What is your opinion of the new fee structure for Promoting Listings?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Prior to July 1 I had a good proportion of my listings  with promoted attached. Due to the new fee structure I ended running promotions June 30th as a test. At that time I had an abrupt fall off the cliff end of sales. Previous experience with sales of items that were promoted was entirely random.  For July I've had a total of 2 sales. Lat 1 July 5. On/Off switch? Unable to confirm. Only a personal observation.

What is your opinion of the new structure? Should it include shipping/taxes? Should it be a distinct transaction as far as how it relates to the fees being processed or rolled together?  Have you changed your phylosophy to promoting your listings? Can you affort to promote? Can you afford to not promote? Have you switched and seen a drop off in sales or still going forward and using the 2% it is so written in the eBay Commandments? Comments/observations? (Please consider....Best offer and promotion fees can be a double whammy for a seller. Increasing prices may not be an option for many sellers.)

-Lotz

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I have still been promoting my higher priced items at 1%.  As far as I know Canada has not been forced to use the 2% yet like the US & UK.  But my sales this year have been the worst ever. Good thing this is now a hobby for me & I don't count on eBay for my main income.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@2nd-time-around-jewelry wrote:

I have still been promoting my higher priced items at 1%.  As far as I know Canada has not been forced to use the 2% yet like the US & UK.  But my sales this year have been the worst ever. Good thing this is now a hobby for me & I don't count on eBay for my main income.

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It was supposed to kick in July 11th in Canada. There was another post stating it was not going to happen in some countries(including Canada). Only have that info from gmail message vs from eBay. See attached. It's possible it hasn't kicked in on this side of the border. Not sure...Possibly tape delayed "upgrade" to service?

We're continuously evaluating the performance and impact quality of Promoted Listings Standard as a tool to drive seller success. As part of this work, effective July 11, we’ll be changing the minimum ad rate for Promoted Listings Standard from 1% to 2%. While we recognize this impacts your business, this change will ensure your campaigns remain competitive in reaching buyers in our growing marketplace, and also allow us to deliver products and services that drive best-in-class returns for eBay sellers.

Just in the past year, we’ve added new Promoted Listings Standard features like an all-in-one campaign dashboard and downloadable reports that provide sellers with a convenient way to review important campaign data. On July 11, we’ll be rolling out a new feature that’ll allow sellers to edit multiple listings at once for both Bulk and Simple campaigns. This’ll make it quicker to adjust ad rates versus having to make manual changes for each campaign.

And there’s more to come.

Next Steps

We’d encourage you to adjust your ad rates that are below 2% on or before July 11 to 2% or higher so that your promoted listings can continue to appear in advertising placements across the eBay network. If you decide not to make any changes, those listings will still be active but won’t be promoted.

Update your ad rates now

Thanks for being part of the eBay community.

-Lotz

[femmefan1946]

I was adding my usual one percent to listings on dotcom the other day and the upload gave me a notice that there was a problem with my PL.

Followed the link and was told the minimum was now 2%.

I'll be doing some dotca listings later today and will report back.

I found when I started using PL, that I got a lot more Views and some more sales.

But.

The sales were not necessarily of the Promoted Listings.

So PL seemed to be bringing in buyers who then bought other stuff.

With the backlash to the new 2% minimum, it will be interesting to see all those refuseniks dropping PL and as a result we others get more views and sales again.

Doubtful but who knows?

[musicyouneed]

I have removed PL from my listings.  If it was just 2% of the item cost it is a different story from 2% of the total, which includes shipping and the taxes the buyer pays.   Sales have dropped off a cliff but I think that is the same for everyone. I think that with the postage increases, inflation, sales will remain down for a few months.

Right now I am paying 25% in fees don't want to be paying more. 

[femmefan1946]

I was adding a few items to eBaydotCA today and was able to use my usual one percent without difficulty.

On dotCOM any one percent PLs I tried were refused and I was told the minimum was now two percent.

It will be interesting to watch when dotCA only switches over.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

I was adding a few items to eBaydotCA today and was able to use my usual one percent without difficulty.

On dotCOM any one percent PLs I tried were refused and I was told the minimum was now two percent.

It will be interesting to watch when dotCA only switches over.

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Made a similar observation on dot ca. May have not kicked in yet. Yes. We shall see.

-Lotz

[recped]

All .ca PL listings have been converted to 2% automatically. I was not aware of the July 11th effective date, had a look at them on about July 5th and they were all still 1%, had a sale yesterday and noticed the fee so checked and see they are all showing 2% now.

Everything on this id, essentially just for posting and listing really dead stuff, is promoted, half the miniscule sales are Promoted, both the July sales were Promoted so maybe the 2% plus other sellers bailing is creating more room for those that stay.

I also noted that the suggested % rate seems to be lower than it was a few months ago, used to be 3 to 5%, now it 2.7 to 4.2% (I would never use the suggested rate,. that's for suckers).

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@musicyouneed wrote:

I have removed PL from my listings.  If it was just 2% of the item cost it is a different story from 2% of the total, which includes shipping and the taxes the buyer pays.   Sales have dropped off a cliff but I think that is the same for everyone. I think that with the postage increases, inflation, sales will remain down for a few months.

Right now I am paying 25% in fees don't want to be paying more. 

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@musicyouneed 

For store fees anyone that lists on both sites which store rate would they pay? Dot com or dot ca? What if you have listings on both?  Are taxes applied based on your physical provincial location? Do benefits outweigh fees for having a US store?

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

@lotzofuniquegoodies 

Store fees are based on the site the store is registered.

Sadly for me my store is a .COM registered store so I'm paying the Anchor fees in US$.

Stores registered on .COM or .CA can list on both sites, but the store fee is based on what site the store is registered on.

Depending on ones situation it is/n't easy to convert the store from one site to the other. In my case it is a problem because I have just under 2,000 items that are grandfathered and would have to be updated (things like missing item specifics) before they could be moved, or so it seems. I haven't the wherwithall to try and risk the weeks of effort to fixt the problem listings if it were to fail.

Note that everything for me is converted to $C because that's the managed payments currency I chose. So the $299.99 US store fee is converted to $C and the 13% taxes added on top. Same goes for anything sold on .COM for listing, promoted fees etc.

[regs43]

I had a US Anchor store maybe 2017ish, and I was like why am I paying USD when I can pay in CAD. I switched when my store was about to renew. Was simple I called they walked me through ending on the .com and then opening the .ca

Your listings shouldnt be affected as th store to my knowledge is just that, a store front, not really anthing to do with the listings you may or may not have up. Might be worth an inquiry as you do have the anchor support to call which are usually helpful.

I have since downgraded to a premium store this past year

[ricarmic]

THX @regs43 

I'll put a reminder in my calendar to check again next year (my store renews in June of course!).

I've looked into this in the past, and the support folks have not been sure about whether the grandfathered stuff will have a problem or not which is why I've so far elected not to do it.

The extra cost is signficant so I guess I should take the plunge.

[dobo5250]

looking at your pie chart at 25% ebay fees  iam about the same at 28 %  though i have about 4 %promo listings over all my listings  - with my shipping charges from canada post sending it to about 45 % total expenses  plus cost of goods -- that is down from 56% last month so for me things are going in the right direction if i can trim  another 5 % off the bottom line  i will be happy --or at least satified -trying more with partial covered shipping costs which has helped - also increased my new listings new item iam putting on the site  by about 2/3 % just a couple of dollars here and there - but instead of say $44 for three items package deal-- i now sell them for $49. that little bit extra seems to make the difference   all the best in your selling 

[regs43]

My pie chart thing shows 14% for fees, I don't do any promotions! I am lucky in that I am in a category where ebay offers sportscards as one of the "list free in select categories" with a large amount of listings So I never pay any insertion fees or that 14% would be way worse!

[kawartha-ephemera]

Three recent changes have had a dramatic effect on selling fees, first the 0.5 fvf increase in Canada, second the application of PL fees to the entire transaction and finally Canada Sales Taxes which significantly effects non GST registered sellers. Prior to these changes my selling fees excluding subscription and shipping fees were consistently about 15%.

Canadian Sales used to be my most profitable, not right now though. Currently on DOTca selling fees for the last 30 days are running at 21%. That does not include any subscription or shipping fees. I expect the July number is actually higher than 21%.

For some reason DOTcom fees are lower at 19%.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:
Three recent changes have had a dramatic effect on selling fees, first the 0.5 fvf increase in Canada, second the application of PL fees to the entire transaction and finally Canada Sales Taxes which significantly effects non GST registered sellers. Prior to these changes my selling fees excluding subscription and shipping fees were consistently about 15%.

Canadian Sales used to be my most profitable, not right now though. Currently on DOTca selling fees for the last 30 days are running at 21%. That does not include any subscription or shipping fees. I expect the July number is actually higher than 21%.

For some reason DOTcom fees are lower at 19%.

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For me the major difference/discrepancy are the fees based on shipping. Because for dot com on the cheapest shipping option the fees are regularly lower for similar valued orders. It's become a major penalty to sell to Canadians when you throw in basic expedited along with those added taxes(sellers that never collected tax in the past) and increasing fuels surcharges.

Another observation...Equal valued orders with corresponding tax rates going to different provinces with tax variances of a penny or 2. I realize it's only a penny but shouldn't they be the same. Or are we being rounded to death??

-Lotz

[reallynicestamps]

I suspect rounding. Though why it happens is opaque.

I noticed today that my Active List notes when the older one percent fee on PL is still in place, eBay tells us that those listings are not seen.

So eBay has a CYA that those "too low" PLs are not purchased by hiding them. 

Fortunately, there is a Correct All button. (I've already forgotten what it is called). But each item must the corrected individually.

I used this as an opportunity to correct prices as well.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

I suspect rounding. Though why it happens is opaque.

I noticed today that my Active List notes when the older one percent fee on PL is still in place, eBay tells us that those listings are not seen.

So eBay has a CYA that those "too low" PLs are not purchased by hiding them. 

Fortunately, there is a Correct All button. (I've already forgotten what it is called). But each item must the corrected individually.

I used this as an opportunity to correct prices as well.

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So if something with 1% sold and ummm I guess got viewed would it still be charged at 1%? I have been seeing the same thing. Why I would be so nervous with the "pay to play" click model and trusting it.

-Lotz

[kawartha-ephemera]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote: So if something with 1% sold and ummm I guess got viewed would it still be charged at 1%? I have been seeing the same thing. Why I would be so nervous with the "pay to play" click model and trusting it.

-Lotz

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My thinking is that the recent changes to traffic reporting may have been made in an effort to improve transparency. Now that bot traffic has been eliminated from traffic reporting I think seller trust in the data being reported has to have improved.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote: So if something with 1% sold and ummm I guess got viewed would it still be charged at 1%? I have been seeing the same thing. Why I would be so nervous with the "pay to play" click model and trusting it.

-Lotz

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My thinking is that the recent changes to traffic reporting may have been made in an effort to improve transparency. Now that bot traffic has been eliminated from traffic reporting I think seller trust in the data being reported has to have improved.

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Would be interesting to be able to verify if older time periods for comparison sake will have bot traffic removed.  Another way to have solved this would be a tab to turn bot views off and on. You can do that with organic/external/promoted/prior.

From just now testing, turning on prior gives you a major jump in views so my guess those views were not totally removed with past history. Clicking on impressions view and prior causes no change other than the addition of a graph view.

-Lotz