Promote or Not to Promote?

[ten_o_nine]

My thought is if no one wants your item, no one will buy it. Stop the madness and eBay will do the same.

[12345jamesstamps]

The more items a seller list the more exposure you have. That's what I found out. Listings a few items every day also helps. I gave up on promoting. I only have a few hundred promoted items left on cheap items. 

But isn't giving 10 % off on your stuff the same as promoting at 10 %? You're still losing the same amount at 10 % to eBay. Also doing a few auctions will give more exposure to what a seller is selling.

I did a few promoted listings at 25 % but still that wasn't the answer. Luckily, I took those items off of that 25% promoted listing and sure enough they sold.

[inhawaii]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

My thought is if no one wants your item, no one will buy it. Stop the madness and eBay will do the same.

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You are absolutely correct.

However getting EVERYBODY to not participate in PL will not happen.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

You'll never get all sellers to refrain from using PLS, just as ebay will never get all sellers to use it.

[yuzuha]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

My thought is if no one wants your item, no one will buy it.

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Exactly. You can promote an item for 100% but if no one wants it, it isn't going to sell. Sellers need to be realistic about just how much demand there is for what they're selling. The problem is that a lot of sellers aren't.

[mybigsale]

@ten_o_nine 

You are absolutely wrong. You underestimate eBays madness. 🙄

With eBays new Promoted Ads rule, if a buyer clicks on your Promoted AD for the item no one wants and looks at other of your promoted items without clicking on the promoted listing for that item eBay still collects the promoted fees for the items the buyer does want and buys.

eBay will find a way 🤑

[ten_o_nine]

Sweet, icing on top of the cake. 😆

[mybigsale]

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

Sweet, icing on top of the cake. 😆

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Nice analogy. eBay gets Cake AND Icing.

What is it that sellers get?

[slippinjimmy]

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@mybigsale wrote:

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@ten_o_nine wrote:

Sweet, icing on top of the cake. 😆

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Nice analogy. eBay gets Cake AND Icing.

What is it that sellers get?

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They get a sale they might not have otherwise have.

That is pretty much the point of advertising, new merchants want customers so they advertise, established merchants want more customers so they advertise.

[reallynicestamps]

You can promote an item for 100% but if no one wants it, it isn't going to sell.

And the Promotion will cost you nothing, since the PL fee only kicks in when the item sells.

Meanwhile your item will show up slightly more often than those offered by non-PL users to those very few who might be interested.

I did find that when  I  used PL, my sales of PL items did not particularly increase, but Views of all my listings did increase and sales of non-PL items increased.

I used the minimum percentage.

However.

That was before the pandemic surge in online buying, and I didn't think keeping any sort of records of PL/non-PL sales was worthwhile when that seachange was underway.

At the moment, and anecdote is not data, I sell a slightly higher proportion of my non-PL items than of my PL items.

But offering discounts to Watchers is a complete bust no matter how high  I go.

[joliztoyco]

And then they look at the payout Ebay sent to their bank and they go "Crap. This is unsustainable. I spent time listing it, packing it, and taking it to the Post Office. And Ebay made more on my auction then I did?
I'm outta here."

[kabilab]

When I opened an account with e-Bay 19 yrs. ago, my prime motivator was to liquidate product I had failed to sell in my store. I mention that, due to the manner by which I employ PLs may not work for sellers concerned only with profit.

My main category is movies, with a distant second to games. As I scan what has been sold and the price, I determine if I will give an item 30 days without a PL. If it does not sell, for the next month I consider the number of identical listings, as I need to be at or near the top, but only if there are oodles of the same product. I rarely accept the suggested %.

All of the above is on an individual basis,  with profit not being a consideration, but also not selling at a loss. Finally, I am 80, so my time is not a consideration. Were I on e-Bay for profit and I were 50, my approach would be radically different.

[natoman777]

I have been selling on eBay since 1999.  I have not used promotions one time.  I am not one to complain about the % eBay gets on sales because I know without eBay I wouldn't have the sale.  But as far as promotions go... I see no reason.  I utilize sales, coupons... and try to list my items the best I can in order to sell.

I agree with others here that there promotions are not going away.  What's funny to me is that eBay could put money into advertising and do away with promotions and probably make more money.  just a thought

[mybigsale]

@slippinjimmy

They get a sale they might not have otherwise have.

Or, they lose a sale they would have had without promoted listings ever existing.  For many eBay sellers with good relevant organic listings, it is essentially a fee increase to get what you already had, or a loss in service if you choose to not use the promoted Ads. 

I know I can set my Ad Rate to 100% and eBay will help me beat out the competition. Great news for me! Thanks eBay! 🙄 Much better off with Ads than when I had to focus on relevant organic listings.

And I know the buyers must love the Promoted Ads that almost match what they were searching for...

[reallynicestamps]

But as far as promotions go... I see no reason. I utilize sales, coupons... and try to list my items the best I can in order to sell.

@ricarmic  who is a Canadian stamp dealer has been keeping records on PL vs discounts/offers.

So far, annoyingly, it looks like PL moves more merchandise for him , including deadstock, at low rates, than discounts offered to Viewers and Watchers.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/experiment-with-almost-give-away-listing-pondering-probl...
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