Competitor adverts on my listings

[lr-new-used-kent]

Whats the point? Click on one of my listings and there is a sponsored (paid for?) insert at the top suggesting the potential buyer look at one of my competitors listings for what they want. To make matters worse, scroll down immediately below my picture of the item and sponsored listings of the same item from other sellers are highlighted along with price.  Immediately below that are then more sponsored scrollable items the same.  As if that werent bad enough, continue scrolling down to my description of the said item and whats found immediately below that?  You guessed it, every other listing that ebay has for the same item. So, on the listing I pay for, every other item the same as mine for sale on ebay, is on my page. I know it has been like that for quite a while now but I do wonder about the percentage of customers that land on my page and then click through to another seller?

[careycouture]

I have also just seen this across the top of one of my listings, I pay promoted listings on all my items so to have someone elses items listed across the top of mine is an absolute joke, @ebay any answers as to why youve done this ?

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with you. I do not pay for other peoples listings to show up on my account, it is totally unfair and unethical. Would ebay like it if I advertised my listings that are on a different site, no they wouldn't so why do it to sellers.

[darth_baggins]

Yes, I noticed this last week. I asked about it on the weekly community chat and got the usual non answer. It genuinely makes me want to close all my listings and never use eBay ever again.

It's disgusting and shows the utter contempt that eBay has for sellers (their customers).

[a45heaven]

I totally agree with you that others sellers items, the same as what you sell should not be pushed this way. It would seem that cancelled bids, and orders be a result, if not simply a lost sale.

Just a thought, as those identical items are listed on ebay, if you stopped participating in promotional deals, would YOUR items be pushed on other sellers listings?

Im assuming the information is gleaned  by ebay from the item specifics which you were tasked to complete for each item ?

[ett1954]

These are the result of the new promotional feature 'Promote your shop' which was introduced recently.

eBay's never-ending quest to take more money from sellers via promotional activity rather than finding ways to attract more buyers to the platform.

[howmuchtobid]

Anyone with any expertise would realise giving a buyer too much choice and too much information when they are looking to buy something isn't what you would do.

Sadly Ebay doesn't have a lot of expertise.

The result is the mess we see today.

[darth_baggins]

In my case, I checked the competitor's listings and my shop is not shown on theirs. I'm guessing it's whoever pays eBay the most in promotional fees. I refuse to pay more than 2%.

[sheba-knows-best]

As a previous poster said, you have to pay to 'promote your shop' to get on that banner at the top.

Regarding the philosophy behind all of ebay's adverts: ebay's worst outcome is a buyer wandering off and buying on a different platform precisely because the buyer did not like what they clicked on after all and nothing else caught their attention. That is why one ad will lead to another and another and another - each assortment offered, due to the search engine, hopefully becoming ever closer to what the buyer wants (because the search engine learns from what the buyer clicks on as he/she wanders from ad to ad).

It certainly works well when I am buying.

I think it makes sense. If your item suits the buyer, the buyer will retrace his/her steps (or reclick on your ad in an offered assortment if you use PL).

[neil-simulant]

Just a suggestion to everyone , there is a link above these listings that says feedback on suggestions. One of the options you can click is  are these recommendations helpful click disagree and then you can click I dont want to see any recommendations. Hopefully if enough of us do this, they will have second thoughts. 

Doubtful but worth a shot.

[sheba-knows-best]

---

@sheba-knows-best wrote:

As a previous poster said, you have to pay to 'promote your shop' to get on that banner at the top.

---

Regarding 'promote your shop' I think this is interesting too. It is pay per click - so not cheap. So you have to have confidence in your shop. (Which I dont incidentally, it needs work)

Ebay knows it is saturated with too many sellers selling tat who are clogging up the search engine. We know it is starting to weed out all kinds of sellers who are not helpful to it (private/business seller albeit slowly, people needing PL unless their items fly because they are niche, cheap etc). Trying to get sellers to have great looking shops is another idea to promote the best (and weed out the tat). ANd after a while, buyers should mark shops as their favourites and go their first (at which point you wont be paying for a click anyway).

[howmuchtobid]

I would predict many potential buyers leave the platform because the page is difficult to navigate, i.e. it is dominated by sponsored listings which get in the way of the item you clicked on.

When you design something it is best to go for something that is clean and easy to use. You may find it easy to utilise however I imagine many don't.

[ett1954]

"When you design something it is best to go for something that is clean and easy to use. You may find it easy to utilise however I imagine many don't." 

That is very true, however my main issue is that selling niche items I ensure there is a full description and ample photographs as potential buyers are looking for specific topics; this all takes time.  They read my product description and are then shown the same item from someone else who is either too lazy or can't be bothered to put a description into the listing.  This is usually the 'private' business sellers or the mega business sellers (who usually can't be even bothered to include a photograph), but can obviously afford to promote higher and sell cheaper.

This is probably why my offline ventures are now providing a better return on investment in time than eBay can.

[careycouture]

 dave@ebay please can you explain why this will help our buisnesses as I see it as a big kick in the guts AGAIN to small buisness sellers  

[magpiecorner1]

I have just spent half an hour checking what is on my listings - the route to dozens of etsy listings was particularly interesting. 

[padanpcparts]

This is exactly what I do. Too many adverts, Nope I'll go look somewhere else. 

[sheba-knows-best]

I wonder if this is a category thing...

If you look on Vinted you are bombarded with different items like the one you searched for... you keep clicking 'like' (a bit like 'watch')... and gradually you get shown more and more of what you want... plus, everyone you click, starts messaging you regarding price and can they help... (I should say this is all from my daughter, a Vinted fan due to cheap prices - I havent done it for myself)

Possibly ebay knows the Vinted model works well so is using it itself. Maybe it doesnt work so well in other categories. 

I search high end vintage on ebay. Ebay shows me utterly lovely things apparently hidden to others... I dunno... I just wander around the listings... and I am stopped in my tracks time and time again....

[sheba-knows-best]

Just another thought, when you don't like what you see when searching on a laptop - try it on the app (phone). Everything is being developed to work more on phones nowadays as over 70%+ of sales come that way apparently. I'm no techy so have no idea how much developing one hampers the other... as I say just a thought.

I guess most sales in say, collectibles, dont come via app, but I guess ebay has to do everything to suit where its income stream is coming from.

On the app I can't see the shop banners... yet....

[pillarboxred]

Yes, on "busy" pages I sometimes miss things because I haven't known to scroll down. This is especially true for apps.  when using my phone and the screen "real estate" is so tight. Another annoying thing is that the ever more complicated Sign On routine is seen as an opportunity for eBay to place a commercial message which distracts and slows signing in down. Who can be bothered?

[pillarboxred]

Those links improve the shopper experience by simplifying it  but in the meantime we  continue paying to reach these consumers. Advertising has risks like that: Metro is paid for by advertisers but when do I buy from the adverts? Advertising is a hard question.