Change automatic number range to not be based on existing listings

[isabeldaw]

When using the Number Range search field type, the range depends on the existing listings to avoid empty search results. Can we change this?

The user should be able to at least enter their own values or it should be more logical.

Ideally, it would be customisable with steps eg. Min = $0, $1,000, $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000 and Max = $1,000, $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000, No Max.

The issue with having the Number Range dependent on existing listings is that it confuses buyers when searching. They wouldn’t understand that there is no adds in the lower or higher range. They would just think that the website has been poorly set up or that there is a bug in the search system. This would reflect poorly on the website and the user would develop a bad opinion of the site and probably not return to the site.

[ihor]

Thanks for the detailed feedback, we’ll try to improve the number range slider. At the moment it works as expected, but it’s based on all the search results - we plan to make it specific to the current search. Showing numbers beyond the available range is not planned - this is a common UX practice, otherwise allowing users to search for non-existing listings leaves them frustrated with “not found” results. We plan to do the same with empty categories, they should be hidden in the search filter.

[isabeldaw]

I disagree. Users would be more frustrated with the inability to change the min and max values to check if there are listings in the lower or higher ranges. Most websites that I use (eg. Google Shopping, Ebay, Facebook marketplace, Amazon, Gumtree) are set up to allow the user to either input a min and max value without restriction or select from a suggested range even if it means the search returns no results and I can’t think of any that are set up in the way that you are suggesting is common.

[ihor]

Thanks, we’ll consider making the boundary inputs editable, but searching for listings outside of the default min/max values would lead to Not Found results in 100% of cases (since boundary values are based on existing min/max listings) and would make no sense if the purpose is to help users to find something they’re looking for. It may make sense for Search Alerts extension only, e.g. if there are no results but they want to set an alert and get a notification if a listing in this range appears.