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...

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@farmalljr wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@farmalljr  I will stick with what I've said. 

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Frankly, these "promotions" sellers are paying for are NOT promotions. It's placement. And even at that there is no real way to quantify any numbers about where you are ACTUALLY placing. 

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Promoted does NOT mean Promotions...and the listings are shown as 'sponsored' which means 'paid for' which means that 99.9% of the world has NO IDEA what that means and ALL they care about is...

I see it; if I like it, I'll buy it. 

Period. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

IIRC initially ebay was tagging the promoted listings as 'promoted' and then some authority stepped in (can't remember who) and they had to change them to 'sponsored', which they really aren't in any proper definition of the term.

[jettshutt]

Well, it seems we have indeed angered the "search results" gods...not one sale since we made this forum post & longest dry run since we've been on eBay.  Current sales on .www & AZ are on-point for this time of year.

[jettshutt]

The day I made this forum post, turned off PL's & updated all my prices to lowest/2nd lowest. 

Not a single sale since 18 Nov.  With this, you either MUST use PL's or my searches are being suppressed as I started my day pulling more than average sales from my AZ storefront & .www sales are average.

[siamjane8]

@chapeau-noir  but I don't understand the last - why would they go somewhere else if they find what they want? What does it matter to them if it's promoted or not?

   Because buyers know there is a tradeoff and they also know that it makes the item more expensive

   Because buyers are savvy-just like they have learned to shop for a good value or the best price etc. Most everyone understands now that if an item is "promoted" or "sponsored"- the sellers has opted to PAY to have it placed in front of the buyer.  This loss of revenue is made up else ware whether it it be customer service, shipping. quality of product, or general happiness of the seller who is now working harder to make less because of paying more fees.

     If i find an item i like - i will continue to search until i find it in an unsponsored situation for sure- I would rather the profit go to the seller so they can continue to provide me with good product and service- I dont want my money to go to a greedy corporation that is not even doing its job of advertising and bring in buyers- ebay does practically nothing anymore to help with sales- they just fee sellers to the point of putting them out of business....why would we as consumers accept and support that ??

[chapeau-noir]

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@siamjane8 wrote:

@chapeau-noir  but I don't understand the last - why would they go somewhere else if they find what they want? What does it matter to them if it's promoted or not?

   Because buyers know there is a tradeoff and they also know that it makes the item more expensive

   Because buyers are savvy-just like they have learned to shop for a good value or the best price etc. Most everyone understands now that if an item is "promoted" or "sponsored"- the sellers has opted to PAY to have it placed in front of the buyer.  This loss of revenue is made up else ware whether it it be customer service, shipping. quality of product, or general happiness of the seller who is now working harder to make less because of paying more fees.

     If i find an item i like - i will continue to search until i find it in an unsponsored situation for sure- I would rather the profit go to the seller so they can continue to provide me with good product and service- I dont want my money to go to a greedy corporation that is not even doing its job of advertising and bring in buyers- ebay does practically nothing anymore to help with sales- they just fee sellers to the point of putting them out of business....why would we as consumers accept and support that ??

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I understand that that was the original premise - what I'm questioning is, all things being equal, does it matter to the average buyer? And is further drilling down to avoid sponsorship something the average buyer would do if they had found what they want? My stance is that they wouldn't - we might be acquainted with all the ins and outs of sponsorship, impact on profits for the seller and hold various opinions about any kind of ad buy, but I doubt this impacts much on the average buyer's decision.