What do the Promotions mean to you? 30% less visibility to you and 30% more to the users.

[fine_find]

Here's another issue with eBay. When I pay my fees and my store subscription, I was of the understanding with eBay that my listings would be toe to toe with all the other paying sellers. In other words, that we would have equal competition with each other.  Then eBay came up with these 'promotions' which are suppose to give your listings 30% MORE visibility.  That means everyone who is paying everything as they should just got their head pushed under by 30%.  In plain english, that means your listings are now receiving 30% LESS visibility.  You are most likely getting even less than the 30% with all the other stuff eBay has going on.  Why are we being taken advantage of so badly and without even an apology for doing so??  I pay my fees on time and have jumped through every hoop eBay insists I jump through and now this.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  When will we get the equality in competition we came to expect and admire here on eBay again?  That's right, I said 'admire'.  I really respected eBay for its equality in my being able to pit my little stuff up against the big guy when selling.  I was doing okay, and then everything changed.  That is all gone and I don't see eBay even acting like they're trying to make it 'right' for everyone on here.  We deserve better treatment than that.  Afterall, it was sellers like you and me who made eBay the powerhouse it has become, and what do we get for all our hard work and thankless time we put into making it what it is??  Cheated.  No other word for it.  We are cheated out of what was suppose to be our rights here, 'competitive equality' with each other.  We need to be remembered for our contributions made over the decades of growth eBay has prospered from and we need to be rewarded for it.  It didn't come cheap to the sellers, only to eBay did it come cheat.  Most of us make less than the babysitter next door and yet we keep contributing to a conglomerate that can't even recognize and reward us for our hard work nor even be remembered for the years we spent here building it for them.  I for one would accept and be happy with just plain and simple 'equal competition' with all sellers here on eBay without the underhanded promotions eBay sells to the ones with money, the big guys who can afford to give stuff away and run us all out of business just like they did the mom and pop stores with the brick and mortar.   We're next.

[triodiode]

Is that like ebay told us that if we give free shipping our listings would always show up before sellers not offering free shipping? Yeah right! I am using promoted listings and so far I see no real impovement by using them. I actually have been watching one of them in particular.  When I do a search of this item the lowest price always comes up first along with my regular non promoted listing and my promoted listing is always at the bottom of the page saying sponsored. In some ways that may be good because the non promoted one is the one that is selling, Which means no extra fees for ebay.

[luxgoods]

Beautifully written.  I and many of Ebays sellers would agree.  I have been selling on Ebay since 1999. I too used to really enjoy selling on Ebay and feel that we were all on a level playing field.  Today, my sales like so many are so dismal that I may have to close my store and look into something else.  Two years ago when I would ship on a Monday morning after a weekend of sales, I would have 20 to 30 packages ready to ship.  This morning after the weekend I had 4 which has been the case for the past 18 months.  Ebay just caters to the big box stores and the China sellers.  

[fine_find]

Thank you for taking the time to read it. Maybe if enough of us begin to feel the same way we can change things for the better. That's my goal here...to make you think. There's always possibilities if you believe there is.

[fine_find]

Good for you. I'm glad someone is getting somewhere. I wouldn't know what to do if I got a sell. My are more like every few months instead of days now. Go figure. Oh wait, I sold a couple items a couple weeks ago. Nothing great but a sell is a sell. 🙂

[triodiode]

Just one question? Have you checked your listings to make sure they are set up as mobile friendly?

[dhw900]

Yes , in the process of that. Are we sure we're not being charged by ebay for (revising) a listing. Has ebay addressed that glitch ?

[triodiode]

I have heard this several times in this forum I just went and revised one and there was no charge for it. I have an Anchor store I dont know if that makes a difference or not.

[raceteam]

I truly think it is very unfair and unjust to give all the exposure and sales to the same people who are getting all the sales and exposure while the rest of ebay membership goes hungry. I have not had a sale in months! Literally. Try survival on that tactic. It's what a global corporate controlled economic and enterprise system is: plain old communism

[triodiode]

I can tell you that it is fact the more listings you have the more exposure you get and the more you will sell.  Keep in mind there are lots more sellers selling the same items that you are. If you want to beat them list more. This is something I learnt long ago. When I first started on ebay I was the only one selling the parts I am still selling.  I now have 100's of competitors.  Sales are a little slower, profit margins are a little tighter I have a few items I barely break even with  but I am still selling. You must watch your competition and out smart them even if it means just breaking even on a few items. Ebay has become very competitive over the last few years. If you want to sell go for it and keep at it, dont stop, you will succeed.  I know this because most sellers will get mad in a short time and give up. It is all up to you if you win or loose.

[caninekopz]

So I would like to chime in here before all of the "usual suspects" barrage your post with how great Ebay is. 

This is a very true but very realistic occurrence on Ebay these days.  We pay Ebay a lot of money to push our products and protect us, of which they do neither.  I pay as much percentage wise to sell here as I do in my brick and mortar store.  Very sad.  

I have heard....cost of doing business.....well you can leave at any time....cry baby, ect.  Well I say this.  I am staying right where I am.  I fight every bit of the way.  Last year we paid about 30,000.00 to Ebay for fees in all of our stores ect.  Nope not shipping, actual EBAY FEES.  That is a lot of jack.  I have built a living and Ebay is part of it.  I am not just going to leave without a fight.  

We need to keep on top of this.  I will just say this that I have good reason to believe that a class action is brewing.  Most of the time I enjoy being on Ebay, but the last few months have been trying. 

Today I get "

Attention, your returns are very high.  

Your Returns Are Too High

Richard, we’ve noticed that the number of your returns marked as "item not as described" is very high.*

Very high returns have a negative impact on your sales and listing visibility. Take action now to improve your buyers’ confidence.

*Compared to other sellers in Business & Industrial with a similar average selling price $20-$50.

Now what is funny......On this account (the others have none) I have had 1 return in 120 days.  That return was the buyer ordered the wrong part and even though it was "NO RETURNS" I took it back and the seller was happy.   

THIS IS THE ONLY RETURN IN 120 DAYS.........WTH EBAY their own report.

Then they threaten with this

Very high returns have a negative impact on your sales and listing visibility. Take action now to improve your buyers’ confidence.

Just another reason to reduce my visibility.  Today went from 10 sales a day (last week average)  to none today........HAHAHA

So we need to keep on top of this in spite of the "Usual Suspects"  The throttling is real no matter how they try to make you look foolish for thinking it.  Hold on, keep trudging away.  Don't let them chase us away.

Rich 

[fine_find]

Yes, I'm keeping up. I am mobile friendly on all my listings.

[fine_find]

My sells are much like yours. I go months without a sell too. It's hard but what can you do?

You do know we are not a democracy, right? We and China are both Republics. Bet a lot of folks here didn't know that. 🙂

[suenacml7]

I was a top seller for 15 years and then I got sick.  I had to really drop my sales for a very prolonged period.  I am still sick but feeling good enough to be working on handling my biggest challenge, having china sets ready to ship and send out within 24 hours to meet their qualifications.  My husband had been taking my other stuff to work and sending it out but that may delay getting to the post office by  up to 24 hours if he arrived after the mail was picked up for the day.  I now have lots of dollars in sales but they will not let me have my top seller level back because I haven't reached 100 sales in a year I only have 26.  I sold 4800.00 worth of stuff though and have sold over 173000. in stuff over the last 16 Years though.  No appreciation for that.  My feelings are really hurt.  They also encourage returns out the behind but penalize you for having them even when you allow returns and follow their rules.  We have no choice.  I have too much inventory to stop now. Bummer.

[suenacml7]

I san't sell enough of the items I sell to hit 100 for quite some time because my items are expensive.  I am working on my shipping problems.  I still have to have help getting things up from the basement, wrap them and have someone help me get them to shipping locations because I am ill.  What I can do is change the timing of my new listings and ending listings and the frequency based on my knowledge of when said sales are more likely to occur.  Use your free listings to your advantage and manipulate the start and stop timing.  I look for things to buy by looking at newly listed and ending soonest because of how many ads there are.  Start looking at this.  You can't fix what they are doing but you can work within the system.