Not Paying for eBay Promotion Fees has Destroyed my Store Business.... Extortion?

[dotyprints]

20 years, and when promotion option was implemented, a steady decline in Store sales followed... Any ponies in the pile of S**T stories anyone want to impart?

[hartungcards]

I don't understand the question.

[heckofagame]

You are saying that because you did not take advantage of promoted listings, that your sales have declined?

Makes sense. If others paid for promotion and you did not, their similar items would appear higher in the search results than yours. It's advertising. It's how it's supposed to work. 

[Anonymous]

About a month ago, I finally knuckled under and went ALL IN on the eBay promotions.  I'm using in-listing coupons, direct offers to those who've clickety clicked on my items, 'free shipping' and was also recently using Promoted Listing Standard.  I'll be switching to Promoted Listing Advanced this weekend to try it out.

I've relied on the 'my products will sell themselves' model forever, but it seems like those days are gone.  In the real world of retail online sales, you can't click on a website without getting that SPLASH page with a coupon or sales promotion in exchange for signing up or giving your email or some other trick.  Just GETTING a buyer to click on your website (customer acquisition) is VERY expensive.  The costs of keeping the buyer (customer retention) is also VERY expensive.

SO!  eBay does all of the front loaded commercials with that Car Talk guy, the customer acquisition of getting consumers to actually spend 15 seconds looking a the site, driving demand by moving the dedicated, more serious, sellers to the top, and making all of the transaction infrastructure available for you to use.

Some of this stuff you get for free.  Some of it you have to pay for.  Some of it you have to pay extra for.  You can't have a garage sale without putting up signs on the corner, listing it on MarketPlace, maybe putting an old fashioned ad in the local newspaper.  Drive by customers are no longer an option.  Making it easy for customers to buy your stuff is no longer simple, but it IS doable.  It's a brave new world, and buyers got used to having everything handed to them during the plandemic.  Adapt, evolve or die.

[collectfest]

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@heckofagame wrote:

You are saying that because you did not take advantage of promoted listings, that your sales have declined?

Makes sense. If others paid for promotion and you did not, their similar items would appear higher in the search results than yours. It's advertising. It's how it's supposed to work. 

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It may be how it works on eBay but to state it is how "...it's supposed to work." Is an opinion.

Placing IRELIVANT item in search that have been promoted can and does affect some buyers (including me) to shop elsewhere. If promoted items in search were actually what customers typed in the search bar, I'd agree with you. They clearly are not. 

[evelyb30]

 We sellers of vintage items that are often OOAKs (at least on the site currently for sale) don't get the help commodity sellers do from promoted listings.  A boost in search doesn't mean much when there are only a dozen to find in the first place ...under the promoted items eBay thought were relevant and mostly are a good way to convince buyers to shop elsewhere because the search is messed up.  And provided the search kicks them out instead of kicking them to the curb.  

[capital_coin_atx]

Yeah and you just exactly explained the point he is trying to make. It's complete and utter **bleep** that a person who has been on ebay 20 years(the backbone of what built ebay into what it is) with good reviews is getting kicked to the curb like that. He knows exactly how it works so you aren't explaining anything to him. We know how it works. What are you explaining exactly? lol Some peoples margins are too thin to pay 12.5% plus another 8% for promotions. Promotions have completely ruined ebay and the small guy. This guy has been with them over 20 years and now getting screwed because he can't give a corporate giant 20% of his sales. When ebay could easily charge people 3% plus maybe another 2% for promotions. It's ridiculous and extremely greedy.  

[hachumi]

It's called pay to play, a lot of "free" video games are like this.  Pay them and you win more.  I just got an email from eBay that I could be a super duper seller, and get more discounts, rainbows and unicorns. If I just confirm a bit more like have a 1 day handling fee, ect.   So it's work harder for less and you'll get ahead.  I've heard that someware before.  Oh yeah, it was from the people that ran the company I worked for, and they always seemed to work less for more.

[meme6253]

The Promoted Listings Are Not Fair !, Even when you are promoting, I Have been promoting quite a few listings only at the minimal, but when I find my items I find tons of listings still in front of mine that are not even being promoted, Even Minimal When No One Else Is Should Get You Top Listing, But It Doesn't,Other Wise what exactly are we paying for??,  So where is the Incentive anymore, Between the mess with, Search, & Item Specifics that No One Will Fix!, & Some Say It Is Not A Problem, But Most Say It Is!, I still find a Mess looking for items constantly, It just seems like way to much work here & VERY LITTLE REWARD, Times are Tough No Doubt About That, But The Problems Here Are Not Helping Matters At All!!, My Store Renews Soon & Debating Whether to Keep It Or Not, Frustrated & Aggravated!!, The Comment From Underwirez,About Adapt,Evolve Or Die, Is True Only to some Extent, The Problem Here Is That Is Way To Much A Constant, When they constantly change things on a whim, & mess things up more than they help, Their Is a Systemic Problem Here That Needs Attention & Is Not Getting It!

[dolcetreasures]

PL have completely destroyed any last vestiges of profit I had left. But absolutely nothing sells without them. Unfortunately it’s time to leave this place behind for good. 

[chapeau-noir]

Whatever it is, it's not extortion.

[rugerskick]

Ebays top officers have stated they want less low dollar, low value sellers here.  Most of ebays sellers fall into this category.   Factor in how Ebay, on almost every issue now, is increasingly punitive, one-sided against sellers, unhelpful or just incorrect in what they say, and even ready to ban sellers for not picking up a verification phone call they miss...

Do the math.

[femmefan1946]

I'm puzzled that many sellers who are using PL are also accepting the fantasic * percentages eBay suggests. On one of my accounts which sells only one product, the suggested rate varies from 5.9% to 12.3%, even if the product is from the same manufacturer.

We have a choice in the rate.

I choose to use two percent, the lowest available, because most of my products are hard to find, although not rare or OOAK.

Ebays top officers have stated they want less low dollar, low value sellers here. 

"Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen. It's not going to happen."  - Mean Girls.

By the way, since it often comes up in these discussions, a couple of months ago, eBay changed the way Views are recorded. We now only see Views made in the past 30 days and we no longer see Views from 'bots including eBay's own 'bots.

*as in 'living in a fantasy world'

[meme6253]

Whatever it is it has an ODOR!

[debjbrom]

I completely agree.  Normally I would get plenty of views. Now listings I pay for promotion get average views, and the ones I don't pay for are lucky to get ONE view over a 7-10 days, which is ridiculous. Especially since I sell unique items where they should be at the top of relevant results, and they used to generate far more views. If eBay keeps up these unfair tactics exploiting people in exchange for a few views when you're already paying fees that they aren't delivering on, this is abuse and they're just asking for regulation.