is there a problem with checkout? NEW feature : " 4 people have this in their basket"

[best-range]

Today when I open any of my listings I get this new ebay feature, a red banner saying how many people "have this item in their basket".

Is there a problem with ebay's checkout or their payment processor ?

Any ideas what that "improvement" is there for ? apart from justifying paying wages to the person who created it , but what's the benefit to the seller ?  do buyers see it too?

It's not clickable, so not possible to send an invoice to the buyer in case there is a problem with the checkout .

I'd rather not know this as now I started to worry there must be some problem with the checkout or payment & customers are not able to buy/pay for their items, as almost every listing now has this red banner across.

Anyone else noticed this? any ideas what purpose does it serve ?

[best-range]

Just checked randomly other sellers listings & this new feature is everywhere, obscuring part of the gallery picture.

Google will not like it as any pictures with added text or banners on it is usually rejected, as far as i know.

Ebay's own "Listing Report"  in the past always highlighted listings with text that ebay added to the gallery picture as faulty & to be corrected by removing the text - yet it was ebay that put it there in the first place so I cannot remove it.

Is this really useful to anyone ? I dont like it obscures the main picture .

More red banners about how many "views" item had in 24 hours :

[tribalgiftsuk]

I have just seen that on one of my listings too. Maybe they mean 4 people added it to their watch list recently? But changing the words creates the impression of scarcity. Surely they are not using scare tactics to make customers buy things? 

I don't think its a problem with check out although it has been oddly quiet since mid March so who knows LOL

[thesmokingrunner]

Interesting...

From my point of view as a buyer I've recently noticed the introduction of similar banners with "<number> watched in the last 24 hours" displayed.

I think I've found the item of which you included a photo (? Item no ending in 935142) but there is no banner showing, so I'm inclined to think that the "Number watched" banner is shown to potential buyers to try and panic - sorry, encourage - them to buy before the item sells to someone else and the "Number in basket" is shown to sellers to make them think they're just about to make a sale - which may encourage the seller to list more on the site.

It's similar to the old "only x seats available at this price" marketing trick used by airlines. And that's all it is - a marketing trick. It doesn't matter how many people are watching or how many baskets the item is in, it's the sale that counts.

[bravergrace]

The one that's really bugging me is when I look at my sold items, they all have a red banner saying "1 sold in the last 24 hours".  This is actually quite a worrying thing for me, because it implies that I've still got the listing running - and since most of my items are singles, this would be a potential disaster.  From a seller's point of view, it's perfectly pointless on a single-quantity listing.  I know the thing has sold.  

[best-range]

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@tribalgiftsuk wrote:

I have just seen that on one of my listings too. Maybe they mean 4 people added it to their watch list recently? But changing the words creates the impression of scarcity. Surely they are not using scare tactics to make customers buy things? 

I don't think its a problem with check out although it has been oddly quiet since mid March so who knows LOL

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The first thought I had when I saw the red banner was that there must be a problem with checkout/payment, so not the reactions that was hoped for .

It's only when I saw it 's widespread I similarly realised it must be some kind of new feature to entice buyers via scarcity tactics or how popular a listing is.

Over the months I remember so many of those "enticing" new features being placed on pictures obscuring them & under the listings, all of them lasted a few day/ weeks then gone never to be seen again.

Personally it would make no difference to my buying habits, so in my opinion it's a total waste of time. 

There are some serious tech problems that need urgent attention & yet totally ignored instead the tech team finds the time to play with their colour crayons.

Why not ask the experienced sellers about what kind of features they want to help them sell more ? I'm sure they'd come up with many great ideas & implement those instead  ?

Lets hope nothing was broken as a result of producing this "feature" that will probably go the same way as all the other ones went before nowhere to be seen in a few days/weeks.

Probably some kind of life test.

[best-range]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

Interesting...

From my point of view as a buyer I've recently noticed the introduction of similar banners with "<number> watched in the last 24 hours" displayed.

I think I've found the item of which you included a photo (? Item no ending in 935142) but there is no banner showing, so I'm inclined to think that the "Number watched" banner is shown to potential buyers to try and panic - sorry, encourage - them to buy before the item sells to someone else and the "Number in basket" is shown to sellers to make them think they're just about to make a sale - which may encourage the seller to list more on the site.

It's similar to the old "only x seats available at this price" marketing trick used by airlines. And that's all it is - a marketing trick. It doesn't matter how many people are watching or how many baskets the item is in, it's the sale that counts.

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I think if the banner is not visible to some it must def. be a life test on some accounts, again me being the guinea pig.

As a potential buyer I see both banners on other sellers listings, the "how many are in the basket" & "how many views in the 24 hours" - so I think both banners supposed to be for the benefit of the buyers to "panic" them into buying faster.

I almost get the "how many views", but "how many are in the basket" ? makes no sense to me, as some more literally minded people might interpret it as "problems with checkout" as I did - so did not work as intended.

I remember the banner stating "how many watchers", that gone fast.

[bojangled]

Etsy have done this for years I believe. 
ebay just copycatting.

I'd be more impressed it if they copied Amazon's 'small business' logo next to sellers username/shop.

Jo

[vintagewatchpart]

This is also used on websites in general, it is a way of evoking an impulsive response in the buyer to act and purchase and it does work, it increases conversion so it could be a positive step. 

Another common one is those ticking down countdowns to indicate when a sale will end.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Another variation is 'Only 3 left, and 4 people have it in their baskets'.  If the buyer has put it in the basket, it prompts them to check out and secure one of the three that are left.

It's commonly used by clothing retailers, and there's been a lot of marketing chatter about whether it's true - or just a way to push slow-moving or high profit items - trading on FOMO.

[dch2112011]

As a buyer recently returned to ebay after a couple of years, I must say that ebay has become much more active in trying to close the sale for it's sellers.

Abandoned carts, items left in basket whatever you want to call it is a priority for all websites - some websites notify sellers and give them options as to how to respond and information as to whether a payment was attempted or not  - others like ebay notify the buyers with a variety of enticing emails to try and convince them to complete the purchase. 

The number of incomplete purchases is quite staggering across the whole of ebay and if they can convert even a small percentage of these  it can only be a good thing.

Does it work undoubtedly - Do the banners work - yes if you are looking for a particular item at the very least it will draw you in to the listing advert out of curiosity as to why it is popular.

An example of this that resulted in a sale to me was when looking for a replacement lance for a pressure washer and faced with a multitude of options, the banner drew me to a listing - it ticked every box - British, direct from supplier, great feedback for the item and potentially a shortage of stock, put on watch list looked around but kept coming back to compare - purchased and paid £15 more than Chinese imports of similar products. The banner drew me in and the seller did the rest.

Ebay also send prompts to viewed items when a purchase has not been completed during that session and they are different from pushing the seller's qualities reputation etc to the number of the viewed item sold - to make an offer and many more permutations - all very well worded and geared to completing a sale.

From a buyer's point of view this proactive marketing could and does push the scale to complete a purchse.

Can't tell you what you see or get as a seller but thought it might be interesting from a buyer's perspective

[leadhills_scot]

I turned off all ebays emails regarding buying as all they did was annoy me, same with Amazon.  Doesn't matter now as I've just closed my buying account, not used it since 2022 so finally got round to shutting it down.

[minkwell]

Yes just noticed this too. Dirty tactics that have no purpose other than to create a buying frenzy. 
I say this with annoyance because there were two video games that I had my eye on from the same seller. They have been listed for over a week with only 3 watchers. I'd messaged the seller saying I'd buy them but could he combine the postage... to which he hadn't replied to. In the meantime I accidently added one of the games to my basket. Anyway sure as hell somebody purchased that game within an hour!

(the seller eventually replied several hours later to say "sorry the game has now sold"... yeah cheers mate 😔)

coincidence? Or did the basket banner influence a rival purchase? 🤔 you decide...

[insidethe93]

I don't whether to believe the red banner when it says someone (or more) has the item in their basket. I attach a screenshot that I took a day or two ago: I'd just bought the item whilst knowing I was buying the last two in stock, and I was the only buyer on that page (apparently). A few moments later, once my payment had cleared, I returned to the page to double-check something in the description - that's when I saw "1 other person has this in their basket" ALONG WITH "sold" and info saying it was "out of stock" so of course there were no buttons available to click to buy/make an offer.

The only way I believe the banner could be there along with "sold" is if someone put the item in their basket in the very short time I was paying and payment was clearing. But you'd think if payment was clearing then eBay's systems wouldn't allow you to put the item in your basket??

[the-nutwood-collection]

My take on this is that the buying event triggered the banner in real time.  I doubt that the banner code was written to detect the matching ID between the basket and the listing view -  it always says 'other person'.

Removing the banner doesn't have to be in real time, it's not sufficiently important - unlike updating the stock level.  Therefore, there will be a sweep at intervals to remove the banners where checkout has been completed for the item.

[insidethe93]

Ah, thanks, that makes sense.

[sunshinedior67]

Yes same problem here. I've auto paid for items and eBay are moving them into my basket saying awaiting payment. I haven't even set my account to auto pay either. If this is a new system they are using, like everything about eBay it's shabby, misleading & shouldn't be happening. Maybe they are trying to double each payment. Eother way they can't do things right and I will no longer buy from eBay.

[papers-mate-420]

I think people now a days just put anything into there basket instead of watching must be a new thing now a days but i seen this a lot and it's the same as watchers they don't buy just lurkers funny thing is i had one of my items 4 sale and it was in sum ones basket and i just unlisted it as i sold the item 2 one of my mates so longer you wait in sum cases it will sell some where else and lose out.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

In my experience members only add items to their basket if they plan to buy it soon or add other items and then buy.

It's convoluted to keep viewing a basket,simpler to just add an item to watching.

Other companies have been using this "technique (ploy)" for ages,it's just another marketing tool used in the hope people will be buying coz they think it will sell out.

[papers-mate-420]

I turned off all mine years ago also as i found it 2 annoy me 2.