About promoted listings and lack of sales if you do not promote

[upda8077]

I see a lot of people on here are not selling, especially if they do not promote there sales (as it will cost more and be too expensive).

But larger companys can afford to do this, so the smaller seller is being slowly pushed out.

And ebay will add the promoted listings on your item page in a prime position (below your pics and above your description), and there will be two rows of them.

These rows are called "Similar sponsored items", "Sponsored items customers also bought", "Related sponsored items" and maybe other names/lists.

So even if someone views your item for sale before they get to your description the chances are they have spotted something else and leave your item page.

I personally dont like this, as others have said on here its ebays way of making more money by pushing sponsored items.

If you dont sponsor your item for sale its pushed down at the bottom of the search anyway, and when someone does actually find/view your item your just a advert for other sponsored items.

Now I have noticed to the right of the two rows of sponsored items on your for sale item there is a link (this is using a pc and browser, not too sure where the link will be in the ebay app).

The link is called "Feedback on our suggestions", click on it and you will have a few options.

I suggest people click on the link and check one of the options, the question will be (and maybe other questions sometimes) "These recommendations are helpful", I suggest clicking "disagree"

If enough of us do that maybe ebay will stop pushing promoted items on our item for sale page (or at least remove them from the prime position they put them in).

Just a thought 🙂
And please excuse my spelling 🙂

[theelench]

You would think that if enough sellers do as you suggest ebay might take some notice but these requests for feed back are dotted about the site and have been for years, with little evidence that ebay takes any notice of the FB received.

Have all the threads saying similar things, going back to Sponsored Listings (before promoted listings) made any difference to the creeping take-over of every listing as a advert board for others willing to give ebay more fees?   No, or we wouldn't be where we are today.

IMO, with sales on the slide for several years, ebay has turned to squeezing more fees from the sales that remain.  Rather than trying to increase the number of sales.  This downward trajectory has been evident since before the Covid Lock-downs, apart from an upward blip during lock-down. 

The last quarter's Earnings Statement repeated the now almost traditional trends of declining numbers buyers, less sales and ebay loosing sellers.  About the only thing that was reported as having increased was income from Promoted Listings as increasingly desperate sellers tried to kick-start their sales again.

In that situation I expect ebay will be looking to find even more places to show Promoted Listings rather than reducing them in any way.

But I do have one bit of good news!!!!! 

If you reply to this or any other thread, look at the icons above where you're typing.  The one with a "tick" below "ABC" is a spelling checker 😊 

[1956glyn]

Hi

Promoting listings did not work for me.   They made no difference whatsoever 😞

[upda8077]

Thank you, that's helpful about the spell checker , just marked your post as helpful for that 🙂

And unfortunately the more people use promoted listings the more promoted listings there are, so they still dont end up selling anything, so they paying even more % for promotion, others do the same, and again no sales as everyone is doing the same, all everyone is doing (who pay for promotions) to giving money to ebay, and the percentage given will always end up rising as more people promote.

I bet ebay are sitting there with big smiles on there faces and rubbing there hands together 🙂

Come on people, click that link and register your dislike of promoted listings on your and others items for sale pages 🙂

(but I agree with you, the chances are that link is just there so we think ebay care, and maybe no body actually looks at the results, but then just maybe they do, I hope)  🙂

[theelench]

Precisely.

I sell in a vintage glass niche.

Ebay started by "suggesting" I promote at 2 - 3%.  Gradually the recommended rate rose to 8 - 10%.  Last week-end it broke through 10% barrier and now it seems I should giving ebay 9 - 12%.  That equals between 22.8 and 25.8% of the sale price and the postage cost.

That's far too much to sell a site that's so awfull to use and produces such dismal results.  Plus, at the back of my mind is, if they do get a quarter of my sales cash  --  it will only encourage them to hold out their hands for even more.

Remember the Crime films where the victims are warned that if they pay a Blackmailer once, they'll have to pay forever!

[probi9246]

Ebay has been terrible going on two years, I can't see myself ever using promoted listings. It seems like a scam to get a bigger percentage of fees from sellers. Luckily for me I've plenty of other avenues to sell my items(I sell vinyl records). I've literally made more in ONE DAY at a local record fair than I have in three months on eBay!

Albeit I probably have four times the amount of records I have listed on here at the minute at any given record fair, and I usually bring along cheaper items to fairs. I'm sure eBay have crunched the numbers and seen that promoting other listings over others must be making them more money. If they are penalizing sellers for not using it and losing out on revenue because of it, well then it doesn't seem like a very clever business model.

Look for other avenues to sell your items, let them get the revenue from your sales that eBay clearly doesn't want.

[upda8077]

Hi @probi9246  🙂
And good evening.

As @theelench said above :

The last quarter's Earnings Statement repeated the now almost traditional trends of declining numbers buyers, less sales and ebay loosing sellers. About the only thing that was reported as having increased was income from Promoted Listings as increasingly desperate sellers tried to kick-start their sales again.

So i guess it is a good business deal for them, but not for any of us.

Hello @1956glyn 
Good evening to you too 🙂

The chances are promoted listings did not work for you was because you did not spend enough %, but I cannot say for sure as there is a downward trend in sales in general.

I hope people are using the link I suggested on my first post about registering your dislike of promoted listings on your item for sale page.

As @theelench  said in a above post, they may not bother to take notice of the results, but then maybe they will, but use the link anyway (as its no hassle to do), it may get us somewhere.

And it will be good it we can keep this post from sinking into oblivion (like our items for sale pages on the search especially if you do not use promoted listings).

So if possible when this post sinks just make a comment on it so it is brought to the top again just so more people can see it and hopefully register there dislike of promoted listings on their sales page.

All you need to say is "done" or something simple like that  🙂

Have fun 🙂

[denman_fine_art]

Disgraceful that we are being conned into promoted listings at extra costs. Surely, if you list an item then why shouldn't it automatically have good visibility anyway? I mean, if the un-promoted listings are given low visibility then ebay are shooting themselves in the foot due to lack of sales and therefore lack of fees. Twisted logic. Ebay has basically gone to pot and is a very small shadow of its former self.

[upda8077]

Plenty of people are just not using ebay anymore, so sales are down, so ebay earns less now, and they still have to pay there shareholders (and there are lots of them with huge investments in ebay), so promoted listings is just another way of getting money out of us.

People have no idea how much of a monster ebay has become, and ebay has set aside $64 million to cover potential liability in just one case against them (and guess who is paying that, yes, us in fees and promoted listings)

Look up on the search engine you use :

"Former eBay executives given prison time"

[eastern-lights]

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@upda8077 wrote:

Plenty of people are just not using ebay anymore, so sales are down, so ebay earns less now, and they still have to pay there shareholders (and there are lots of them with huge investments in ebay), so promoted listings is just another way of getting money out of us.

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On a point of order, Ebay does not "still have to pay their shareholders". Companies do not pay shareholders. Shareholders receive a dividend based on profit. Low profits, low dividends. Sure, that results in unhappy shareholders who ultimately have the power to get rid of the current upper management and get in new people (which could be a good thing). 

[upda8077]

Shows how much I know about business 🙂

I hope so, ebay does need to improve,  on that bit about looking up "Former eBay executives given prison time", the ceo at that time who is being taken to civil court for his behaviour (as well as ebay)  resigned from eBay in 2019 with a $57 million exit package, so at least he has gone (and a few others).  I am just amazed how badly they acted and what they did.

[cheekychippy210]

Ebay has changed, the worst it has ever been, in my opinion. I no longer sell on here, mbg open to abuse, too complicated and unfriendly interface with too many sponsored items everywhere.

[theelench]

But what would happen if a handful of shareholders with very huge investments in ebay become the Major Shareholders in the company and, quite legitimately, also have equally huge investments in the other two major players in the field? 

They can say to senior management "You're only paying us x% this year, but etsy is paying us x+2 % and amazon is paying out x+4%.  We'd be sorry to see you go, but if that's the best you can do perhaps we'd be better off putting our money in one of the others?"

With the lack of increasing sales to help grow profits, up go fees (again).  The Major Shareholders can then go to the others and say "Ebay's increased our yield this year, perhaps it's time to move our money to them?"

Isn't that why, year by year, the major on-line sites play leap-frog with each other, regularly increasing fees and forever finding new ways to squeeze a few extra pennies from each sale? 

The tail begins to wag the dog?  Returns to Investors in the shape of dividends or Share Buy-Backs become the higher priority.  Investing in the company, like getting it to work reliably, or introducing truly innovative developments, or reducing fees hoping to boost seller numbers and sales, all have to come from what's left-over after the dividends have been paid?

[eastern-lights]

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@theelench wrote:

But what would happen if a handful of shareholders with very huge investments in ebay become the Major Shareholders in the company and, quite legitimately, also have equally huge investments in the other two major players in the field? 

They can say to senior management "You're only paying us x% this year, but etsy is paying us x+2 % and amazon is paying out x+4%.  We'd be sorry to see you go, but if that's the best you can do perhaps we'd be better off putting our money in one of the others?"

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Investing in shares in a company is not like putting your savings in a building society. You cannot simply withdraw your money. If you do not like what a company is doing and want to put your money in a different company, to get your money out of the first company you have to sell your shares. Someone else buys your shares. It does not affect the company at all. 

Simplisticly.

[bazinga-games]

Interesting article, thanks for the hint.

[237ben]

At the risk of stating the obvious........

ebay is a business. It exists to make money. Criticising it for maximising its profits does therefore seem rather pointless. 

Sure, sellers are eBay's customers, but the company is still going to favour those who make the most money for them. Sellers do just the same thing themselves: they sell to the highest bidder, not based on some moral argument as to what’s a 'fair' price.

It’s a marketplace, and in a marketplace money talks. 

[get2trenduk]

Hey

I am wondering, I have been Top eBay seller for about 4 years, I was growing till August 2023, since then my selling performance is going down and eBay encourage me a promotional listing campains. last month I have changed my used ID and it made a change for a short period about 14 days my seling, but after I think they have found out that this removed a kinda of limitations and I have no sales really again if not promoting campaigns. I can see that  Click-through rate doen't want to grow up, also this parameter has been reduced and I can see it goes down  to -1.0 pts. 22.02.2024, other parameters is growing but nothing happens

I have low sales with about 50 feedbacks only, do you think that this is something to drain my budget here and remove my carrier here please

I will be happy to hear form you 

Thx

Peter