Ads in our listings do ebay want us to sell at all?
Summary: suema_62 expressed frustration over ads for similar items by large sellers appearing prominently on their listing page, comparing it to a marketing conflict. tressygirl shared a similar experience, noting it affected their sales and suggesting that smaller sellers might attract buyers who prefer to support them, provided the price difference is minimal. tommystrezures lamented the competitive pricing pressures caused by larger sellers and described a strategy where they temporarily lowered prices to undercut the larger seller, then raised them again after sales shifted. The overall sentiment was one of dissatisfaction with the current platform practices.
OK books are a tough sell now especially with postage we can but try. Checking a listing for views not only is there the usual banner of similar items but right at the top of the listing was the 'find similar items from World of Books ' advert even before the listing was fully visible. This is like heading for Tesco and in the doorway is a big sign saying similar items are available in Lidl !!!! How would ebay like it if on logging in a big banner appeared saying 'similar stock available in Vinted'.....
theelench
·1 month agoIt was frustrating enough when I was selling (or trying to) and yes, it does affect your sales as I'm sure it affected mine.
Recently I've been seeing the results as a buyer. I'm completing my coin collection and have been looking here for coins by specific dates and condition. Most recently an 1844 half crown. The search results gave me about 300 listings, but very few in the grade I wanted. Every one I looked at had rows of "Similar etc", one of them better than the one I was shown and at a price I was happy with.
I thought I'd see it if I completed searching the main results, but I didn't.
Why? I can only guess that ebay's profile of my buying habits and it's 'helpful' habit of streamlining results to fit that, decided that it was outside my usual price range (of mostly completely different items) so it excluded that coin. I never did find it again, so I bought a similar coin from a company that doesn't advertise on ebay.
Ebay's attempts to manipulate the search results backfire in various ways starting with the frustration buyers feel, just trying to see what they want to buy. In my case some unlucky seller lost a sale for £618 because of ebay's interference. ( I know they did because I just searched again and yes, that coin is still for sale but today it's visible in the main results.)
tommystrezures
·1 month agoIts really annoying at best, along with the endless rubbish that appears under your listing. I pay for that I want my customers to be focussed, not wonder off elsewhere. The problem with these "big boys" is that if you make your price cheaper you can bet within the hour their item will be cheaper still (by a penny) its like a race to the bottom of the pit. We have on occasion on our private account priced things so low, that the similar to world of books will go in much cheaper, we then wait..... They sell the item at rock bottom price and put ours back up again and sell later at the price we wanted. Doesn't always work but has done for us in the past.
tressygirl
·1 month agoTotally frustrating I agree, it happened to me when selling, and I'm sure it affected my sales too.
Comparing your prices to one of the biggest sellers of that item on eBay and of course can charge less, can attract more buyers who wish to pay less.
The only plus I can see if your prices are only a little more in price, is that many who do buy books regularly, may wish for the ' little' seller to get their ' vote' and buy from you, that's what I do , if the price is not Too different!
@suema_62