Would you use Social Media to drive traffic if the FVF was 2.45%?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Last week the ebay for Business podcast concluded a 3 part series on using Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc) to drive traffic to your ebay business. At ebay Open Online this year, ebay mentioned that there are plans to release a new fee for sales made via Social Media. There were no details given, but basically it sounded like, if your sale could be traced to your social media post, the Final Value Fee for that sale would be (sorry, I don't remember the exact figure offhand) something like 2.45%...which would be a nice savings for many of us.

So, my questions:

Do you currently use Social Media to drive traffic to your ebay business? If so, what channel(s) do you use, and has it been successful?

If you don't currently use Social Media to drive traffic to your ebay business, would the reduced FVF be an incentive to try it?

[soh.maryl]

Who would check each sale to determine if it had resulted from exposure on social media?

And, frankly, what's in it for eBay if the sale happened that way vs the usual? There would HAVE to be some advantage for eBay to compensate for the reduced FVF.   

I guess I don't see the advantage, but would be glad to hear from sellers who could explain it to me further.

[axiombody]

Ebay couldn't pay me to go back to Facebook.

[ckimodog]

I use it every day...I've gotten sales from it, not  overwhelming but every little bit helps. 

[soh.maryl]

Glad to hear it's working well for you.  Do you have any insight into why eBay would push for more sellers to use it, even going so far as to offer reduced fees?  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@soh.maryl  As I said, we have no details. But the eBay Partner Network is similar, I imagine it would include a specific referral link , and then ebay could track it. The devil is in the details...would the buyer have to buy that item, or would any item bought from my store within x number of hours or days be eligible for the discount, if ebay could trace the buyer back to the social media link? Which is why my question is kind of general....we don't have details.  

You say you don't see the advantage? I assume you mean the advantage for ebay, because the advantage for the seller I think is obvious (a lower FVF)....not to mention the basic advantage of gaining a sale which the seller might not have had otherwise.

The advantage to ebay is : ebay spends a lot of money to drive traffic to ebay. I believe they would basically view this as part of their ad spend. If I send a buyer to ebay via my social media, and he doesn't buy from me but then looks around on ebay and buys from someone else, ebay isn't out a penny and has a new buyer. In other words, the amount of traffic and sales generated could be well worth it for ebay. Now, even if the buyer buys from me, and ebay's cost is what they "lose" by giving me the lower FVF, if that buyer is happy and continues to return to ebay, ebay will make money on all those other FVFs. So, let's say ebay loses $2.00 from my FVF...but that buyer, over the next year, buys a hundred items on ebay.....that $2.00 "customer acquisition cost" is a bargain for ebay...

Whether this will work as ebay would like or not depends on a  lot of factors, but there is no question ebay could benefit from this. And so could the individual seller. 

[soh.maryl]

So you don't see this as to many "ifs"?  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@axiombody  I'm curious...were you using a business account on Facebook, or are you talking about a personal account? If I were trying to drive traffic to my ebay business, I'd be using a business account, nothing to do with a personal account. And Facebook isn't the only social media tool out there: Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube....there are a lot more than Facebook

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@ckimodog Which site(s) do you use?

[jewelbiz]

I’m a fixture on Instagram & post new pix & videos all the time.  Have plenty of active followers there yet I follow 0. Why would an Instagram viewer take the trouble to go to eBay to purchase an item there when they could more easily contact me and directly & purchase it from me on Instagram at obviously a lower price with no eBay commission?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@soh.maryl  No. What "ifs" are troubling you?

[coolections]

No. Social media IMO is not a place to be advertising. It annoys me and I am sure it also annoys others to see people on a social platform to advertise their wares. I consider it spam and if I want to shop I would not be looking at social media to do so.

[katzrul15]

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@jewelbiz wrote:

I’m a fixture on Instagram & post new pix & videos all the time.  Have plenty of active followers there yet I follow 0. Why would an Instagram viewer take the trouble to go to eBay to purchase an item there when they could more easily contact me and directly & purchase it from me on Instagram at obviously a lower price with no eBay commission?

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Exactly.  This ^^^^

Any Seller would use it to sell from that social media platform for free (instagram, pininterest, etc) and/or direct someone to their website and sell it for free.  I know quite a few who use this model.

Have zero desire, on top of everything else and all the monies I pay to e-Bay to promote listings, to also do social media promotions (which is a ton of work/effort) for e-Bay for free. 

If we had steady followers on instagram, etc - I would be directing them to a website of my own - not to e-Bay. 

What would be "in" it for us as a Seller?

[dhbookds]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

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@jewelbiz wrote:

I’m a fixture on Instagram & post new pix & videos all the time.  Have plenty of active followers there yet I follow 0. Why would an Instagram viewer take the trouble to go to eBay to purchase an item there when they could more easily contact me and directly & purchase it from me on Instagram at obviously a lower price with no eBay commission?

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Exactly.  This ^^^^

Any Seller would use it to sell from that social media platform for free (instagram, pininterest, etc) and/or direct someone to their website and sell it for free.  I know quite a few who use this model.

Have zero desire, on top of everything else and all the monies I pay to e-Bay to promote listings, to also do social media promotions (which is a ton of work/effort) for e-Bay for free. 

If we had steady followers on instagram, etc - I would be directing them to a website of my own - not to e-Bay. 

What would be "in" it for us as a Seller?

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Agree, IF you have your own site..........no point in directing to EBAY........but if you don't, you could save part of the fvf.  If you use those sites.......certainly could pay to try to send them to one of your listings....  This is very reminiscent of the old "Store Referral Fee" and people saved quite a bit with it....over time. 

[soh.maryl]

If eBay could trace the buyer . . .if the buyer does not buy from me, but buys from someone else . . .if the buyer buys from me. . .whether this will work on eBay or not depends on a lot of factors. . .if that buyer over the next year buys a hundred items on eBay . . .