eBay

gloryglorygifts · ‎12-06-2022

I recently got this email from ebay and if there is ever an argument NOT to promote listings it is this. I'm assuming it's from my "send offers" because I really don't promote listings other than that. My ROI will buy me one tank of gas. What a joke. Make sure that if you do promote listings that it makes it worthwhile for you.

heckofagame · ‎12-06-2022

Promoted listings work for some.

dhbookds · ‎12-06-2022

It says............you are making $7.29 for each $1 you invested..............

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-06-2022

If you really don't promote listings I am wondering if the Ad fees paid relate to something else like maybe insertion fees or one of the optional selections on a listing. While they try to paint a nice picture what they neglect to tell you is this equates to 13.7% in fees collected by eBay. No clue how they calculated the $7.29 ROI.

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-06-2022

It says............you are making $7.29 for each $1 you invested..............

Seems odd since the OP stated they do not use PL. The big flaw on the ROI is there is no way to prove that the listing would have not sold anyway regardless of any AD expenses whatever they were.

gloryglorygifts · ‎12-06-2022

Promoted listings, for me, were only 7% of my sales. 93% were organic. As I said in the last line of my post, "Make sure that if you do promote listings that it makes it worthwhile for you." They are not for everyone.

stacy_pme · ‎12-06-2022

Yup.... $1,231.91 (total sales) divided by $168.84 (add fees) = $7.29 🙂

gurlcat · ‎12-06-2022

I see your numbers as a reason TO promote.
If all you aim to make is $100 a month in sales (basically 'extra money' for 'hobby selling') then you might not feel any impetus to promote. But if you rely on ebay sales as a major (or sole) source of your income, all the sales you're NOT making matter a lot, and whether you agree or not, promoting fetches more sales.

luckythewinner · ‎12-06-2022

@gurlcat wrote:
I see your numbers as a reason TO promote.

Without anything to measure against, these numbers say nothing.

What if the OP paid $0 and still sold $1231? He would save $169.

onefootflipper · ‎12-06-2022

I only promote mistakes, clothes, and items I have quantity on. I promote mistakes because no one searching for the item specifically would ever buy mine because other bad at math sellers already have it with free shipping at a price they will lose money on. I promote clothes because those can't properly be comparison shopped and the categories are flooded, and I promote quantity items because in some cases I have enough of the items to last years or even decades before I run out.

According to my seller stats only 12.7 percent of my sales come from promoted listings.

laststopgeneralstore · ‎12-06-2022

I have more organic sales than I do promoted sales. The only reason I promote is to get more(extra) sales. So you paid $168.00 to get and extra $1,230 extra in sales? Why complain? It's not eBay's fault if you are paying to much for your inventory. If you are reselling and doing it right, you should have at the very least, in my opinion, 3x-5x in margin. If you don't then that's on you. Most sellers don't understand how promoted listings work. Promoted listings will NOT give you more sales. Promoted listings WILL give you more traffic(which also doesn't equate to more sales) and it's up to the buyer to follow thru and purchase. Month over month for the past almost 3 years now, my organic sales are always more than my promoted listing sales. If you are okay with the sales you are getting without promoting, then don't promote. If you want more sales, then promote your listings. If your sales aren't good organically then that means you are selling items that people don't want, selling items with very very low sell thru rates, prices to high, bad return policy, to high of a shipping cost etc.... and the list can go on. You do not need to promote your listings to get sales. Look at what you are selling, compare to your competition, check your sell thru rates and make sure that your listings are optimized the absolute best that they can be. If you went from selling what you are selling now to selling the newest Iphone for less than market then your sales would sky rocket. If you went from selling the newest Iphone under market price to selling beanie babies for $1,000 then your sales would be non-existent.

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-06-2022

I see your numbers as a reason TO promote.
If all you aim to make is $100 a month in sales (basically 'extra money' for 'hobby selling') then you might not feel any impetus to promote. But if you rely on ebay sales as a major (or sole) source of your income, all the sales you're NOT making matter a lot, and whether you agree or not, promoting fetches more sales.

The problem is a seller has no quantitative way to determine if the promotion caused the item to sell or if it would have sold organically without the use of PL. OP already noted that 93% of their sales were organic. Assuming that is from a volume perspective and not a dollar perspective.

I no longer buy much on eBay and PL has a lot to do with that, along with a screwed up search engine. I have searched for items racking them by "price + shipping lowest first" only to have the results come back where a lot of PL listings were more expensive in total cost and shown ahead of non-promoted listings which were cheaper overall. I have a number of friends who have told me the same thing with regards to their eBay shopping.

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-06-2022

Yup.... $1,231.91 (total sales) divided by $168.84 (add fees) = $7.29

Your investment eBay's return.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-06-2022

A Canadian seller is currently experimenting with PL vs Markdowns.

He is using Promoted Listings at the (very high ) 10% rate and using a (very low) 10% markdown on similar items.

His products (stamp dealer) tend to be one of a kind. So there is a problem already.
Note that using PL costs him 10% more in fees, while Markdowns cost him a 10% loss in income.

So far, and he has only been doing this for a couple of months.

But so far (and anecdote is not data) he finds PL works better given his clientele than markdowns.

The basic difference being who (other than the seller who profits from any sale) benefits?

And from comments on his reports, many sellers cannot wrap their heads around the idea that they might willingly pay eBay more for the sale.

Which is an emotional response rather than one based on results.

a lot of PL listings were more expensive in total cost and shown ahead of non-promoted listings which were cheaper

Yes.

That's what eBay is promising the seller.

Thank you for confirming that PL works as promised.

Not every program benefits both buyer and seller.

PL benefits sellers.

The Global Shipping Program benefits sellers.

The Money Back Guarantee benefits buyers.

All programs benefit eBay.
EBay is not your friend. EBay is your landlord.

dbfolks166mt · ‎12-06-2022

Yes.

That's what eBay is promising the seller.

Thank you for confirming that PL works as promised.

Not every program benefits both buyer and seller.

PL benefits sellers.

The Global Shipping Program benefits sellers.

The Money Back Guarantee benefits buyers.

All programs benefit eBay.
EBay is not your friend. EBay is your landlord.

No problem on confirmation. Just how much does PL benefit the seller. Lets say you have two identical widgets you list one using PL and the other organically. To make things simple lets assume you offer free shipping. Assume both sell how much does it benefit the seller.

For the Organic Sale

For the PL listing if you are not good with cost models and do not alter the price and are promoting at 15%.

Lets assume you are pretty good with cost models and adjust the price to cover your 15% PL

O darn even with the price adjustment you gross less than the organic sale did you forget the PL fees apply to the entire value of the sale including the sales tax? Better jack that price up a bit more.