Why are no categories shown on the articles anymore???
I like searching in all categories - but if I click on an item, I need to know which category it appears in. Especially with clothing - otherwise I can no longer categorize anything.
A size S in men’s is larger than a size S in women’s, etc... - Why is the category no longer shown for items???
31 comments
alter_mommark
·11 months agoToday the categories have disappeared again, Firefox, Chrome, Brave etc. 😞
hasjana
·11 months ago@alter_mommark
isn't the category shown in the article attributes?
for me it's visible there
alter_mommark
·11 months agoBut it will, I always look above the offer, it's been that way for ages anyway,
so at eye level. I absolutely don't understand why something like this is changed again.
In my opinion, it's a downgrade, having to scroll down ...
hasjana
·11 months agowell - my eyes do still go up there first (for now), but if nothing's there, I look at the item details ... you can get used to that too; after all, the category strip wasn't removed completely, just placed somewhere else
other changes on the item page are more annoying, e.g. that now you have to click twice and three times if you want to view shipping details or ratings or the seller info, or that parts are not saved / printed directly with it - not to mention the overcrowded item page because of third-party offers
alter_mommark
·1 year agoThank you very much Miriam for the info!
alter_mommark
·1 year agoIf I click on any listing on Ebay
shouldn't the category always be shown above the listing,
no matter what the item is, or not?
miriam@ebay
Thanks, @alter_mommark! Since last week, there has been a test underway for some users on the German eBay website, among other places. It is being checked whether the navigation path (which previously appeared above the item image) is moved into the item details area. The "Share" button is also supposed to move below the item image.
The goal is for important product info to be easier to find so that more gets bought and the site still remains easy to use.
You can currently find the category navigation here under "Item specifics":
If you'd like, you can use the question mark
on the right-hand side under "Give feedback" to share your opinion with the product teams.
Best wishes
Miriam
snoopyman10
·11 months agoHello Miriam, hello Ebay.de
That the categories are still visible is nice, but I’d also like them back in their old place, right at the top. I often searched for an item and then continued searching via the category, because sometimes there are other items to be found here that were helpful.
I also don’t understand why you guys are messing around with something like this, what EBAY is expecting to gain from it. Is the user supposed to be tested for flexibility here?
I don’t find this change helpful, just annoying.
Regards
Klaus
miriam@ebay
Hello @snoopyman10 and thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to share your impressions with us. I can completely understand that it was helpful to have the categories directly at the top of the page. The new placement is an adjustment - you're not alone in that.
However, despite this change, you can still browse within a category by clicking on the respective link - for example "Tea" - the function itself has not changed, only the position of the navigation has been moved.
Kind regards
Miriam
spiritoferin
·10 months agoWhy these pointless and annoying experiments? This will make searching on eBay just as unstructured and inefficient as on [nicht auf eBay]. I was hoping for the opposite. Namely, that [nicht auf eBay] would become similarly neatly structured as eBay.
This structure was always a central advantage of eBay and the decisive reason why, for new goods, I always preferred eBay over **bleep**.
According to rumors, eBay is incidentally working on creating such a structure.
spiritoferin
·10 months agoWhy are you changing my post? I don't want to have a stupid sentence like "According to rumors, eBay is working on creating a structure like that, by the way. " in my name. You can black it out if you want. or bleep it. But that's going too far. I can't even edit or delete the post.
spiritoferin
·10 months agoI’m trying to buy 2 new work overalls right now. Searching is completely impossible. I’m buying elsewhere now.
alter_mommark
·1 year agoToday, 10/08/25, no categories are being shown for the articles again 😞
I tested almost all the browsers there are, neither Brave, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
the categories are not displayed. Deleting cache and cookies doesn’t help either.
I find something like this VERY annoying, WHY is this like that?
After all, the category / category tree SHOULD be visible above EVERY article you click on...
miriam@ebay
Hello @alter_mommark and thanks for the heads-up! I just checked the behavior you reported and, when searching for clothing, I see the category trees on all article pages above the article images. Could you please give us specific examples of where you noticed they are currently missing?
Thanks and best regards
Miriam
alter_mommark
·1 year agoHello Miriam,
e.g. eBay item no.:256917999647
No category displayed, then at the very bottom:
The correct section/category "Portable MD players" is not there.
I’d have to go from the main page to "Browse categories" and then click my way through.
But if I search for an item and click on it, in the item view
NO section like before is shown above the item, unfortunately.
Most of the time I’m in the Technology TV, Audio and Video area.
The section where, for example, a portable MD player is offered is not visible, it is not shown.
primanovo
·1 year agoNow I have that crap too.
Ebay keeps getting stranger and stranger.
There’s no category tree at the end of the page either (as described by @miriam@ebay )
(I may have missed it because of all the ad junk)
That definitely doesn’t make buying on Ebay any fun.
Giving feedback isn’t so easy anymore either !!!
Although @miriam@ebay always recommends it, Ebay apparently doesn’t want that anymore.
You have to click the question mark first !!!
Who programs such nonsense!!!
miriam@ebay
Hello @primanovo - thank you very much for your observation. I have passed it on to the relevant teams. The view at the bottom of the page has also changed for me in the meantime, which indicates that the adjustments and tests are still actively running.
Could you please confirm for me whether you still currently see the category tree at the top of the article pages above the article images? 🙂
Thanks and best regards
Miriam
primanovo
·1 year agoHello @miriam@ebay ,
On 6/5, there was no category tree visible at all. Neither at the top nor at the bottom.
Today it is visible again at the top, like before.
PLEASE do not change it anymore. There is no better display!!!
second_hand_hws_row
·1 year agohey hey
that's the problem with a lot of people. what's it due to?
eBay browser windows ?
as a end consumer.
i can't be bothered anymore and turn eBay off and look somewhere else.
happy easter holidays to you
miriam@ebay
Hello @relaxsommer and everyone! Today, @gebraucht-ist-gut brought this topic up again in the Q&A session here, and we’ve taken your reactions to the category trees missing for some of you on the item pages into account. As soon as we get feedback from the relevant departments and know whether this is a test or an error, we’ll get back to you here again! 🙂
In the meantime, you’re welcome to give feedback directly via the question mark on the right-hand side of the respective item page.
Thanks and best regards
Miriam
miriam@ebay
Hello everyone - we’d like to inform you about an update: it was a test that was not applied to all eBay accounts. The results will be analyzed in the coming days, and based on the global feedback received, a decision will be made on how to proceed with this.
Anyone who sees the view in question can see the category tree that was missing at the top of the page at the bottom of the page - here using example 326545777169 from @gebraucht-ist-gut:
Kind regards
Miriam
oskar_der_wikinger
·1 year agoThanks for the info @miriam@ebay 😘
for me personally, I’m putting it under "changes the world doesn’t need".
I’ll also briefly explain why: the item pages are so full of ads that you have to scroll forever to get to the bottom, as more and more ads keep piling up.
Admittedly, this could also be a marketing trick along the lines of: if you need the category, we’ll show you what else we have on the platform that’s great. 😂
deichchef
·1 year agoHere on Win11 with Brave it looks like this
(Brave protection is disabled)
escort_rs2000_92
·1 year agohello
with Edge and fierfox also without add-ons. the problem remains, that it is not displayed.
with windows 11 on 2 pcs the problem exists
on 1 pc windwos 10 with Edge fierfox + add-ons I have no problem seeing it.
everything works there.
happy easter
best regards
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·1 year agoHi @relaxsommer
sorry, but I don't understand the issue being discussed here. When I open an offer (with Chrome), I always get the category displayed:
And I can also jump to the parent categories.
Best regards from the Baltic Sea and happy Easter
Peter
gebraucht-ist-gut
·1 year agoHello Peter,
then consider yourself lucky that you still have that.
As you can see from my picture, I now have ads instead of the categories, as many others apparently do too.
Cheers
relaxsommer
OP1 year agopetersmodellbahnstuebchen
·1 year agoHi @relaxsommer ,
as I wrote, I used Chrome for the screenshot, but I also see the categories with Edge.
@gebraucht-ist-gut
Hi Marko,
It’s not due to the ad for the shop either, e.g. with this item:
I’m guessing it’s once again a test with certain accounts, which will soon be sold to us again as a world-changing “improvement” to the buying experience.
Best regards and happy holidays
Peter
dl1av
·1 year agoI also find that extremely annoying as a "searcher", because I can no longer generate searches for rare collector terms in very specific categories (only across eBay now, and then you get 100k results because the terms are often used differently too).
But that’s probably intentional; after all, the strict category assignment had already been watered down when there was no longer only the rigidly structured "collecting and rare items" hierarchy, but also pseudo-categories like "old tube radios", which were assigned somewhere else entirely but additionally contained part of the original categories.
"Category" is unfortunately just a tag for global search now, nothing more where you could deliberately search or just browse as before, without getting these 100k new items mixed in.
Just like here locally at the flea markets: 20 phone-case Turks and one grandma who has the really interesting stuff 🙂
Alternatively, you can use the paid advertising (as a seller). Costs about 10 percent sales fees like before, but then the ads are shown to selected interested buyers.
As a buyer, I can say that I’ve found most of the collector’s items I’ve bought in recent weeks only through these ads. There are things in there that I would never have found in the new watered-down category system. Of course, that only works for me because I’m on eBay relatively often. Searching once on Sunday doesn’t get you anywhere.
The intention behind all this from eBay should be clear: longer dwell time and a move toward more new goods. That hasn’t just been known since yesterday, and eBay is simply not the friendly local flea market, but wants to move toward eBay. (pseudo-)private sellers just cause trouble and generate no revenue 🙂
gebraucht-ist-gut
·1 year agoHello,
unfortunately I can’t confirm it either, and I don’t like it either.
Where the category tree used to be, you can now see shop banners (red frame).
I also always moved one or two categories back using this category display.
That no longer works.
But I agree with you that you can now no longer see at all which category the item was listed in, which I find even worse than my jumping back.
I see it as particularly problematic when you come to the item via ads on external sites.
You never know which category you’ve landed in.
Maybe someone from eBay could comment on this, whether that is intended or whether the absence is a system error.
perfect-sally
·1 year agoCould you give an example?
On eBay, they’re always tinkering so much, and the search in particular has been totally “improved” for the worse.