@luckythewinner As I explained above, this isn't about throwing money at advertising. ebay DOES advertise. But it throws its advertising money at the Focus Categories and Enthusiast Buyers. And it says, quarter after quarter, that that advertising is successfully growing sales in those categories. Although for quite a few quarters now, growth in the actual number of enthusiast buyers has basically flatlined...but ebay says they have increased the average amount spent by each Enthusiast. There is no question that sales growth in the focus categories is outpacing ebay's overall sales growth (not too hard to do, given the absence of any substantial growth in ebay's overall GMV.)
So, ebay IS marketing---"full funnel marketing" is the term for the type of marketing they are doing, which means they are marketing at every step of the way and every place they can touch the buyer, from setting up at collector conventions to showing the buyer Promoted Listings on view item pages to showing the buyer items at checkout, etc. And ebay is definitely throwing money at advertising, whether is TV ads for ebay Motors or seting up a luxury handbag "pop up" store in NYC.
It's a question of goals.
The average ebay seller just wants to sell, and many of my buyers probably don't meet the criteria for enthusiast status. But me, I'm fine with that. ebay, on the other hand, is fine with it, but doesn't want to put any ad dollars into attracting those non enthusiast buyers. ebay isn't turning them away, but ebay isn't making a real effort to attract them any more either. Wenig wanted more buyers. Jamie wants more enthusiast buyers.
So , even in Q4, the best time of year to attract a broad base of buyers, ebay stays focused on Enthusiast buyers. In ebay's view, this will benefit ebay in the long term.
Jamie has been VERY clear: he wants ebay to be a site for enthusiast buyers. What that will mean for those of us who don't cater to those buyers is yet to be seen.
