Promotional Listing, what a scam...
So I'm a small time seller (~12-15k per year estimated) between eBay and Etsy. Since I started I always(or typically) did promoted listings because I thought it would help my sales. Tested various different % and never really saw a huge boost. I always questioned if someone searched for my item and found it organically would eBay still charge me that ad fee. How would I ever really know if it was through a promoted listing or not? When I did self-research to see how my items ranked on dummy accounts or proxies it never seemed to matter much.
Well the big slap in the face today is I had a customer request a custom item, I made the item, took pictures, and copied a previous listing and modified it to them via eBay messages. I used the "share" button from the eBay mobile app and pasted it into the eBay message for the buyer. From creation of the listing to the sale was ~5 minutes per my dashboard.
Checked today out of dumb luck and saw a 17% hit on that sale for Ad Fee General. I had 0 clue that if a listing is set to promoted that no matter HOW you sell it, you get hit with that fee. Support told me that the system has no way of knowing, even though it says in their policies if you use the unique link, you get your final value fee refunded to your invoice.
"Why should I share my unique link?
When you share your unique listing link on social media, via e-mail, or through another available sharing option, and a buyer purchases your item through that unique link, you will receive a credit back on any final value fee related to the sale."
So, if the system can decipher that, how in the hell can it not know, or be coded to not charge the promoted item fee? I've likely lost a decent sum (by my standards) due to this but also as far as I can tell in the app it gives you 0 indication that this is how the promoted listing system works.
Regardless, as soon as my Etsy store hits a few more thousand in sales, I'm outta here and shutting my shop down. Ebay's fee structure is diabolical and if they claim I'm paying for "the platform and exposure" well, explain why I'm selling more on Etsy not advertising now than I am on eBay advertising and pretty much triple the fees. Anyway, that's my rant, shady business practices imo and claiming "limited" technology capabilities is laughable.
stainlessenginecovers
·2 years ago1.) The 'halo' effect was clearly communicated and it basically states that IF A BUYER FINDS YOU by clicking on ANY 1 'promoted' listing- that ANY and ALL items that person now may buy from you- is at considered, and charged, the Promoted rate (paraphrasing) (that YOU, the Seller, decided the amount)
2.) Using the 'give ebay the ability to determine the best percentage for you'; is available and VERY dangerous to your pocket. Simply USE A NUMBER and NEVER 'Automate' ANYthing here.
the-hook-and-the-loop
·2 years agoThere's a part two to their scam. If eBay does give a seller a credit back(could be $0.50), you can't receive 2 credits within 12 months. So eBay is saying they don't make mistakes, and THE SYSTEM KNOWS and charges fees correctly.
selsa84
·2 years agoThere was a glitch last year where rates were raised without seller knowing. Ida Steiner had an article on it and I believe eBay said it did infact happen accidentally.
inhawaii
·2 years agoPromotional Listing, what a scam.
Fortunately it's a voluntary scam.
isaiah53-57
·2 years agoThats sad and crooked in my opinion...
Trust in business is of the utmost importance - We no longer list here because we dont trust the site or its managers as far as we can throw their home office...
dbr_14
OP2 years agoExtremely crooked. I mean if this was just a random sale I wouldn't care in the slightest cause "oh yeah idiot you copied the listing with the 17% bla bla" but the fact it ambiguously chooses what it can and can't/won't decipher within a sale when it comes to a "promoted" listing is wack.
kenneth686321
·2 years agoIf you use "sell similar" you need to check if promotions are turned on or not. If the listing you copied to sell similar has promotions turned on you need to turn them off. Always double check BEFORE you hit list now.
The reason why you are selling more on Etsy is because obviously Esty is a better platform for your specific artsy niche. You sell unique artsy hats which if I were in the market for one of those hats, I'd head over to Etsy first. Have you every tried to sell a handbag, car parts, tools, sporting goods, electronics on Etsy? It's crickets, but the artsy crafty sellers are making a killing there.
Etsy is better for arts crafty items, Deepop and Posh for clothing items, Reverb for guitars, Amazon for new items arriving today, Temu for cheap non branded new items, FB CL and Offerup for local pickup hard to ship items.
Ebay is best for used items.
You need to figure out which platform is the best to sell your items. May not necessarily be Ebay
dbr_14
OP2 years agoYou're not wrong, and I've now removed all promoted listings campaigns. The issue here is because I used my unique link and sent it to the customer within eBay's own app, and that customer bought it from that unique link, the one that supposedly relays back to the mothership that I should get my Final Value Fee refunded, but yet it's not "capable" of knowing that eBay didn't promote or do anything to obtain that additional fee they took. That's the issue and that is not at all transparent in the slightest. Not to mention from the time I copied my own listing, modified it with the new pictures of the custom item and they bought it was 5 or 6 minutes lol.
As far as the platform to sell on, eBay was out performing Etsy 3:1 or more last year into the spring, now it's an 8:1 swing in favor of Etsy, which I'm good with cause the fees are half, the mobile app is infinitely better, the web app is better. Just a better selling experience overall. But like you said, it fits my niche.
pinpin_54
·2 years agoHow do you remove your promoted listing