Promoted listing costs - what a con.

[berkshire-bazaar]

As a 20 year veteron of selling on ebay at various levels (£1m+ business to a hobby business), ive seen lots of changes.  What I am quite alarmed about is the costs of promoting your listing on effectively a closed site (ebay!).  Ive experimented and it makes little difference as to whether I put 15-20% promoted listing levy on an item, or just rely on organic search.  Ebay have effectively doubled their fees in a sneaky way with promoted listings, yet they release videos of how much they care about business.  Ive never seen such a hike in costs of sale on ebay as in 2023, and yet one of the most difficult years for business.  Instead of spending thousands running roadshows and giving out awards, just reduce  your fees and cap it at 10%.  I fear that the decline of ebay as a viable place to sell with just intensify.

[mia18388u6p]

It will be even worse when they change listening to 300 [was 1000]my guess
is eBay only wants business folks i,e, shops etc. stay safe and bye MIA

[pillarboxred]

My thoughts entirely. 

[pillarboxred]

I'm wondering whether the economy of the country is in far worse shape than we are being told.

[pillarboxred]

Selling fakes should be reported to the maker of the real products or statutory authorities. It's not eBay's right or job to police the market which badly needs policing.

[tcwho23]

Personally I consider it a scam but as a seller it's one you have to swallow or you're 5 pages deep in the lisings and never get your products noticed. eBay are getting greedier and greedier and just keep coming up with additional ways to rake money from you. When you look at you sellers account it shows a "breakdown" of the money you've made. That's a joke it doesn't inlcude your postage fees, tax etc, yet eBay constantly pushes you to include free shipping, they constanly hound you to reduce your prices and hound you to death to pay thier ever increasing fees. I mean what even is a regulatory operating fee?? It' s nothing more than yet another eBay grab.  As an example, I sold a necklace at £7.99 Ebay fees of varing magnitude (which eBay on jewllery say your fees are varible on that catagory, so it could well be more they take if they feel so inclined) and costs, postage and cost to make (not including labour) comes to £4.67 leaving £3.32 of which HMRC will take 67p,  now leaving £2.65 and this is on a niche product, most costume jewllery you can't sell at £7.99, but if you read your summary, eBay like to claim you've made £6.63 Not even close mate try nearer a third of that. eBay will rob you blind, problem is they're all the same.

[debbie3858]

Hi, I complained about the promotion costs which was £35 and they refunded me. I would complain and see if you can get a refund.

Debbie

[vintagechinashop]

After the last few weeks and the disappointing realisation that eBay care very little about business sellers I decided to stop all promotions  With my shop fees I'm paying about 32%  in fees and I have decided that enough is enough 

I haven't noticed a difference in sales but what I have noticed is the difference of what I now clear on each sale  it's like a weight being lifted being free of these outrageous extra fees.  I have decided that I won't be paying anymore than I have to. My ultimate aim is to reduce my stock down to a level where a basic shop is viable. To me all the fun has been removed from selling on eBay after 20 years. Like everyone I'm trying to reduce my outgoings and eBay fees are no different. 

[wezmoto]

Yet sellers keep doing it against each other, thier own worst enemies. If "everyone" got together and said no, I'm not bidding against others, the whole system would collapse. But greed is the winner for ebay. There is plenty of business out there to go around, no one needs it "All".

[weavermacuser]

Thanks a million times for providing this information, which, needless to say is nowhere to be found on the eBay site.

[tcwho23]

Be VERY careful what you say on here. I made my feelings known about ebay earlier in this post, since then I've gone from  30,000-40,000 promoted views daily and several hundred actual views per day to virtually zero on both since I posted my negative opinion and obviously that's had a huge impact on business, don't tell me it's not rigged on here.

[rurob72374]

Thanks that was really helpful.  I have just left Vinted as their posting system was rubbish (inpost).

[dress-dolly]

I have been both a seller and buyer for 22+ years on EBay, there was much higher safety for sellers in those days, fees were fees and you knew exactly where you stood. Now if you can work it out, you can seemingly promote your listings, which l have to say explanations are vague aim the least. So far l have not tested it, but they give with one hand to match other selling sites and take with the other with these ‘promotions’ 

AI seems to rule, I am exceedingly disappointed that is the case, I won’t go into why but it is highly detrimental to the reputation of sellers and buyers alike on EBay and needs to be better educated to operate correctly.
I have 183 followers, l have always priced my authentic items competitively, always had a load of hits and many, many watchers on a number of my items. In the past couple of months, I would be lucky if anyone has looked at my items and no sales whatsoever, of things that l know would be of great interest. I have actually moved over to another selling site where I have been very successful, but that is not without issues.
I agree with the original poster, l am afraid without a huge overhaul eBay will be done for, they need sellers like us, my first choice for selling would be the site that l have been using for over 22 years, without issues, now I don’t know any longer, my opinions are changing.
Wake up Ebay before it is too late.

[slk200k-curt]

Your telling me , now Ebay are shadow hiding your Auctions unless promoted for 10% or more , just put a very rare bicycle on for £3500 on Friday , had 28 views and one watcher ?? Before it would have had 500 views and 250 watchers , Ebay hide your Auction , very nasty trick , so 20% of £3500 would be £700 charges ? Think I will soon be leaving Ebay as a seller ...DISGRACE ....Been with Ebay since they started in the mid 90s , remember when I first had an account my X wife ruined , there where 700 members in September 1995 , I was 701 ...

[rurob72374]

Hi,

was wondering why 5 of my 17 of my clothing items have had no views at
all.

Thanks for the info.

[dress-dolly]

None of it makes sense, in an earlier post I mentioned about my own personal high end items I sell from time to time normally which get a good number of hits worldwide, often watchers continuing to watch on a relist, but now, most items get no views, watchers nothing. While sellers of commonly seen known counterfeit items get high profile in notifications, it is absurd. AI is now heavily involved in determining counterfeits and if frankly totally useless, l utterly despair, and believe that is what is personally killing off my sales. They find ways of circumventing Authentication and just keep popping up, especially around this time of year.

I am truly now nearly done with EBay, but I have had some advice from Customer Service to whom I have vented by angst and have yet to find out what they advise, watch this space, sadly l don’t see anything will help at this point tbh.

To see other people’s take on this means l know I’m not alone in this, like I said before wake up EBay before we’ve all left. 

[abdul_ox]

I was searching for Promotional cost /charge which I couldn’t find but instead ended up here on this forum.

Where is that virtual corner of eBay where they may have stated cost of their promotion option?

If that cost is really 20% (as someone mentioned in this forum) then eBay is screwed completely. 

[no_new_steps]

Recently sold a chess set for £700 ('promoted item') and the eBay fees amounted £300!

I simply would not use ebay for anything of real value ever again. 

[mfkv4568]

That seems like an error…