16.3 % Suggested Promotional Rate in My Category

[seymourssi]

LoL.  A shameless new low for eBay.  16.3% suggested on top of the 12% they already charge.  That's 16.3% of the item charge, shipping and sales tax, for those of you that are not hip to the actual charge.  Works out to be like 40% of the item. 

Will be moving my items back to 2% just for the insult, thanks for the memories eBay.  And moving my items elsewhere....

[siamjane8]

I have heard allot of sellers seeing the same results! Stop promoting and the sales come back lol......Ebay has mismanaged the entire promoted listings program to the point that its irrelevant and actually hurts sales.

    Many of us have been saying it for years- once ebay pushed PL and more and more sellers felt the pressure to adopt them- mathematically- nobody became promoted anymore.    If everything is "promoted", then nothing is lol.

     When you promote your listings- you basically forfeit your listing showing up in an organic search.   The search bar is the buyers first look at what is available- and your (if you promote) listings are no longer there! they are hidden in promoted listing carousels on other peoples listing pages!  What is the logic behind that????

     I have been doing controlled search testing and have found that promoting listings actually get you far less RELEVANT views than if it came up in a regular search because the buyer typed in a keyword that matches your listing.     The only way you listings now will come up is if you search on google instead of ebays own search engine........ what a screwed up backwards mess they have created!

[laststopgeneralstore]

So what? Who cares? You have the option to promote your item at whatever percentage you want starting at a minimum of 2%. Why waste time concerning yourself with something that is not only out of your control but doesn't effect your business in anyway. Now if eBay FORCED that rate then this would be a different store but they don't so who cares.

You don't need to promote your listings to get sales, promoting your listings doesn't mean your going to get more sales either. All it means is that you may get more traffic/impressions/views but if you have items listed that people don't want then it won't matter because at the end of the day it's up to the customer to make the decision and follow thru and purchase what you're selling.

Easy fix, sell better and more desirable, higher sell-thru-rate items.

[seconhandrosie]

It's called corporate greed. I'm waiting for the 100% promo rate. The brown noses will be in their glory!

[seconhandrosie]

The Feebay big shots each need another Villa in the Alps. Pure corporate greed.

[seconhandrosie]

They are the 'Favorite' sellers. lol

[rugerskick]

They already make money off our sales and subscriptions.  We are already in competition here with everyone, without having to pay extra to ebay for it.  But ebay found another way to make money by pitting seller against seller by tying our items' site exposure to it.  And advertising them right in the face of potential buyers reviewing our item descriptions, splitting up our item description with two rows of ads for other sellers.

[jupiter_collectibles]

It's honestly disgusting. Just keeps getting higher and higher. One of mine is 16.4%. they're pushing people away in droves. Forcing people to promote their items and if they do not they get no sales. eBay wins and we all lose. 

[siamjane8]

The only way to fix it is to stop promoting and make ebay "work" for their share by making meaningful improvements instead of suppressing search results and tricking sellers into paying more to be seen. Just need enough sellers to realize they are getting ripped off by PL.   That is the hard part for us as sellers and the easy part for ebay to take advantage of its sellers- human nature and desperation for sales.

[kabilab]

Nuc,

I am definitely NOT a cheerleader, as there are some e-Bay situations of which I disagree, BUT, those all involve areas of which I have zero control. As to promoting, though, to my knowledge it is completely voluntary. If that feature does not float one's boat, they have simply to ignore that OPTION.

This is business. If a profit is not possible without excessively promoting, the time has come for a decision.

[vintagecraze50]

You would only use that high of a suggested ad rate if you can price the item where you will make a decent profit. For some sellers including a very high suggested ad rate for a few of their items, and zero to negative profit on those items may attract the buyers to their overall offering where many of them are set much lower. PRICE is always THE MOST important factor when using PL. If you become way too over priced compared to your competitor you will not be successful with this.

[vintagecraze50]

If your price is better than those promoting at that high rate then yours more likely to sell. Buyers will do a thorough search for what they want, that cannot be suppressed. Limiting the views of listings to customers just because they do not promote at high levels is not ethical and certainly not happening here as those listing are also profitable for ebay.

[vintagecraze50]

The ADS under your listing are helpful. If you are pit against another sell with much higher prices.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.