Did A Full Year of Promoted Listings Standard From 2% to 15%. Turned It Off Today

[jettshutt]

Just wrapped up our #'s after 365 days of standard promotions.  We did 3 Months of no ads (to set a baseline), then 3 months @ 2%, 3 Months @ 10% & lastly 3 Months @ 15%.  We come find, as action figure merchants with some vintage stock, our sales did not increase and of course our revenue % decreased.  In addition, each time we raised our promotional %, it cut our return customer purchases in 1/2 each 3-months.

Also, having to raise our prices to cover the additional fees (and fees on taxes...) did not only bring in less sales, according to our reports.  It seems the only benefit (not of our doing) was that it drove more traffic (according to our outside analytics) to our .www site of 14 yrs.   

Again, this of course was not our goal, but it happened & eBay may wish to take note of this for merchants such as us that have 14yrs of loyal customers, even though we are somewhat new to eBay as a storefront with 400+ followers, the customer seems to want a good price and will do the extra work, searching checking out sites etc. to get it.

Lastly, I get that eBay wishes additional revenue for it's shareholders, I get it, I'm a shareholder myself of 20 yrs.  However, this merchant feels these promotional listings are becoming counter-productive to profit.   And if it continues, the site will become nothing but a haven for 1-off merchants that don't mind paying 30% in selling fees (as well as postage) and making $1-$2 profit per sale.

With this said, Toy Hutt is back to the lowest price (when able) @ 15% fees & in hopes we did not anger the "Search-Powers-That-Be" for our current listings with our findings.  But, Math is Math...

[dbfolks166mt]

Great data analysis and over respectable timelines. PL has always been a prisoners dilemma but that is what eBay was counting on when they introduced it. It also allowed them to increase revenue without looking like the bad guy, which they would have been viewed as if they had done an across the board FVF increase rather than introduce PL. Brilliant strategy at the corporate level. 

[vintagecraze50]

Price points with all this competition are key to getting the sale. THIS being the most important factor in an economy in which we live at present. If you upped your promotions and had to up your price considerable from others who sell elsewhere on the internet, that is just plain stupid.

[jettshutt]

Again, you do you and no disrespect, but it's your truth, not the truth.  It's what you feel is accurate, not what is accurate.  Again, everyone industry is different and what we both offer our customers couldn't be anymore different.  I never ever said this is what is happening to eBay via Promoted listings, I always prefaced my experience as IMO.  I said my industry, my experiences and made my decisions, as an online retailer of going on 15yrs. 

None of us on these selling platforms are experts in our field, which includes you I'm sorry to say.  If we were, we wouldn't be on these forums 🙂

So again, I wish you the best of sales.

[reallynicestamps]

@jettshutt pulled them from eBay to avoid the low-ball offers.

Just to mention, you can set parameters (Not Acceptable/Acceptable ) on Best Offers.

You never see the NA lowballs, and they get a polite note from eBay encouraging them to try again.

You only see the offers above the NA limit, and the Acceptable ones just turn up as sales.

I agree with your findings. I use PL to draw eyeballs to my Stores, but don't find much use in increasing sales.

I have stuck to the minimum rate however.

And anecdote is not data. You have data.

[jettshutt]

I appreciate that.  And just reading "most" of these replies, I've gathered more ideas onto how to weather these eBay changes for the better.  Only time will tell.

Thanks everyone for the insight and great sells to you all.  I don't do forums much anymore, did a lot back in the Amazon vanilla days, but come to find it's a bit of a double-edged sword if not used sparingly.

Cheers to all (my last reply/post for a bit - back to work I go).

[lakefor94]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Great data analysis and over respectable timelines. PL has always been a prisoners dilemma but that is what eBay was counting on when they introduced it. It also allowed them to increase revenue without looking like the bad guy, which they would have been viewed as if they had done an across the board FVF increase rather than introduce PL. Brilliant strategy at the corporate level. 

---

I dabbled in promotions on AMZ in the 2018 timeframe. I don't know exactly when AMZ actually initiated it on their site though probably a decade ago or longer.

I don't know if I would rate eBay's implementation as brilliant since they were quite late to hit the playing field. I suppose they had plenty of time to study.

[gloryglorygifts]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing your stats! I've never really done the PL on here and I'm actually afraid to say it, but my sales have been pretty consistent over the last 3 years on ebay. We have added quite a few items to the store also over those three years. The only discounts we offer are coupons to followers of listings and  the occasional one will be entertained if someone reaches out to me. It depends on what the item is if I will send them an offer. I'm wondering if the key is to maybe not use PL's but to keep fresh inventory coming in. IDK. I do know that it isn't something that I'm interested in after being burned by Google, Yelp and Facebook ads. Cost per clicks and impressions can get very pricey and there is no way to know if the analytics are even correct.

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@jettshutt wrote:

Again, you do you and no disrespect, but it's your truth, not the truth.  It's what you feel is accurate, not what is accurate.  Again, everyone industry is different and what we both offer our customers couldn't be anymore different.  I never ever said this is what is happening to eBay via Promoted listings, I always prefaced my experience as IMO.  I said my industry, my experiences and made my decisions, as an online retailer of going on 15yrs. 

None of us on these selling platforms are experts in our field, which includes you I'm sorry to say.  If we were, we wouldn't be on these forums 🙂

So again, I wish you the best of sales.

---

That's where you are wrong. I am an expert in Retail (15 years Big Box Corporate) as well as 12 years as a 'self employed' entreprenuer and the biggest mistake I see in this entire thread is that you 'portray' your 'experience' as "meaningful' and 'all inclusive' when it is Not. 

[allthings-collectible]

PL no longer makes sense to me. I've decided to opt out. If eBay is now focused on ad revenue instead of GMV for net revenue, then why should we expect PL to have a premium impact on our sales? Regardless of any bump in sales from PL, I need to see my net profits increase to a level that would justify my PL investment. So far, no matter what PL percentage I've experimented with (2%-12.5%), my net profit is down. Why? Because eBay now has it. The only significant thing that has increased since drinking the PL Koolaid is my workload, in order to offset declining net profits. 

PL was touted as a means to increase visibility in search relevance. However, that is no longer an impactful benefit as the majority of inflation-affected buyers are shopping for price, not impulse. Below is a chart from Statistica showing this.  

https://www.statista.com/statistics/800547/us-shoppers-important-factors-shopping-product-online/

[tobaccocardyahoo]

@jettshutt 

I would be interested in your baseline period views and the number of views at each of the PL rates.

The measure of whether PL is working is the increase in number of views you get. Whether you convert views to sales is due to your merchandise, your listing, and your price.

I would expect your buyers to be price sensitive so you need a cheaper way of directing traffic to your listings if you want more sales. Perhaps you need to drive traffic from social media or explore Googleads.

You cannot expect Ebay to convey that understanding to sellers. You cannot expect them to understand.

[joliztoyco]

Seriously? You're going there?

Hey everybody!!
I've spent the last 20+ years supervising major projects in some of the biggest refineries in the nation. Marathon's Galveston Bay and Motiva in Port Arthur Tx  to name a few.

I guess that make me an "expert" in refinery process technology.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

---

@chapeau-noir wrote:

---

@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

---

---

They work for people selling pre-owned in super-saturated categories, as well.

---

That would be true; although probably few and far between except DVD's and Clothing...

---

jewellery (8,500,000+ listings) and collectibles (100,000,000 listings) come to mind.

[fern*wood]

Thanks for the post.  I admit to knowing little to nothing about promoting my items.  I saw something called "halo" recently in new updates that seemed like a bad thing associated with promotions.  How is that playing out for sellers using promotions?

[siamjane8]

An excellent and accurate review of how PL does not work for sellers or buyers- only ebay.   Now they have released "offsite ads" a way to get you to pay for clicks offsite! I mean really- isnt that what ebay is supposed to do already- bring in traffic to the platform?   

    Without an original idea or genuinely good plan to improve the platform, ebay is full steam ahead on just feeing sellers to death, preying on the fact that ebay is giving people less visibility and creating a situation where sellers are desperate so they fall into these PL traps!   What a short cited business model- shame on the people running this company- but hey i guess thats the American dream- screw over millions of people and do a bad job, only to take your golden parachute and move on to the next company to milk.

[farmalljr]

---

@jettshutt wrote:

I dig this idea of promoting ONLY high dollar items for increased exposure and possible back-link traffic.  See, even after 14 yrs, I'm still learning.   Going to do this right now on my AFA Graded.

---

REMEBER! If you promote just one item and a buyer looks at your other items and buys them, YOU NOW pay the halo fee on those items. Meaning that even though you didn't promote those other items, you will pay the promo fee if those purchases are linked through viewing one of your promoted items. 

Even though you are ending PLS, you will/may pay it anyway on items you are NOT promoting. 

Promoted listings now have you coming OR going if you use promotions at all.