eBay

fatgrandmafinds · ‎06-10-2023

I use an ad blocker on my browsers so I didn't notice this issue but I recently watched a youtube video from another eBay seller and they pointed out advertisements for other sellers showing on our product pages, in the middle of the page. I disabled my ad blocker to see for myself and I am livid.

How is this okay? My product pages should consist of the photos and information for MY products, not the products of my competitors. I have to scroll past an entire row of 12 suggested products to see the Item Specifics on MY product pages! This is a load of 💩 and I don't see why we're paying for stores if eBay is going to advertise other products on the pages intended to display our products. Just because another seller is gullible enough to give eBay even more of their money through promoted listings doesn't mean those items should be advertised on MY item pages.

eBay should be paying me for ads they're putting in the middle of MY product pages. I'm not paying eBay to muck up my product pages with other people's 💩!

nilis13 · ‎06-10-2023

I know my sales and others have been affected by this.

fatgrandmafinds · ‎06-10-2023

It is completely ridiculous. If eBay is going to advertise items on my product pages it should only be my other listings. Why am I paying store fees if eBay can just throw other people's junk on my product pages?

huntfishdie45 · ‎06-10-2023

eBay makes more money on PL's so they put them in competition with your listings. Why? Because they can.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-10-2023

@nilis13 wrote:
I know my sales and others have been affected by this.

@nilis13 if your sales have been affected by this, then they've been affected for a very long time....eBay has inserted competitor ads above seller descriptions for years.

Here's one example I posted on another thread on this subject showing a screenshot from December 2021 with ads above the description and it was going on long before that as well.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-showing-other-Sponsored-Listings-inside-your-Listing-befo...

Previously you may not have seen them when looking at your own listings and a recent change has caused them to be visible now when you look at your own listings but I can assure you buyers have been seeing them there for years.

The bigger issue in my opinion is that eBay said this new decision was going to change that and move the item specifics and description above the ads....and they have apparently reneged on that promise.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/We-are-testing-a-new-View-Item-experience-on-desktop/m-p/336521...

Here are some of the key highlights of what you can expect:

Larger images
Increased prominence of the seller information.
Bring critical information like Item specifics and seller description higher up on the page before any modules that show other items & ads.
Improve the hierarchy of the page, so we show the most important information in the right order.

nilis13 · ‎06-10-2023

Thanks for this! They most definitely did not keep their promise.

theteamsetguy · ‎06-10-2023

@nilis13 ,

What promise have they not kept?

stuff4divas · ‎06-10-2023

@fatgrandmafinds agree, the only slightly good feel about it is my items are advertised as well

nilis13 · ‎06-10-2023

Read below message that another seller stated.

hollysfinds · ‎06-10-2023

Ebay does not care if YOU make a sale, they just care about A sale.

They don't care who makes the sale as long as a sale is made.

It's very unethical & unprofessional, but that's what we have here.

valueaddedresource · ‎06-10-2023

@theteamsetguy wrote:
@nilis13 ,

What promise have they not kept?

@theteamsetguy the announcement about the new design in March explicitly stated they were going to move IS and description above any ad modules....that is the promise they have not kept.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/We-are-testing-a-new-View-Item-experience-on-desktop/m-p/336521...

Here are some of the key highlights of what you can expect:

Larger images
Increased prominence of the seller information.
Bring critical information like Item specifics and seller description higher up on the page before any modules that show other items & ads.
Improve the hierarchy of the page, so we show the most important information in the right order.

fatgrandmafinds · ‎06-10-2023

@stuff4divasonly if you're willing to pay for promoted listings.

It's not enough eBay gets monthly store fees and even more fees when we sell an item, now they're using extortion tactics, and if we want to have any hope of selling we have to pay more. If we don't cave and do promoted listings our listings in searches and even items on our own product pages will be buried under all the promoted listings and ads.

I wanna know what happens if everyone has promoted listings, then how does anyone's listing stand out? eBay is going to put itself out of business if sellers give up and quit because it's not worth it anymore.

stuff4divas · ‎06-10-2023

@fatgrandmafinds yes, all my 500+ listings are promoted

but i still don't like all those listing showing up on any item i view, we are so buried on ads all over the place, not just ebay, it's just too much.

after awhile i just block them out and don't even pay attention to any of them.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎06-10-2023

So very strange that I've seen 2 threads started over this the past week yet this has been going on

since PROMOTIONS started well over 2 years ago.

In fact, that is why I opted in at the min 1% so not only are MY ads on MY listings; but MY ads are also on my COMPETITOR listings.

This is some very old stuff being brought back up.....

valueaddedresource · ‎06-10-2023

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:
So very strange that I've seen 2 threads started over this the past week yet this has been going on
since PROMOTIONS started well over 2 years ago.

In fact, that is why I opted in at the min 1% so not only are MY ads on MY listings; but MY ads are also on my COMPETITOR listings.

This is some very old stuff being brought back up.....

@stainlessenginecovers I believe it's being brought up because something eBay changed very recently has simply made what has been going on for years more obvious and easy to see.

For many years, when looking at your own listings as a seller while logged in, ads were not displayed the same way they were displayed to buyers. In order to see the full picture of what your listing page actually looked like to buyers, you would have had to view the item in an incognito browser not logged in and with no ad blockers, privacy filters or other add ons.

I've always suspected that many sellers simply never looked at their own listings that way, and if they also do not shop on eBay frequently, may never have been shown the full picture - thus they were unaware of just how many competitor ads are shown on their listings and how much it pushes down seller provided item and description information.

A recent change has made it so that you do see the ads now when logged in and looking at your own listings, so many sellers are seeing it for the first time and assuming it is something new.

As we've discussed before, opting in to promoted listings no longer guarantees your ads will be on your own listings - they may be, but there is no longer a dedicated module specifically only populated with "promoted listings from this seller."

Also, the minimum amount is 2% and has been since July 2022.