New promotion starting January 13....
I just had a sickening thought. Every time we sellers click on an eBay listing for research purposes, that listing (if promoted) is going to have the new Promoted Listings Program applied to it and the seller is going to end up paying the promoted fee, right? Even though we never had any intention of buying the item. That stinks!
21 comments
pls-consignments
·8 months agoWell, yesterday I posted my own very positive experience from ending all PL in Oct. However, the mods have started removing my posts to the "Advertising" board. Let see how long this one lasts here.
christworks
·8 months ago@hoosierbam et al - eBay supposedly maybe kind of has systems in place to prevent sellers from having ad fee charges by others who have no intent to buy. Our friend, @valueaddedresource , has a great article from a few months ago that addresses this topic. It is about a third of the way down. The whole article is worth a read.
eBay is vague on this subject, perhaps for security reasons; who knows? For me, I rarely click into listings that have not sold. If I am going to use someone's listing as a template, I use a listing that has already sold because that listing template has proven to be a winner.
bgt_masters_of_tiki_d
·8 months agoIts optional but not optional. If you sell in highly competitive/saturated categories, in my experience its not optional. Even if you're the lowest, promoting your item still can be needed. Perhaps at the minimum of 2% but far too many times I have older items that sit for years and when I wonder why none of them are promoted. I go through and change a bunch of them to promoted and magically several sell in a matter of days. It actually normally screws me over because shipping costs have changed so much since listing them and I forget to edit the shipping charges.
What would be horrible is if I click on my own items, will it charge me the promoted fee if it sells. On a daily basis I click on dozens of my own listings. I could be self sabotaging myself.
inhawaii
·8 months agoSelf deleted.
put_to_shame_vintage
·8 months agoBeyond disappointed with this move from ebay. They know what theyre doing is wrong, to the extent they included a clause in their updated terms that makes it so we as sellers cant start a class action lawsuit unless if you MAIL THEM BY LETTER that you want to be excluded from said specific part of the policy. Disgusting and shameful. Trying to squeeze every cent they can from us for their "investors" which in reality we are the ones that drive their business!!! This is anti the people.
kibble-net
·8 months agoNone of us like this. I think that's a fair assumption. The question is.... what are you going to do about it? Are you going to stop using promoted listings?
I like making sales, so I've passed the cost onto my customers with a small handling fee. This is a big shrug for me, because it's basically an ebay tariff. If an extra 50 cents means I lose a sale, that's fine with me, I don't mind. But when I do make the sale, I don't spend much time being mad at ebay. I don't have the time or energy for that.
Complaining feels nice, but at the end of the day it doesn't grow your biz. What are you going to do about this unwelcomed change? Focus on your PLAN OF ACTION, because all the complaining in the world isn't going to increase your sales.
put_to_shame_vintage
·8 months ago"Just rollover and accept defeat, there's nothing you people can do despite being the ones that drive this company's success"
reallynicestamps
·8 months agoThe question is.... what are you going to do about it? Are you going to stop using promoted listings?
Well, yes.
I dropped all my PL when the program was announced last year.
I didn't want to get caught in the Halo effect.
While my sales are down, I notice that it is only my US sales not my domestic (Canada) and my international are actually up.
So I am attributing the loss of US sales to American buyers who are suddenly noticing they are paying a federal sales tax (Trump's Tariff) on imported goods and that they don't have any way of learning how much that will be.
bbcardzman
·8 months agoTHAT'S EBAY
fern*wood
·8 months agoMy feeling is that ebay is fully aware of that as they clasp their hands together and smile.
roccotacodad54
·8 months ago"My feeling is that ebay is fully aware of that as they clasp their hands together and smile. "
Excellent Smithers..............................
mcdougle4248
·8 months agoIf you are doing research, with no intent of buying, do not click on a listing that has the Sponsored tag. My understanding is that the sponsored listing (shown as sponsored) must be clicked on once by anyone before it will be charged the ad fee when it sells within 30 days. Click on organic listing placements, and you will be helping the sellers.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/ebay-advertising/promoted-listings/general-campaign-strategy?id=4164
short_circuit.lineman61
·8 months agoI do not promote at all but I really like to thoroughly check out the listings of my competition that uses promoted listings
meme6253
·8 months agoNot liking this new program at all, It is totally unfair & unreasonable!
luckythewinner
·8 months agoNot to mention ... entirely, completely, totally optional!
ten_o_nine
·8 months ago@luckythewinner
Not to mention ... entirely, completely, totally optional!
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Promoted listings aren't optional if you want to maintain visibility.
luckythewinner
·8 months agoPromoted listings aren't optional if you want to maintain visibility.
Only if you are choosing inventory that does not stand out on its own merits.
put_to_shame_vintage
·8 months agoUnreal a seller would support this move from ebay and brush it off as "its optional" its not optional when your sales decrease 60%...
meme6253
·8 months agoIt's not really optional when you are in saturated categories!, So don't ASSUME this applies to every seller equally because it does not!
chapeau-noir
·8 months agoEbay never misses a trick.
hartungcards
·8 months agoYou can say the same thing about listings that you click on by mistake when the page jumps while it's still loading all those "similar items you might be interested in."