Is there a connection between eBays Spring cleaning and the removal of Sponsored ads within listings

[timemachine777]

What's your take? I find it very interesting and timely that while eBay decides to purge all the sponsored ad links within all the listings that they made affiliate fees from, They launch the Spring cleaning campaign to rid the site of all the older listings that they no longer need for all of those sponsored ads that were removed.

In the two decades that eBay has been around, they could care less about how old a sellers active listing were as they pushed the GTC (Good Till Canceled) option. Now they do claim that the ads were removed so that they could make room for their new fee based highest bidder search placement promoted listing program. 

I can see that they can't have both the promoted listings and the 3rd party sponsored ads, and all the other ads in the sellers product listings. The product being offered for sale would be lost among the already eBay cluttered listing.

The big difference between the these two products is that it benefited eBay to have as many active listings on the site as possible to load them up with the sponsored ads, because at the least, eBay got a click fee from the sponsors, and the chance to make a very high commission if a buyer portal jumps to the sponsors site through the ad an buys something there. 

Those listings were all used as portal bait for affiliate fees that eBay would get. However the Promoted ads do not work the same way as eBay only makes money if the your item sells within the 30 days the item was clicked on by the buyer. (But there's no way for a seller to really know if their item was bought from a promoted listing placement or a reg search placement, or better yet, a buyer rummaging through their active inventory. Which is another issue altogether). 

So eBay would no longer benefit from a site loaded with whatever someone wants to list for sale. It would actually benefit eBay to have a more slimmed down site with quicker selling items, as it would reduce eBay's storage, server, and bandwidth costs. So in the end it's less about the sellers profits and more about eBay's profits as par course.

[z50com]

"cutting and pasting the same thing all over the net"

You don't like facts?

Bidadoo sells a lot of high dollar items, I follow then because they sell Boeing surplus out of Seattle on eBay weekly.

They have been very SUCCESFUL on eBay. . .

[annindallas]

Hi Timemacine777.

Your original post was a thoughtful post and I enjoyed it.

Timemachine777, nothing is co-ordinated. Maybe they try but no, not at all.

There are too many tentacles on this octopus who have no interest in what the other hand is doing. The head of the octopus just wants to eat and doesn't care which tentacle feed it when or where or why or how.

[timemachine777]

I don't see eBay changing anything. They continue to make changes on a continual basis. They've made so many changes, so fast, that they can no longer keep up with all the glitches and bugs that their actions are creating on the site. I'm waiting for the implosion and the meltdown that follows it. I would also hate to be an eBay stock holder when it happens.

[annindallas]

Hi Time.

Those changes only seem fast to us. 

They were decided six months to a year ago,

based on data they had to analyze for six months to a year. By the time they throw it in our laps, the trend is waning. It's embarrassing for them and us. Like trying to be an amazon wannabe. Too late.

Haven't you ever walked into a company and knew exactly how to fix it? Ever sit in a meeting and try not to laugh out loud? Over and over again? 

No one in ebay, in capacity, has their finger on the pulse of this consumer base. They're using old data. Bad choices.

But to their credit, they're still here. Ridiculous and laughable and incompetent, but here.

[cell.buyer]

The only thing this management team is good at is shooting themselves in the foot, it is too bad they are taking honest and hard working sellers down the tubes with them.

We can't even get an answer on why they are using UPC codes to remove millions of listings, eBay employees will not answer this because they do not have a solution to this management caused disaster.

[cell.buyer]

That is an old wives tale, search engines can read and index more than the first 4 words, try again.

Who is 'our' and the 'we' you always talk about ??

[timemachine777]

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@annindallas wrote:

Hi Time.

Those changes only seem fast to us. 

They were decided six months to a year ago,

based on data they had to analyze for six months to a year. By the time they throw it in our laps, the trend is waning. It's embarrassing for them and us. Like trying to be an amazon wannabe. Too late.

Haven't you ever walked into a company and knew exactly how to fix it? Ever sit in a meeting and try not to laugh out loud? Over and over again? 

No one in ebay, in capacity, has their finger on the pulse of this consumer base. They're using old data. Bad choices.

But to their credit, they're still here. Ridiculous and laughable and incompetent, but here.

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eBay reminds me of a friend of mine. He's short tempered and will fire his entire crew before the day even starts, but they just ignore him nowadays, accept the new employees that will be walking around in circles, asking what just happened.

Anyway...He owns a cleaning business and has loads of contracts with the local businesses to keep their places/stores clean. He runs his business so poorly that if you just met him, you'd be like..."That business will not last a year". But it's lasted 30 years. The reason why, is because he has no real competition yet, and I stress yet. 

Every year he'll lose some of his contracts, only to get them back months, or even a year later. eBay ends up with that same issue. Sellers leave, but some come back. However, sooner rather than later, eBay's going to get it's lunch eaten more an more.

Unlike a local business that has little competition because not everyone wants to be in the cleaning business. eBay is on the Net where there's a whole world of competition just waiting for you to make all the right mistakes.

[timemachine777]

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@cell.buyer wrote:

That is an old wives tale, search engines can read and index more than the first 4 words, try again.

Who is 'our' and the 'we' you always talk about ??

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Was this post for me? It's attached to post 41, but I'm lost, as to what your referring to. I need some context and the actual post, to respond.

[timemachine777]

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@annindallas wrote:

Hi Time.

Those changes only seem fast to us. 

They were decided six months to a year ago,

based on data they had to analyze for six months to a year. By the time they throw it in our laps, the trend is waning. It's embarrassing for them and us. Like trying to be an amazon wannabe. Too late.

Haven't you ever walked into a company and knew exactly how to fix it? Ever sit in a meeting and try not to laugh out loud? Over and over again? 

No one in ebay, in capacity, has their finger on the pulse of this consumer base. They're using old data. Bad choices.

But to their credit, they're still here. Ridiculous and laughable and incompetent, but here.

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I still don't get why eBay has this insistent need to keep changing things on the site.