Promoted Sales - Analysis / Suggestions

[kj_toys_nj]

Been selling for 28 years here. Just did a report on my yearly sales and I fall into the 75 Promoted/25 Organic rate too. When I first started  and saw promotions I tried a low % and it worked on some sales. But as the promotion rates rose you had to get near the "advised" 9%. What I feared happened. Sellers obviously were vying for sales against peers by price and shipping cost but also have to pay extra for the "enhanced" right to vye for sales. I thought that was what a store was for, especially the premium and anchor subscribers. Ebay should give store subscribers some promotional rate that doesnt have to be 9% but maybe 4-5%. Its been getting ridiculous over the years as fees rise but thats what you get when such a market is monopolized. Any strategies out there that cost effectively work? I just tried the sending the offer route but thats another fee on top of the existing fees.

[12345jamesstamps]

I pulled up one of your items. Just a thought here by the way.

So a lot of the same item you are selling was overpriced compared to other sellers who were under your item for sale from their promotions.

I don't think promoting it would work when I can purchase the item cheaper from another seller.

Whether it was 9% or 4-5% a buyer is going to purchase the cheapest one.

Reducing the price with your competition would be a better thought than 9% or whatever rate. Just a thought.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

There are inflection points associated with the amount of competition and the number of competitors who are using promotion.

The recommended rate keeps going up because the number of sellers promoting is going up and promotion does not fully return your likelihood of selling any given item to the level it once might have been when there was more modest competition which relied on organic traffic.

Based on casual observation of the listings provided by similar sellers to you when they come to this forum to sing the blues, it is likely that the amount of competition will fall when it becomes evident that it is economically disastrous for many of the sellers to continue offering products like you are offering.

This is likely to affect sellers and future Ebay revenue from promotion, if the sellers adjust their bids when the competition has receded.

[hartungcards]

"I just tried the sending the offer route but thats another fee on top of the existing fees."

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I've never paid a dime to send an offer.