Adverts with 'simple delivery' get more views!!

[scootersandcommuters]

About six weeks ago .... just before 'simple delivery' arrived...i listed an item twice, once with my usual carriage and another identical advert but with simple delivery as carriage offer. Interestingly, the one with simple delivery has TWENTY TIMES more views than the one without. Hmm. 

[lucy_farmer]

'Interestingly, the one with simple delivery has TWENTY TIMES more views than the one without. Hmm. '

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Yeah well, ebay have spent a lot of time and money on getting together with evri and have the potential to make an enormous amount more *if* sellers use S.D........so yes, their algorithms are going to push S.D. rather harder ☹️. 

Most buyers probably wouldn't know the difference between the two types of listing, so it's not going to be *their* choice of which to look at.....

[akemp1]

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@scootersandcommuters wrote:

About six weeks ago .... just before 'simple delivery' arrived...i listed an item twice, once with my usual carriage and another identical advert but with simple delivery as carriage offer. Interestingly, the one with simple delivery has TWENTY TIMES more views than the one without. Hmm. 

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It's not a representative sample but I wouldn't be surprised if ebay could tweak their broken search to favour SD items (or maybe it's not worth the effort as they keep expecting SD to be mandatory asap) however since reducing my items by the value of the buyer tax several months ago I am still selling non-SD items at the same rate as last year on an increasingly stale set of listings as my new stuff tends to get listed and sell well on another platform.

[mazda-mx5-mk3-parts]

Thanks for sharing this information. I would say this is more ebay deception and fraudulent practice!! I am still below standard because of three ebay buyers lying through their backteeth to get a free return when all three had purchased the correct item for their cars but lied to ebay to return them. I would think ebay will eventually get rid of custom postage and just have simple delivery. What really annoys me is when you relist something ebay automatically adds simple delivery even if the item is collection only another thing ebay dont want!! This is a prime example of the ebay seller working for ebay for FREE!! I relisted a hard top roof for a sports car which is obviously collection only when I looked at delivery which should of said collection only it said ebay simple delivery 1kg 45 x 35 x 16 (shoe box size) £4.50!! So if I hadn't noticed this ebay wanted me to pack the hardtop which is impossible and let a ebay buyer pay £4.50 to have it sent to them!! Also there are no options at all in ebay simple delivery for pallet delivery!! 🤔🙄😳😬🤷

[tidyingupanddownsizing]

It may only be one listing BUT its exactly the same item listed with the same title same item specifics same words same pictures . The simple delivery one has had just under 40 views [ and has 6 watchers]. The 'custom delivery' one has had only 2 views...... I don't think that can be a random happening, especially not when Simple Delivery version carriage cost is actually £2 more expensive than the 'custom' one.  And i do understand the concept of  statistically significant sample data sizes but i'm happy enough to take this as indicative of general search results given the extreme difference in views

I'm not slagging ebay for this - i expected it to happen. And i am now slowly [ as free time allows] moving over listings to use simple delivery where possible. Nb  I just wish i could exclude Evri without the RM price uplift. 

I carried out this test for my own knowledge ie to get an answer to the question "do SD listings get more exposure in searches?" so that I could then act as I decided appropriate during this time of change. And thought it would be the decent thing to do to share the info.

[edwardian-dreams]

Fascinating 😐

im going to do the same test and report back 

looking on bright side , it’s more views than the paltry normal of  zero one or two 

eta

of course it said duplicate not allowed so had to tweak title slightly but shouldn’t make a difference hopefully in the test

[mazda-mx5-mk3-parts]

Very interesting and well done to you for doing this test ebay obviously
want all private sellers onto simple delivery and they want rid of
collection only because they are not making anything out of it its the
common sense bit that ebay dont have that annoys me also I removed EVRI
from my postage options simply because there's no drop shop anywhere near
me and Royal Mail collect from me but now I have to pay 30p per parcel so
have to add any simple delivery parcels as additional collections on top of
my custom delivery collections

[kath3735_wxmjn]

appreciate the sharing but it makes no difference to me, i will not be using SD.

[bojangled]

Interesting, seems to imply that business sellers will have no option but to promote, and still what chance of being seen?

[akemp1]

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@bojangled wrote:

business sellers will have no option but to promote

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Promoted listings are one of the most evil innovations of ebay in recent years.

Ebay could have run a high quality respectable online marketplace with a no-nonsense fair fee structure. People would love that and it would been of unquestionable benefit to society but they chose the dark side to get sellers fighting with each other to pay increasing amounts and variety of fees for visibility.

It's amazingly unethical yet there is no sense of shame.

The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape and driving someone to insanity is his work.

[bojangled]

@akemp1 

I used to run promotional listings on a third of my inventory (when I had about 1500 listings) and to be fair I did get some good results on multiple quantity listings, to the point once there was some sales history I could switch it off. 
However those heady days are over for me…☹️

[mazda-mx5-mk3-parts]

Well said and totally true. Ebays business model is absolute backwards
common sense but what do we know. Greed vs common sense unfortunately greed
wins 👎🤷

[akemp1]

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@mazda-mx5-mk3-parts wrote:
Well said and totally true. Ebays business model is absolute backwards
common sense but what do we know. Greed vs common sense unfortunately greed
wins 👎🤷

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After having kids I found it the same greedy unethical culture had started at theme parks where people now routinely pay for VIP queue jumping passes. Again it's totally unfair to those queuing to be overtaken by someone that paid more money - the theme park are selling something that is not theirs to sell in the first place as the relationship between people in a queue is frankly between themselves and nothing to do with the park operator. A total abuse of power.

Somewhere big business lost it's moral compass and it became OK to act unethically in plain sight if you think that nobody will hold you to account. And like fools we support these companies if we have formed a habit while their offering is overall still reasonably attractive.

It's such a broken system.

[theelench]

So the ebay search results are being even more screwed up and made more useless than they are already. 

[akemp1]

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@theelench wrote:

So the ebay search results are being even more screwed up and made more useless than they are already. 

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Maybe they should call it the Epic Quest function in recognition of the amount of effort and obstacles a buyer must endure to find what they are looking for?

[fatbobfan]

Agreed, point well made

As an older dude speaking, but over the years thats the way of the economic world (wrongly so) Every opportunity to rinse customers  is a commion practice, taking every penny at every opportunity

Queue jumping is a good example, charging extra for vegetables with your steak in a restaurant, Floor mats in your car are extra? Admin fees for tickets, VIP areas at gigs (my perosnal bug bear) processing fees on absolutely bloomin everything... grrrrrr.  Can I change my flight, yes but it will cost £120 Your suitcase is another £20 for your holibobs. We all pay basic service and have to budget for the 'extra's and its flippin annoying. It used to be called good old fashined service, now its a cash cow. 

This platform, is over rinsed, I pay a shop subscription, why should I have to pay to promote, on site, why pay off site, especially off site, whats my subscription for? I pay a FVF and PL in its various forms. Im told to report sellers abusing the Ebay system, but in the same breath Im getting told I have to pay a regulatory orperating fee thats supposed to be dealing with some these issues on every sale on top of the FVF my subscription for the platform, 0.35% on all completed transactions how much has that been this year and will continue, will it be removed when the Eu/Tariffs debarcle is resolved, will it ..... Now they are taking a higher percentage with SD winfall with better postal contracts. Completeing a transaction is no longer its revenue, its what extras it can rinse you of in all steps of the process

All about the profit, not its customers or my other bug bear, Customer Service, its  sad Ive invested 20 plus years here, changes to the process of the platform and continual strangulation of my revenue have forced me to look else where on revenue streams 

Genuinely annoyed and saddened

[akemp1]

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@fatbobfan wrote:

This platform, is over rinsed,

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Yes, that sums it up nicely. Ebay is now past the tipping point of being worth it for many people and it's probably just established habits and a backlog of existing listings keeping us here. Not a great position when more nimble, customer focused, genuinely simpler and lower cost competitors are keen to pickup the work. Ebay have a big problem but they are taking the wrong medicine.

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@fatbobfan wrote:

Ive invested 20 plus years here, changes to the process of the platform and continual strangulation of my revenue have forced me to look else where on revenue streams 

Genuinely annoyed and saddened

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I've found it helps not to consider the past few decades of ebay activity as an investment just a mutual transactional thing that paid off for both parties at the time.

It was a big relief to me when I found that I could buy and sell a reasonable variety of things I might want or have on another platform as having choices stops that victim feeling every time ebay announce a change that stamps across what you might have considered established red lines of decency.