Advertising added to my Item ruins chance for a sale!

[lelandcox]

I havbe a  very good, very popular Ham Radio hand held radio for sale. Past sales of this radio are in the $300  to $400 range. I had it listed for $400 and lowered it to $350 and now to $325.  Ebay has added a bunch of advertised items to my page with some cheap items they deem as equilivent ort similat for as low as $12.  Twelve Dollars!!!!!!!  These are cheap knock offs and do not have all the functions of my item.  On the Price part of my listing they have A suggest price of less than $25.  

EBAY just destroyed the chance of me making a sale.  Their idea of "equivalent" is based on AI intelligence I guess.

You will not see the suggested price if you are logged on to ebay. This only showes up if someone else looks at your item.  Ebay dos not want you to know they are  under cutting your chance to sell your item. I doesn't make sence that they had rather make the commision off a $12 item than a $300 dollar item! DUH!!

Leland Cox

[hartungcards]

I'm not seeing any "suggetsed price" on your item.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@hartungcards wrote:

I'm not seeing any "suggetsed price" on your item.

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@lelandcox 

@hartungcards 

Unfortunately (or at least going by what I see) when I check out a listing the ads that get dropped into a sellers listings will vary for everyone that arrives. There are no guarantees those listings will be 100 % relevant. (Price and similarity to the listing they are in.) Still the biggest issue are those ads get dropped above the listing details. (Strangely eBay heard back from sellers that this was a big problem but refuses to correct even though they said they would.) Because of that if a buyer checking out an ad sees something lower price matching their requirements, in many cases they just go elsewhere. Once they are gone, they are not likely to return. This would be a valid reason for sellers seeing all the drops in business. To put another way it's like a buyer window shopping, seeing something of interest but not going in the actual store.

-Lotz

As of late it has felt like eBay has put cardboard over my store window so that potential buyers can only peek. Not seeing everything that is inside.

[lazarustradingco]

Actually, the sold price range for that model is $460-$200 with the recent majority in the lower end of that range. I see a few listed for sale below your price. You will likely have to wait to get your price, unfortunately. Also, the “suggested listed price” is only shown on the Edit or Create Listing page as far as I know.

[coolections]

I am sure someone who is wiling to pay $400 for an item will know the difference between your expensive radio and a cheap knockoff. It is very unlikely you are losing buyers because of a knockoff $12 item is shown on your page.

[myhomeschooldelights]

My seller hub stats show a 42.5% drop in sales the last 31 days.  I believe this issue is exactly the reason.

[theteamsetguy]

@myhomeschooldelights ,

Ebay has been advertising other sellers item on our listings pages for many many moons and my sales have not dropped. They have in fact increased over time as I have time to list more items.

[inhawaii]

Advertising added to my Item ruins chance for a sale!

There are millions of others making sales. 

How do we do it?

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@lelandcox wrote:

I havbe a  very good, very popular Ham Radio hand held radio for sale. Past sales of this radio are in the $300  to $400 range. I had it listed for $400 and lowered it to $350 and now to $325.  Ebay has added a bunch of advertised items to my page with some cheap items they deem as equilivent ort similat for as low as $12.  Twelve Dollars!!!!!!!  These are cheap knock offs and do not have all the functions of my item.  On the Price part of my listing they have A suggest price of less than $25.  

EBAY just destroyed the chance of me making a sale.  Their idea of "equivalent" is based on AI intelligence I guess.

You will not see the suggested price if you are logged on to ebay. This only showes up if someone else looks at your item.  Ebay dos not want you to know they are  under cutting your chance to sell your item. I doesn't make sence that they had rather make the commision off a $12 item than a $300 dollar item! DUH!!

Leland Cox

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Any intelligent buyer, you know, the kind of buyers you actually want, the ones who understand the item you're selling and it's value, those buyers will be fully aware that those cheap knockoffs don't compare, so those advertisements do NOT harm you in that sense. In my opinion, the only way advertisements hurt you, is if the item is comparable and the other listing/price is better. 

Your item is shown next to tons of items in search. These advertisements are no different, and if your item truly can't compete with those advertised on your listing page, you need to fix your item/listing/pics/price in order to be competitve. Welcome to capitalism. This is HEALTHY capitalism at it's best...

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@myhomeschooldelights wrote:

My seller hub stats show a 42.5% drop in sales the last 31 days.  I believe this issue is exactly the reason.

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Ads have been around a lot longer than 31 days, so why do you believe you only experienced such a precipitous drop now?

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Advertising added to my Item ruins chance for a sale!

There are millions of others making sales. 

How do we do it?

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@inhawaii 

How do we do it? Because we are the ones being advertised on everyone else's listings! *cue evil laugh* That is how we make the sales!

Muahahahaha 😈😈😈

[myhomeschooldelights]

Yes, ads have been around a very long time.  It seems like sponsored items were on the bottom for a long time though, below the seller's own description rather than above it and above the item specifics as they show now - although that's not new, either.   I certainly wish I knew why there has been such a drop in my sales.  I've been here for 25 years and things have gone well.  Traditionally, August and Sept should be 2nd-only to holidays in sales for me, and I am actually advertising more now than I was last year, so I really don't know this year has been so different than the past.  Perhaps it's just the overall economy affecting my niche more than others so far.  

[inhawaii]

How about sellers who are up 42.5%?

Why are these ads not detracting from their sales?

[chapeau-noir]

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@myhomeschooldelights wrote:

Yes, ads have been around a very long time.  It seems like sponsored items were on the bottom for a long time though, below the seller's own description rather than above it and above the item specifics as they show now - although that's not new, either.   I certainly wish I knew why there has been such a drop in my sales.  I've been here for 25 years and things have gone well.  Traditionally, August and Sept should be 2nd-only to holidays in sales for me, and I am actually advertising more now than I was last year, so I really don't know this year has been so different than the past.  Perhaps it's just the overall economy affecting my niche more than others so far.  

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They've been at the top of the listing for quite a while. eBay *said* they were going to shift the ads to below the fold, so to speak, but they haven't and so far have danced around the issue. I find the whole thing a sloppy money grab because the chances of our item being cross-listed are minuscule (particularly in saturated markets) and they worsen the buyer experience by making it more difficult to actually find the description and fracture any flow in the advert. The ads need to be shifted below the description, which would retain the cross-advertisement, for what it's worth, and improve buyer experience.

But it's nothing new and I doubt that or the economy has anything to do with it. I experienced a big drop, too, but when I looked at my stats over the last year, it's actually averages out to a normal year - what has fluctuated is how much I have listed. I'm in a different market, though.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

It is likely that those ads were in the search and the buyer who reached your page was more interested in your item.

It is more likely that you failed to close the sale than the buyer was distracted by the ads and left your page.

The reasons can range from the content of the buyer's pocketbook to the description and condition of your product vs its price.

The days of buyers spending hours deciding to make a purchase on Ebay are long gone. There are too many other distractions.