"One person has this in their cart"

[fbusoni]

I am seeing this now frequently on my listings (not sure if other buyers see it) and have concluded that it's eBay way of coaxing us to drop our price to expedite the sale.

Am I reading too much into this?  

Put another way, am I giving eBay too much credit for Machiavellian strategizing?

[mtgraves7984]

... and have concluded that it's eBay way of coaxing us to drop our price to expedite the sale."

@fbusoni 

Since that ^^^ wouldn't be my reaction to it, I'd have to assume that eBay is possibly telling me to be prepared to ship. 🤣

[fbusoni]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

... and have concluded that it's eBay way of coaxing us to drop our price to expedite the sale."

@fbusoni 

Since that ^^^ wouldn't be my reaction to it, I'd have to assume that eBay is possibly telling me to be prepared to ship. 🤣

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@mtgraves7984 

Yours would be the logical conclusion... yet the items remain in the cart for more than a week.  

If other buyers see the message, then it would make sense... hurry, get this before its too late!  

But if only the seller sees the message... 

[gone.c-33]

I see this message all the time when I’m looking at items to purchase so I don’t think it’s solely aimed at the seller.

If it’s displayed on an item there are few of on eBay at a great price, knowing someone else may have it in their cart has motivated me to go ahead and buy it now in the past.

[fbusoni]

Thanks... I do not buy on eBay so I was not sure if other buyers saw the message or not. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@fbusoni I think this is a buyer facing strategy. I see it on other sites as well (etsy comes to mind). I don't think the main intent is to get me to lower the price to make the sale , I think it is to get a buyer to actually buy so that the buyer (or buyers) who have the item in their cart don't buy it first. I would imagine this is more effective with single quantity listings, but of course, ebay doesn't provide us with that sort of useful data.

Of course, the flip side is, ebay also shows us when items are eligible for seller initialed offers (and some of those buyers might be people with the item in their cart), so sure, when ebay says to me your item is eligible for a Seller Initiated Offer, ebay is basically suggesting I lower the price and make an offer.

But when ebay puts that info in the listing so other buyers can see it (not just tucked away in Seller Hub)? That's an attempt to push the buyer into buying (or at least making an offer if you have Make An Offer as an option).

[frankenhobbit]

Buyers see that message too. It's eBay trying to push peoples FOMO button. I doubt 99 percent of them are in anyones cart, but people may have been looked at or watched. Reason for my doubts

a) It's often a single one off item, but more than one has it in their cart. It's not an item that moves in volume. 

b) Same one-off item will still be in other peoples cart days later. 

c) Most buyers don't even use the cart. I know I don't unless I am buying multiple items from the same seller (pretty rare). And if I did, it's in the cart for 10 minutes max. 

Just my opinion based on my own experience and observations. Can't blame eBay for trying though. If it makes a sale happen, that's a good thing, right?\

I don't see it as prompting the seller to reduce the price. EBay handles that by telling a seller their item has watchers and suggesting they send watchers an offer.

Again, just my opinion based on my dizzying 80+ sales. 🙂

[fbusoni]

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@frankenhobbit wrote:

Buyers see that message too. It's eBay trying to push peoples FOMO button. I doubt 99 percent of them are in anyones cart, but people may have been looked at or watched. Reason for my doubts

a) It's often a single one off item, but more than one has it in their cart. It's not an item that moves in volume. 

b) Same one-off item will still be in other peoples cart days later. 

c) Most buyers don't even use the cart. I know I don't unless I am buying multiple items from the same seller (pretty rare). And if I did, it's in the cart for 10 minutes max. 

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Yes, indeed, in 25 years of selling I'd had one buyer use the cart.

I think you are correct:  eBay just randomly adds this "item in the cart" message to various listings as a means of spurring sales.   FOMO as you noted.  regards

[slippinjimmy]

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@fbusoni wrote:

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Yes, indeed, in 25 years of selling I'd had one buyer use the cart.

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How would you know if a buyer added to the cart and then checked out or if they just hit the buy button and checked out?

For me personally I almost always add to cart when I'm buying and that is even when I am only buying one thing. If you are wondering why, it's just habit because almost all ecommerce sites require you to add to cart because they have no buy button option.

[chapeau-noir]

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@fbusoni wrote:

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@frankenhobbit wrote:

Buyers see that message too. It's eBay trying to push peoples FOMO button. I doubt 99 percent of them are in anyones cart, but people may have been looked at or watched. Reason for my doubts

a) It's often a single one off item, but more than one has it in their cart. It's not an item that moves in volume. 

b) Same one-off item will still be in other peoples cart days later. 

c) Most buyers don't even use the cart. I know I don't unless I am buying multiple items from the same seller (pretty rare). And if I did, it's in the cart for 10 minutes max. 

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Yes, indeed, in 25 years of selling I'd had one buyer use the cart.

I think you are correct:  eBay just randomly adds this "item in the cart" message to various listings as a means of spurring sales.   FOMO as you noted.  regards

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I doubt eBay is slapping that little banner on random items in the hopes of FOMO - it's too common of a utility across etailing sites - if it's appearing on eBay, it's because eBay finally roll out what many other websites have already had. I have people use my shopping cart on a regular basis, which is common for people who sell multiples pretty regularly, and am used to seeing that banner on quite a number of my listings, with various numbers of people with it in their shopping cart. I'm also not sure of the value of predicating buyer habits over millions of people on one's own individual experience. @slippinjimmy is right, many websites use a shopping cart instead of direct buy, so it's impossible to predict.

If one has that banner on a listing, I would presume that someone does, indeed, have it in their shopping cart for any number of reasons.

ETA: It has been rolling out fairly recently.

[vintagecraze50]

Just ebay trying to coax other buyers to buy it because after all it’s in someone’s cart and it might go bye bye before you get a chance to buy it now.

[denaus5321]

You are reading too much into it.

It's just like Tinder gold. Make you seem like you have 1000 likes ready and the only way you know is to pay.

Those likes are just straight bots to get you to twitch.

Ignore it, move on with your life.

[simba6]

eBay just wants you so see some " action "  so as not to think the site is dead. Like the number of views.

At least you don't have to shop back all those items left in carts like they do at the super market.

[12345jamesstamps]

A lot of my international buyers can't even do a cart to put items in it and send it to me for a total on shipping...LOL

[chapeau-noir]

For a while domestic buyers were struggling with that cart, too - that's how I knew people do, in fact, use it (beyond those who could get it to work), because they finally had to check out one item at a time, and would write and apologize and say they just couldn't get the cart to work - it wouldn't check out. It wasn't just me, either, as others reported it. I think that problem has been solved now, and I had two international buyers check out through the cart, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't always work internationally, either.