@keziak wrote:
About this time every month recently I'd gotten one of those 500 free listing promotions, but haven't this month. Not griping, just wondering if others got one. I'm going ahead and pushing auctions anyway, always hoping something will sell. It's been slow-going though.
It could be due to the cost cutting that Ebay is doing in marketing. The CEO has stated when announcing both quarters numbers that Ebay has made the decision to cut back on their marketing expense while at the same time looking at more ways to get more money from the current sellers even though sales are dropping. He has mentioned the use of Promoted Listings as one method they are increasing their revenues. Managed Payments was mentioned as another method they plan on using to increase revenue and they did just announce a fee increase in that program of $0.30 per transaction on an invoice. So if a buyer purchases 2 different items on one invoice, starting in October Ebay will not only charge the 2.7% discount fee but will also collect $0.30 for each of the transactions on the invoice compared to Paypals $0.25 total transaction charge. They also have not mentioned anything about matching Paypals Micropayment account which is really great for Sellers whose items are $12 or under on average. If they do not institute that account type this will also end up digging deeper into the current sellers pocket when they are entered into Managed Payments.
I believe that Ebay used to charge the expense of free listings into their marketing categories which they now want to reduce dramatically, so i am guessing that you are going to be seeing less and less of the free listing specials and that buyers will probably be seeing fewer 15 to 20% discounts programs run as that does also cost Ebay marketing money.
Ebay has been much more selective on who gets the free listings as they are usually aimed at Sellers who do not have a store and once they get used to being able to list that many items that they may open a store when they no longer get all the freebies. This last statement is more speculation than known fact, but Ebay has decided to cut their marketing expense regardless of how much it hurts sales. They are focused much more on digging deeper and deeper in their current sellers pockets. which in the long run is not as sustainable method to run a business.
