eBay

dirk12955 · ‎04-09-2019

Promoted listings have been around for a while and caused a stir when first announced and became available. Not as heated as the GTC thing, But got thrashed around for some time.

1) Are you using promoted listings? Why, Why not?

2) Results? Good? Bad? Sideways?

3) %%%% What works? What % do you use?

For me I was reluctant to give EBAY any more of my money so I resisted. Sales got so bad Last June-July-August-September

I started to rethink the whole idea. I started offering discounts to my customers, 10% off if you buy 2 15% off

if you buy 3 and all that which they ignored completely.

My reasoning was I'd rather give the dimes and quarters to my customers than to ebay.

So I started using Promoted listings about December. Crickets, Nada, Nothing doing. I let it ride and sort of

forgot about it figuring it wasn't costing me anything if I'm not making any sales. I saw lots of views and no sales.

So in April, My promoted stuff has taken off like crazy. I'm selling enough that I've stopped hating the idea of paying extra.

Anybody else? Love it? Hate it?

calntom · ‎04-09-2019

Yes, I use the promoted listings at a very low percentage and I do see some fair results. Nothing breathtaking.

The best tool has been volume pricing for multi-quantity listings. Volume pricing has been a winner.

totoro470 · ‎04-09-2019

The question is, if everyone "promotes" at the same exact rate- is there even a benefit? I mean, in principle, promoting gives your items more visibility over other seller's items but what happens when everyone does it?

Does it then become an arms race to see who pays the most percent?

From what you can probably tell, I don't agree with promoted listings in principle. Sellers in competitive categories may get a temporary sales boost but it's really at the expense of other sellers. Eventually those sellers losing their sales will also start promoting and... here you can see the problem. A few years down the road, we may be all be paying 5-10% promotions just to get the same level of sales as we had before.

hioctane62 · ‎04-09-2019

I've tried promoted listings for about a year, and ended my campaign when they announced the GTC thing. I just don't want to support eBay's ideas of how to improve the site, which only equates to maximizing their bottom line at the expense of yours and mine. I started a new campaign yesterday as an experiment, which only runs until the end of April.

I had mixed results, and I can't say any of the items that did sell wouldn't have sold regardless of using PL. The problem I run into is that most of my items are pretty unique, and many are the only ones listed on ebay. So when my items come up in a buyer's search results, it's likely a very short list of items they are looking at, and mine is there TWICE, which can be annoying to a buyer and even deter them from looking at my listing.

And as someone mentioned above, what happens when more are using PL, as ebay envisions, 40% to 50% of a buyer's search results are listed twice? Doesn't seem very well thought through.

I'll see how my experiment goes, with only 19 items promoted until the end of the month. So far, since yesterday, zero impressions.

dirk12955 · ‎04-09-2019

"Arms Race" is a good term. EBAY suggests 5.8% is trending so I choose, 5.9% or 6.1% and my competitor(s) something higher? Maybe way higher? Or maybe they pick nothing at all and I'm wasting my time and giving ebay a bump on the fees.

I tried using the multi-quanity discount and my customers just seem to ignore it.

I choose to not promote and my competitor(s) choose.01% they win.

Them and ebay win.

hioctane62 · ‎04-09-2019

Also, if your competitor is priced $100 more than you, but is paying a higher percentage for PL, I would assume HE gets a higher search placement. Ebay wants to be "pay-to-play", and I really don't think it can work in the long run. I also think ebay knows this, but is seizing the opportunity for the short term money grab. This seems to be eBay's business strategy for the past decade or more.

twnpopcards · ‎04-09-2019

@hioctane62 wrote:
Also, if your competitor is priced $100 more than you, but is paying a higher percentage for PL, I would assume HE gets a higher search placement. Ebay wants to be "pay-to-play", and I really don't think it can work in the long run. I also think ebay knows this, but is seizing the opportunity for the short term money grab. This seems to be eBay's business strategy for the past decade or more.

This has been Ebays strategy since Donohoe took over as his background was with Bain Capital and all they do is takeover companies in trouble and sell off a couple of pieces, cut expenses and make the company look like it is turned around, which in the short term it is. So every strategy that Donohoe knew was a short term fix and that trend has continued to the current CEO who had zero experience in this industry at all before Ebay hired him.

When Donohoe was hired it was stated that a Monkey could run Ebay as it practically ran itself. But unfortunately the new CEO had to throw a wrench into the operation and make drastic changes to try and make Ebay look better in the short run, which it did. Now Ebay is reaping the rewards of all that short term planning and finds itself becoming nothing but a distant memory in the industry it basically created.

Hopefully the BOD with its new additions will make whatever changes are needed to put this company back on track for the long run, if there is still a way to do so.

hioctane62 · ‎04-09-2019

Oh, yes. I remember when Donahoe used the term "disruptive innovation". We've all found out what he meant by that, and it's been an unstoppable freight train ever since.

dirk12955 · ‎04-09-2019

I am seeing my competitor selling certain thing for more that me. $14.95 vs my $13.95 if I put in 6.0% and he puts in 10% ?

scrapsmusic · ‎01-04-2020

I wish that my comment would address all of the negative comments that I've read about promoted listings. I felt that I was forced to use the PL's or otherwise I was going to have to file bankruptcy. I agree with many of the comments that buyers should get the opportunity to buy from the best sellers and that should be eBay's push, but my situation was not even close. I sell collectible vintage and antique sheet music and had become a top-plus seller about 6 months after I started selling on eBay. Did my top rated plus seller status help me with my sales? No. Did filling out all of the item specifics and even adding additional item specifics help with sales? No. Did free shipping? Did 12 images? Did thorough condition information or descriptions? Did having the best possible sheet music on the eBay market help? Did my 100% feedback? or any number of other things, such as my providing the best packaging help....none of those things even seemed to matter to eBay. Because regardless of having every possible keyword in my titles for the searches, eBay was rarely showing my listings in a manner that was visible to buyers who browsed the category where a great deal of anyone's new business comes from. I was constantly having to compete with seasoned sellers who were always getting the top spots, right along with all of the new sellers. Anyone in the middle of that, such as myself, would get the shaft when it came to placement. I jumped through every possible hoop that was available, keeping myself continually stressed out wondering how I was going to even pay my supply bill or having additional money for investments. Thank God for good credit, but of course I'm in major debt after dealing with such a farce as "Best Placement." Nonetheless, I do pay the most possible amount of money that I can afford for placement ads for ALL of my items. But even though I had to raise my prices, which were probably to low to begin with, it has not cost me buyers and my sales have gone up. I have now had items sell that were listed forever and ever, that I thought were never going to sell. I've got more followers now and my feedback is 110%+. even if that's not possible. I have buyers who are coming from other sellers, paying my prices, because they are happy with what they receive. They are no longer buying trash from the sellers that eBay was promoting based on whatever lying algorithm they claimed existed. I chose the 2-day shipping time-frame to reduce stress, which certainly has not hurt my sales any. I actually can do an even better job than I was prior to that in my specialized detailed packaging. I say, for all of those who complain about the costs, don't pay to play. Other sellers will not miss you, they will be glad you are not there. We live in a "Pay to Play" market when it comes to online sales, so once you figure that out and recognize that it's just another tax deduction than whoever you are that does all the complaining will become players. As far as GTC listings, I cycle my listings through whereas every day a percentage becomes a new "sell similar" listing, so that I'm back on top again instead of wallowing at the bottom. It takes a few minutes, but is worth every bit of it if I'm going to make any money whatsoever. I am totally against eBay having managed payments, but that is another day....