Promoted Listings

[the_backyard_bear]

So... you make me pay 16.8% to promote an item that has sold over 1200 times on Ebay in the past two years.  

If I don't pay... I don't sell.  Proof is in the numbers.

So I pay your EXTORTION RATE... and you keep showing the purchasing customers better prices AFTER the purchase and I keep getting hit with cancellations so they can buy from others who are not paying the outrageous fees?

EBAY IS KILLING ME... and itself

[reallynicestamps]

Shipping live fish by mail must be nerve wracking as cold weather begins.

How do your sales compare with October/November 2023? 2022? 2019? (Ignoring the pandemic surge in online buying during the worst of the pandemic.)

It looks like you sold nearly one fish a day in October, while  in September and August it was closer to one fish a week.

Whatever you are doing now is selling fish for you.

You could try increasing your prices to allow for the higher fees. Or adding a handling charge to your shipping costs, since those PL fees only kick in when something is actually sold.

However, the apparent drop in sales, and the rise in fees,  may have more to do with the 20 negatives left in the past 12 months.

In my experience, negatives often shield Disputes and Claims left by more experienced buyers. But those , unlike feedback, are used to assess your selling account.

Worse is your replies to criticism. Any Response should be short, polite, short, calm, professional, and short. Calling the customer names is a Bad Idea when the only readers of negative feedback will be your future customers.

[theteamsetguy]

@the_backyard_bear ,

If you are concerned about loosing sales to your competitors that offer lower prices. There's an easy solution. Just do a search for each one of the items you are selling and have the results sorted by "Lowest price with shipping" instead of "Best Match". Lower your prices by enough to be at least 10% below your competitors. 

Your buyers will have no incentive to cancel for finding a better price.  Problem solved with a very easy solution that shouldn't take you more than an hour since you only have 30 listings. 

An added bonus is the increased sales you will have. More sales equal more dollars for you and Ebay a win win situation.

[theteamsetguy]

@reallynicestamps ,

OMG wow!

[isaiah53-57]

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@the_backyard_bear wrote:

So... you make me pay 16.8% to promote an item that has sold over 1200 times on Ebay in the past two years.  

If I don't pay... I don't sell.  Proof is in the numbers.

So I pay your EXTORTION RATE... and you keep showing the purchasing customers better prices AFTER the purchase and I keep getting hit with cancellations so they can buy from others who are not paying the outrageous fees?

---

@the_backyard_bear 

 Ahhhhh - I do believe you may have touched on 11% of their plan(easter egg for guardians of the galaxy fans)...The site, I believe, is benefiting from the concern you mention above in that it artificially jacks up user and revenue data with the many cancellations and then piggyback sales that come from it...Plus, if the amount of posts on these boards is a good indicator for which, then there is an inordinate amount of suspicious accounts that buy, pay, and then cancel with primitive 3 word requests within minutes of the sale.

My assumption and guess, given the recent history of shedding users like a dog sheds a winter coat, and in conjunction with their new policies that allow for easier cancellations for buyers?  This is all beneficial for the unnatural pumping up user data and revenue...You take from that what you will...

I'll end my post addressing the other side of your concern with a hindsight thought that may not be much help to you now, but my guess is one of the worst things you can do is on this site is cave to their Promoted Listing "extortion" - I think once you show interest in it by testing the water even to the slightest degree, you will be forever plagued by it...

[theteamsetguy]

@isaiah53-57 ,

Whether we like it or not selling platforms like eBay are looking for ways to generate more adverting revenue. (Promoted listings) Amazon generated 12 Billion dollars advertising revenue on their site in the 2nd quarter of this year. If it wasn’t for their advertising fees they charged their sellers and suppliers they would’ve only made a profit of 1.5 Billion versus the 13.5 Billion including the advertising revenue in 2nd quarter of this year.

https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/amazon-q2-2024-earnings-ad-revenue-1236093223/

Amazon is not the only selling platform that charges sellers to promote their items.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1358832/etsy-services-revenue/

[dbfolks166mt]

    I have never used, and never will use, promoted listings. There is no way to prove that it increases sales. It's a no win situation. If you promote you either have to eat the cost and lower your ROI or increase your prices to cover the promotion costs which is the most common choice. 

     Meanwhile John Doe doesn't use PL, keeps his prices lower than yours and yet eBay shows your buyers John's listing and lets them know they can get it cheaper from John. 

    Dump the PL. You have  sold 6.9K items and have more followers 1.0K than any seller I have ever seen. 

[iamcara]

You have 30 listings and you are selling consistently. That in itself is a miracle that cannot be underestimated.

A small amount of work, and yet you have an extensive sales record.

The explanation you gave doesn't make too much sense, does it? If you know that your buyers are canceling orders based on other listings, why don't you just lower your rate to 5%? If your items don't sell at 5%, then how are your competitors selling at lower ad rates?

eBay has no policy against advertising your eBay store on other platforms, are you aware of this?

You don't accept returns, & your standard shipping cost is marked up from what I am able to tell.

Be a little more open minded.

There is something called compounding interest. Isolating what you are doing right and wrong can be difficult. You might as well just do everything right regardless of whether or not you ever find out what you were doing right or wrong.

You are shipping live animals.. there will be deaths. Can't really use this excuse to not accept returns.

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@the_backyard_bear wrote:

So... you make me pay 16.8% to promote an item that has sold over 1200 times on Ebay in the past two years.  

If I don't pay... I don't sell.  Proof is in the numbers.

So I pay your EXTORTION RATE... and you keep showing the purchasing customers better prices AFTER the purchase and I keep getting hit with cancellations so they can buy from others who are not paying the outrageous fees?

EBAY IS KILLING ME... and itself

---

[theteamsetguy]

@dbfolks166mtand @the_backyard_bear  ,

Especially to buyers who have their search results set at lowest priced first. If you're the seller with the lowest price items your items will show up at the top of the page without paying one red cent for PL.

[snoopdad40]

Like all the other campaigns to "promote" a given sellers product, Feebays "Promotion packages" are set to suck the life out of sellers like you and me. The paid promoting reminds me of the cpc campaigns of old.  Buy packages that promise you 1,000-1,000,000 clicks (visits) to your website or seller page, but cannot (wont) make any guarantees that anyone would buy anything just lent suspect to me.  This "Promoting" crap is yet another way Feebay gets even more money from their sellers (The hands that feed them). Kinda like the tack-on of state taxes that are applied to a sellers items FV,  rather than tacking that on to the buyer's total. It's all about money to Feebay. Adjust your prices to cover those fee's and your loyal customers will hopefully continue to buy.  Some people just don't understand that these fees can result in a seller's demise.  Feebay doesn't care cuz they've got some chick or dude selling a gazillion drivers and that's who they give a rat's behind about. 😉

All The Best

[the_backyard_bear]

yes... because MORE THAN ONE person, can, by very definition, have the lowest price... OF COURSE... WHAT WAS I THINKING?  

Hooray for eBay... is that better for you?  Did it get you paid?

[the_backyard_bear]

Same old drivel... same old people saying it.   

YOU PROTECT THAT CORPORATION... get your money.  Hahahaha...  This board is USELESS... and I regret every post I ever made 

[dbfolks166mt]

Same old drivel... same old people saying it.   

YOU PROTECT THAT CORPORATION... get your money.  Hahahaha...  This board is USELESS... and I regret every post I ever made 

     It's pretty much a two way street. Same old complaints, same old people making them. 

[kabilab]

Bear, just a few comments from one who just entered his 62nd yr. in sales:

1-Being associated with e-Bay is voluntary.

2-Promoting on e-Bay is voluntary.

3-Posting on this board is voluntary.

I began selling on this platform to liquidate merchandise I was unable to sell in my store. After being successful for 1 1/2 decades, I considered purchasing stock for resale and listing my collections of a lifetime. At that time, new management enacted changes, only one of which favored me, so I canceled that plan and resumed being a liquidator. An ability to adapt is paramount to success.

[movieman630]

In my experience with PL I've noticed the same thing.  Popular items you sell will have a "suggested rate" almost exactly 5% higher than the others.  I promote mostly around 11-12% which is the average "suggested rate".  My most popular items are suggested at around 16-17%.  This is not an accident or based on competition (some items have no competition).  This is a programmed function guaranteed.

Ignore it.  Subtract 5% and you'll have the "real average".