eBay

widgetc · ‎11-02-2017

I received this message. What should I know about promoted listings? Any advice, issues, benefits etc...

ricarmic · ‎11-02-2017

I have been using promoted listings for a long time now (because I "live" on .COM where it has been available for quite a while).

It has been very positive for me by increasing views and sales of the promoted items. (depending on your store level you may get credits against this as well).

noveltyguys · ‎11-02-2017

This just is mind boggling. How many times are we going to be told we are getting max visibility. I just talked to Ebay 2 weeks ago concerned over what we have all been talking about and that is low sales. I was assured after they checked that I was getting great visibility. I needed to make a bunch of auctions as they do better than buy it now. I have been so over the last couple weeks with no change. I then decided that the biggest attention right now in sports is the world series. I created a listing of trading cards for both teams. Dodgers and Astro's. 5 fays into the 7 day auction I have only 2 views one team and only one view on the other team.

So whats the deal. Now I have the option of promoted listings. So is that like 130 percent? Quit feeding us the koolaid.

I still say there is something that happened as of June 1st. I sold the same product to the states 3 times in May. I haven't sold one anywhere since. I am not buying it. Someone at the controls is messing with stuff.

lady.stark · ‎11-02-2017

Even though I *hope* it will improve sales, I'm really beginning to think eBay is hiding our listings somehow. And this new tool is just a way for them to increase the fees we pay when an item sells. Because, well, when using this tool, our listings are finally seen - at an additional cost.

I hope I'm wrong though. I really do.

noveltyguys · ‎11-02-2017

10 percent increase in listing 10 cents now is 11 cents.

20 discount on final value fee is cut back to 10 percent.

Now this additional cost. Where will it end.

Ebay give up back our lost profits for crying out loud.

katlover1952 · ‎11-03-2017

I too am curious about this promoted listings. How are people using it? Just on certain items in your store or what? I looked at the trending on the US site for jewelry which I mostly sell & the average is 9.74% which would make the FVF fairly high.

looks like I might qualify for a monthly credit. Does this depend on how many items you list promoted or if you use the program at all?also wondering how many got the offer. If we all start using this will it really be worthwhile?

Would love to hear from someone who uses it?

ricarmic · ‎11-03-2017

As I mentioned earlier I use it and I've been using it for many months now.

You decide what percentage of the selling price you will "pay" if the item sells. So for hypothetical example you pick 10%. If other sellers generally pick 5% then your item will more regularly show up because you are fronting more money if it sells. (these are the "sponsored" items you see if you are searching)

You only pay if the item sells. Views (aka impressions) are free.

I use it for multi item listings (originally that was a rule, it was only available for multi item listings but that changed on .COM recently to anything I think can be promoted now).

In my experience the selling rate of the items increases both under the program and not under the program because the increased sponsored visibility increases the attractiveness of the item and more people see it "cassini wise".

I have an anchor store so the first $30 of fees each month is refunded to me.

The old timers here will remember other programs: promoted listings, keywords, countries etc that have been tried over the years. This is just the latest version.

I too have wondered in the recent months why my visibility seems to be much lower. I have done experiments on friends, neighbours computers to see how my stuff shows up and it shows up fine. This to me means fewer people are out there, or more likely there are many more sellers and so much stuff it lowers the average visibility.

momcqueen · ‎11-03-2017

Most buyers don't care about auctions anymore. I don't sell anything important by that method.

I got the invitation yesterday too, I was awaiting for someone else to start a thread about it. I'll probably try it when I have a spare moment but I'm busy at present setting up two other outside-ebay sales channels. Before the watermark policy announcement, I would have been all over this like white on rice, but now It doesn't hold much interest for me since I decided that I had to develop an exit strategy for ebay.

goldnideas · ‎11-03-2017

I've tried on couple of items, there is views but no sales. For some reason I can apply it only on number of items 140 out of 425 and Canadian currency. And when I use markdown manager only 150 items available, which is very strange, before I was able to do it on everything.

katlover1952 · ‎11-03-2017

I list on both .ca & .com. But am I only able to apply this to .ca items?

ricarmic · ‎11-03-2017

You should be able to apply to .COM as well I think?

I don't know for 100% because my ebay store is a .COM store.... and I don't list on .CA

goldnideas · ‎11-03-2017

Well, I called customer service, but there is no help, she consulted two times with co-workers and verdict was that you should have another store on . com, which I don't buy it! We are able to list in US and CAN currency, but can't apply discount (or promote) items listed in US currency??????? very weird... something wrong here.

rose-dee · ‎11-03-2017

@ricarmic wrote:

You decide what percentage of the selling price you will "pay" if the item sells. So for hypothetical example you pick 10%. If other sellers generally pick 5% then your item will more regularly show up because you are fronting more money if it sells. (these are the "sponsored" items you see if you are searching).
You only pay if the item sells. Views (aka impressions) are free.

Ah yes, eBay at its finest. So now they're setting up what is basically a silent auction amongst sellers to see who is willing to pay the most to get sales. Essentially they're reversing their original site concept to use it against sellers in order to make more cash off sellers' hard work. Very clever. Very eBay.

This will ultimately create a 2-tier seller base for eBay. And what happens to the second-class sellers who can't afford to play the "sell your item" lottery?

Oh boy. Sorry, but I have trouble not being cynical about this.

dutchman48 · ‎11-03-2017

@rose-dee wrote:
@ricarmic wrote:

You decide what percentage of the selling price you will "pay" if the item sells. So for hypothetical example you pick 10%. If other sellers generally pick 5% then your item will more regularly show up because you are fronting more money if it sells. (these are the "sponsored" items you see if you are searching).
You only pay if the item sells. Views (aka impressions) are free.

Ah yes, eBay at its finest. So now they're setting up what is basically a silent auction amongst sellers to see who is willing to pay the most to get sales. Essentially they're reversing their original site concept to use it against sellers in order to make more cash off sellers' hard work. Very clever. Very eBay.

This will ultimately create a 2-tier seller base for eBay. And what happens to the second-class sellers who can't afford to play the "sell your item" lottery?

Oh boy. Sorry, but I have trouble not being cynical about this.

I've been cynical about Ebay for quite a while now.

Pay to play and that is not even done fairly.

What would happen if everyone pays 10%? Ebay makes 10% more on every sale and not one seller has an advantage.

Those who don't pay may as well close shop in the near future.

mrdutch1001 · ‎11-03-2017

having been a seller on another venue that offered sellers Promoted Listings and myself having given Promoted Listings a fair trial on that venue with NO success, will not be using eBay's Promoted Listings. Pay to Play may be the new norm for many selling venues but I have no need to give eBay more money for so little return.

ricarmic · ‎11-03-2017

Promoted listings is simply the latest version of options folks have to increase their visibility. eBay has had a few different styles over the years.

In the pre-internet days, the guys with the biggest ads in the papers etc got the most traffic, and the bigger the ad, the more it cost.

Differentiating oneself in any online venue is a challenge anymore because we now have basically worldwide competition between millions of sellers and buyers who generally don't care where the items come from.

All of the sites I list on have some form of promoted listing aspects. eBay's the only one that has at times not had one.

As with any form of "advertising" if everyone has full page ads, then the value of full page ads doesn't work as well.

Same with promoted listings. If everyone picked 10% the relative value would drop, and people would stop running the ads, and ebay would have to find another way to allow people to promote their material if they were willing to pay more (promoted listings duration is adjustable to any length of time, I've always run a month, but I believe it can be as short as days).

In the pre-internet days, I experimented with the relative cost/benefit of running classified ads, quarter page ads, half page ads and full page ads. I figured out the style that worked best for the kind of material I was offering.

I do the same here and on the other sites when I experiment with things like promoted listings.

So far here, the promoted listings relative cost has been worthwhile for me. It might not be for others but it works for me.

lady.stark · ‎11-04-2017

@goldnideas wrote:
I've tried on couple of items, there is views but no sales. For some reason I can apply it only on number of items 140 out of 425 and Canadian currency. And when I use markdown manager only 150 items available, which is very strange, before I was able to do it on everything.

I think that you need to use the "promoted listings" tool on .ca for your .ca items. And the tool on .com for your .com items. So 2 different promos: one for every site.

widgetc · ‎11-04-2017

Well having read this my take is that for sellers prompted listings is "zero sum game". The gain one seller gets in exposure is the loss another seller gets. In order to stay where we were with no such program we have to put in the "average rate" for promoted listings in our category. eBay gains...we pay...or drop in exposure. We would all be better off without it.

mcrlmn · ‎11-04-2017

I was curious also.

I can confirm that's correct.
I'm enrolled on .ca, and sold items to 4 U.S. customers today.
The promo 'Dashboard' doesn't show any fees.

ricarmic · ‎11-04-2017

Sometimes the fees take a while (hours) to show up on the charts but they are there right away on the fees summary page.

Note though that if 50 people get (free) impressions, it increases the likelihood other buyers see the item in a non-sponsored manner (and no fees are charged if they didn't come to the item via a sponsored link).

In my experience sponsored and non-sponsored sales of the same item during the promotion increase I assume because of the increased visibility the promotion brings.