@bluedesk7 wrote:
“…does anyone else feel that by not paying at all your listings are actually surpressed...?
I only rarely utilize promoted listings. It’s not necessary as many of my items are rare and in demand, creating a healthy sell-thru rate. But for everyday items, commodities, or items where the competition is a big challenge, i can see the advantage of using some degree of promotion.
But to take a few more steps beyond, and suggest there is deliberate suppression of sales? That would seem to me to be an act of corporate self-sabotage. I don’t dispute that eBay certainly has the ability to manipulate Search results and listing placement. It can lower listings of accounts not in good standing, and raise listings in Search results for those who use best practices to maximize sales.
But it is hard to imagine eBay acting in any way to artificially limit sales based on a single criteria—to penalize sellers who do not choose to promote. It may be possible, but not probable.
Some believe throttling is a real phenomena, despite there being little in the way of hard evidence that holds up under scrutiny. (It’s primarily anecdotal.) Still, it is a theory with traction that arises from the selling community on a fairly regular basis. So for me, the jury is still out on the subject.
That said, one can see such rumors fill a need and offer a compelling explanation. It is one answer to the question of poor sales. Though it doesn’t necessarily solve the issue of lagging sales.
My view is that the real trouble with such concepts is that it suggests that forces outside of a seller’s control are shaping the eBay selling universe, leaving sellers helpless in its wake.
Believing this is a kind of “get out of jail free” card, with the potential to relieve the seller from responsibility for his listing. Why? Because concepts like throttling leave a seller with few solutions.
It is a kind of defeatist viewpoint where one can’t fight city hall, as they used to say, so why bother? The seller is then free of the burden to fix it. Things like low visibility, poor sales, or lack-luster Search Engine Optimization are all eBay’s fault. And…..nothing can be done about it.
