@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@zamo-zuan You say: " If you don't use ads, you go out of business" and "it's pretty sad to see that the popular opinion on here is often so far off from the truth, and even sadder that people don't believe the truth when sharing our real life experiences on here (rather than just presumption and hearsay)."
I think the real problem....and the reason this Board is stuck in an endless loop on this topic...is that both views are correct.
If I say: "ebay does not require us to use PL", I am 100% correct, and you know it. There is NO requirement that I use PL. It is an option, just as there is no requirement that I offer Free Returns, for example.
If you say "" If I don't use ads, I'll go out of business", that may well be true...for you and SOME sellers. As a practical matter, some sellers NEED to use PLs to stay competitive. There is NO ebay requirement that they use them, but there is a practical need to use them. So, I get that, and I think most people here do get that.
But when you apply that to everyone, by saying "" If you don't use ads, you go out of business"....well, that goes too far. We aren't all in the same boat when it comes to PL. There ARE sellers who can do just fine without Pls. Maybe---I emphasize "maybe"--- they'd do even better with PLs, but it's their choice. And, as a practical matter, it IS a choice.
So, does ebay REQUIRE that we use PL? NO.
Do ALL sellers need to use it to survive? Again, NO.
Do SOME sellers, as a practical matter, need to use it to survive? YES.
I agree with most, but not all of this.
I could have worded things better as my words are not intended to say "everyone" has to promote or go out of business. As shown in my message, I was referring to our own experience.
I've said on here many times that not everyone has to promote. There's a difference between many people who sell on here for supplemental income, and those who treat eBay as their primary business. It's those who treat eBay as a primary business that need to invest.
If a seller built a business on eBay that for 10+ years has made over $100k/month and has warehouses/employees/investments that are reliant on income, and then suddenly eBay has changed things to where they will only get $20k/a month without investing in PL? That's not really a choice. And that's what I'm referring to.
It's not that buyers still aren't there. It's just that they changed it from organic things such as product history and happy customers no longer matter in search placement, and paying is what gives you the search placement/traffic.
We can say PL is "technically" not forced, but as mentioned earlier, we can say thing about gas. We can say the same thing about utilities, electricity, even food - you're not "forced" to buy any of those either, but do you really have a choice?
If the answer is your livelihood and/or business are in danger without investing, then that's not really a choice.
I don't think your examples apply. As people aren't saying "eBay doesn't require us to use PL" - what you see in this thread and often on here is people saying "nobody is forcing you to use PL" - and that's a very different statement.
So yes, I concede that I could have worded my statement better when speaking of our own experience - it truly wasn't intended as a blanket statement (and my words in many posts on here I believe show that I don't believe it is that way).
But if I'm seeing people say "nobody is forcing you to use PL" - that's not an accurate statement, only in a technicality but not reality. Let's be real, nobody would be investing in PL if they didn't have to. That's a foolish argument when businesses who lose a huge amount of traffic without investing are indeed forced.
If this were actually taken in to consideration (and other people didn't discredit others experiences on here), there wouldn't be that endless loop. It's not like I don't accept that not everyone needs PL, but others don't accept that many sellers like us are forced to do PL or close our doors.
You mentioned that you think most people do get that, but you can search through this thread and see people repeatedly disregarding this fact. This "loop" wouldn't be happening at all if the reality of all of our experiences were taken in to consideration.
It also leads to how people on here often say "Well it's a necessity because there's so much competition on eBay". A ranking algorithm is necessary, that part is true. But eBay ALWAYS had a ranking system to earn a better spot - the problem is that it used to be on good metrics, a strong history, and taking care of your customers. Now none of those matters and it's about who will dish out the most money. Which is unhealthy for the marketplace, buyers, and everyone outside of eBay and their investors (in the short term - long term it's unhealthy for eBay too).
