Listing Promos from ebay...

[crestviewmarket]

Is there a reason ebay no longer gives out listing promos anymore?  I havent gotten a extra promo for free or discounted listings in months?  Have they done away with it?

[femmefan1946]

Promotions are for the benefit of eBay-- and always have been.

At one time, eBay gave out promotions widely and fairly often.

They were building their seller base.

Many of those promotions were superceded by the 50 Free Listings every seller gets.

In addition, those of us with Stores get more 'free' listings* every month.

If eBay is trying to prop up the fading Auctions sector, now down to less than 15% of listings, they will offer a promo on Auctions.

If they are trying to turn buyers into sellers, they will offer generous Free Listing promos to buyers or to sleeping accounts.

If they are trying to promote Free Listing, they will offer deals on listings with Free Shipping.

It's not for your benefit.

And just to make this more general.

If a B&M store is having a Summer Sale, either they are trying to get customers in for new stock or trying to clear old stock before the Fall merchandise arrives.

If they are having a BOGO sale, nothing is free, they are just hiding the percentage off they are offering.

If they are offering 50% off merchandise, either they paid less than that for the stuff or they made enough profit on the full price sales to cover the minor loss on the sale merchandise. Probably both.

It's not for your benefit.

*Not really free, because we are charged a monthly fee, but certainly a 5c listing is cheaper than a 30c listing.

[lookng2015]

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@jamesquinn-half wrote:

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

eBay cannot live without sellers.

I actually agree with that statement (I remain convinced that buyers are much more important).

On the other hand I would refine that statement to read "eBay cannot live without sellers but they could certainly live with 10,000,000 sellers instead of the 25,000,000 they currently have".

As far as buyers, eBay or ANY merchant can rarely have too many buyers.

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One aspect of this topic worth bearing in mind, in the past when eBay seemed to work much better, almost all sellers where also buyers. And many buyers became sellers over time.

By destroying the small seller community eBay has also destroyed much of its buying base. I bought on eBay for at least a year before I started selling. And probably bought more than I sold for my first ten years on the site. There are very few people like that today.

I don't know how the math all works out, but dividing eBay users up into buyers and sellers denys one of the site's only traditional advantages over other (better run and less annoying) e-commerce sites, that it was built on a community of people who bought AND sold.

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And the big box sellers and the offshore sellers rarely buy (or not here at least)

[lookng2015]

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@banana*shoe*boutique wrote:

Once I opened a store I went on eBay's Don't-send-her-a-coupon-she'll-list-anyway List 

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Which is EXACTLY what a too honest for his own good rep told me once lol

[smenkveld]

Ebay has been doing lots of bonus ebay bucks promotions this year and as a seller I prefer the ebay bonus bucks promotions of 8 - 10 percent than getting free listings because my sales go up when they run those promotions and at the beginning of the quarter my sales jump up again with buyers spending their ebay bucks. That 8 - 10 percent is a real strong motivator to turn watchers into buyers. 

[femmefan1946]

Exactly.

EBay makes money on listings but they make a lot more money  on successful sales.

Which is why those mega-sellers are so welcomed, even to the point of giving them lower fees.

Which would you rather have 5% of a million $1 sales or 10% of 10,000 $10 sales? And with 140 million transactions a day, the numbers are going to be higher than that.

The penny sellers are the ones we see, but many of those mega-sellers are listing much better merchandise. Not flea market, but WalMart grade goods. Or even product that rivals Lowe's or (insert well -known US retailer here).