Promoted Listings Standard - Ad Rate Minimum Increasing (1% to 2%)

[wastingtime101]

Got this e-mail from eBay:

We're continuously evaluating the performance and impact quality of Promoted Listings Standard as a tool to drive seller success. As part of this work, effective July 11, we’ll be changing the minimum ad rate for Promoted Listings Standard from 1% to 2%. While we recognize this impacts your business, this change will ensure your campaigns remain competitive in reaching buyers in our growing marketplace, and also allow us to deliver products and services that drive best-in-class returns for eBay sellers.

Just in the past year, we’ve added new Promoted Listings Standard features like an all-in-one campaign dashboard and downloadable reports that provide sellers with a convenient way to review important campaign data. On July 11, we’ll be rolling out a new feature that’ll allow sellers to edit multiple listings at once for both Bulk and Simple campaigns. This’ll make it quicker to adjust ad rates versus having to make manual changes for each campaign.

And there’s more to come.

Next steps

We’d encourage you to adjust your ad rates that are below 2% on or before July 11 to 2% or higher so that your promoted listings can continue to appear in advertising placements across the eBay network. If you decide not to make any changes, those listings will still be active but won’t be promoted.

[daisymen2009]

I got the same message. I am using 1% on all my listings because if you use this while you check one listing you can see another from my list down below. And actually, I have about 80% of items sold via PL. But from the eBay side, it looks unprofessionally weird, as now they say let's start counting not from 0, but from 2 instead. That actually shows that they can not normally manage and program their logic of PL at all. So ok I put 2% if you want as I have no choice. But don't forget we were working and ta-dam! "rolling out a new feature that’ll allow sellers to edit multiple listings at once for both Bulk and Simple campaigns."

[nice_finds503]

This is getting absolutely ridiculous. After 8+ years selling on here, my previously stable continuous small extra income has now gone away in the past 2 months. The fees are exorbitant. Increasing this to a mandatory 2% is nothing more than a pure money grab by ebay. I'm now having to re-evaluate my whole game plan of using ebay as a side hustle. May just sell off the rest of my stuff I have listed and move on to something else.

Has anyone ever called their phone support for sellers, it's the most absurd lack of help I've ever experienced. All foreign with zero social cues and have little to no idea what they're doing.  

[aerospacesurplusnett]

best part of this is this sentence "If you decide not to make any changes, those listings will still be active but won’t be promoted.", meaning I wont have to edit them to REMOVE all promotions 😝

[nice_finds503]

And this 2% will be on the total sale?! 

Does anyone else not understand how they can calculate the sales tax they collect into your total sale just to take a little bit more from the seller? 

I hope their stock continues to tank and maybe some other company scoops them up. Fixes things.

[nuclearomen]

yup... said was going to happen eventually, and it has (will) be.... fortunately, doesn't affect me as my PLS ad rates are already elected at the new minimal percentage. 

[nice_finds503]

where else would you recommend selling?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

So, on June 1st they pushed up their PL revenue by making a HUGE change from item price calculation to total price calculation, generating more revenue for ebay while reducing my net. Now they want even more, so they are telling me I can no longer use less than 2% as my rate.

One does have to wonder: when does ebay start to focus on increasing GMV, rather than increasing ebay's revenue by taking more and more from its remaining sellers?

I do hope someone in the executive suite can explain the concept of "tipping point" to Jamie, because if ebay keeps this up, that tipping point might not be very far off. 

[wastingtime101]

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@ckimodog wrote:

Would love to read your thoughts...

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About what specifically @ckimodog? What I think about the change or whether I'll keep using PLS or something else?

[ckimodog]

@wastingtime101 

Both...

[nuclearomen]

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@nice_finds503 wrote:

And this 2% will be on the total sale?! 

Does anyone else not understand how they can calculate the sales tax they collect into your total sale just to take a little bit more from the seller? 

I hope their stock continues to tank and maybe some other company scoops them up. Fixes things.

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lol, sure, you and every other poster who has visited in the past 20 years - no one is buying ebay. Even if it sounds like a good thought. Investors are more then happy to hear rates are increasing again and that will - attract more investors ultimately. 

[chlipp-78]

The fact that they're making this change almost immediately after they started charging promoted fees on shipping shows just how greedy they are and how little respect they have for sellers... that was a huge change against sellers and they couldn't even give it two or three months to let it blow over. It's like hurricane season where one storm is immediately followed by another storm without hesitation... so destructive and sickening. 

At what point will sellers stand together and say enough is enough? We really need a social media presence with hundreds of thousands of followers, like an accountability account, so if they decide to hurt us they will at least receive negative publicity for it that can't be ignored... right now the backlash is too small and scattered to get them to listen. Negative publicity won't stop them from making greedy moves, but it could get them to think twice and slow them down. 

[heckofagame]

So, as someone mentioned, this would bring minimum fees to about 15%. Isn't that what Amazon charges?  I ask because I don't know. 

[onefootflipper]

I went ahead and fought through the errors that were trying to stop me and have removed promoted listings from all 17,000 of my listings. Somehow I will survive.

[heckofagame]

And so it begins...

[paulhua3]

I'll to to 2% on my cheapest items in both stores and let all the rest die a peaceful death.  They already just increased the take on PLS, and now another one?  If cutting off PLS on 100s of listings causes a decrease in my sales, then eBay's take will be smaller also.  Times millions of sellers may cost eBay much more than they gain.  Serves 'em right if it does.