etc. but just not available through natural searches). Quite how intentional it is I am not sure. (I find Amazon incessantly incompetent and quite capable of doing this unintentionally.)
I got a call from seller support yesterday morning about my request to merge two ASINs. I have often noticed that, after some merges of ASINS, the items disappear when using a natural search and can only be found if you have the actual ASIN. I pointed this out to the woman who called me and asked her if she knew why. She said no. She confirmed that it was true in this case by trying herself. I asked her if she could make the item visible. She said no. I asked her if she could find out why it had happened. She said she didn’t know. I asked her if she would enquire of someone who did know and get back to me. She said she would. I then told her that I had had this reply to that question over a dozen times and that no one who had ever said yes in her department had ever got back to me and that if she got back to me with an answer I’d eat my hat. She laughed knowingly. I then asked her if she saw the irony - that if you merge ASINs in order to correct the chaotic Amazon catalogue you often got punished because your item then sometimes becomes invisible to natural searches. She said yes and that she totally agreed with me and that it was crazy.
That said, it often does not remain true forever. A few days or a few weeks on, you might be able to find the item by means of a natural search. Someone knows why, but that person isn’t someone you’ll ever get to talk to. The people we get to talk to at Amazon appear to be ignorable by everyone else at Amazon. Talking to seller support is like talking to a primary school kid in the playground and asking him to sort out the demon headmaster. It took them two and a half months and fourteen emails to merge these two duplicate ASINs. That’s how useless they are.
Seller_74ijaPS0pKj8Q
Their algorithm deliberately hides low price items in order to push higher priced items on customers. Have you ever noticed that all the chinese 25p items never show in search results? They are there, but Amazon doesn’t like to make it easy to find them. Amazon hides them. Also, you might run a search and get 2,000 items but when you sort from highest to lowest price they filter a large percentage out and you end up with only 89 items, for example. It’s really very frustrating when you want to find a good deal.
Seller_74ijaPS0pKj8Q
Their algorithm deliberately hides low price items in order to push higher priced items on customers. Have you ever noticed that all the chinese 25p items never show in search results? They are there, but Amazon doesn’t like to make it easy to find them. Amazon hides them. Also, you might run a search and get 2,000 items but when you sort from highest to lowest price they filter a large percentage out and you end up with only 89 items, for example. It’s really very frustrating when you want to find a good deal.
Seller_OPIGLOYfyTIdQ
Yes, that’s correct and I personally getting fed up with this manipulation.
Was searching for a 3D filament and the good brand is just burred
somewhere on 5 page or does not show at all. It showed up on a page that
appears after the purchase. So whats the point of this.
Seller_OPIGLOYfyTIdQ
Yes, that’s correct and I personally getting fed up with this manipulation.
Was searching for a 3D filament and the good brand is just burred
somewhere on 5 page or does not show at all. It showed up on a page that
appears after the purchase. So whats the point of this.
Seller_1vyLJePYDN9hf
The short answer to this, as with nearly all questions about Amazon’s dubious practices, is “to make more money”. If you are yourself losing sales as a result, rest assured they are getting those sales (and associated fees) from someone else.
Seller_1vyLJePYDN9hf
The short answer to this, as with nearly all questions about Amazon’s dubious practices, is “to make more money”. If you are yourself losing sales as a result, rest assured they are getting those sales (and associated fees) from someone else.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Amazon has definitely hidden some products from the search results. They sent me numerous e-mails informing me, that they are going to hide products, which do not comply with the image or product page standards.
I would advise you to check all your listings to see if there is anything what you need to improve.
Seller_EJIX7rqDNQJi2
Amazon has definitely hidden some products from the search results. They sent me numerous e-mails informing me, that they are going to hide products, which do not comply with the image or product page standards.
I would advise you to check all your listings to see if there is anything what you need to improve.
Seller_XcWd0bjg62i66
We have also had it basically confirmed to us by Amazon that they do this with some listings. They might not show in search results, even priced high to low, until they achieve higher sales. But then how are they supposed to achieve sales if they cannot be seen in search results?! As you say, catch 22.
We created a listing a month or so ago, and it is still not showing in search results when filtering from price low to high, we see where it should be based on it’s price but it isn’t there.
The listing is as good as it can be, high resolution images, of just the product on a white background, good descriptions etc, very detailed.
Seller_XcWd0bjg62i66
We have also had it basically confirmed to us by Amazon that they do this with some listings. They might not show in search results, even priced high to low, until they achieve higher sales. But then how are they supposed to achieve sales if they cannot be seen in search results?! As you say, catch 22.
We created a listing a month or so ago, and it is still not showing in search results when filtering from price low to high, we see where it should be based on it’s price but it isn’t there.
The listing is as good as it can be, high resolution images, of just the product on a white background, good descriptions etc, very detailed.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It seems there are different standards at work in different parts of the catalogue.
There are countless books and CDs with poor or missing images which still appear in title/subject search results.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It seems there are different standards at work in different parts of the catalogue.
There are countless books and CDs with poor or missing images which still appear in title/subject search results.
