Can someone please explain to me why Private Sellers are receiving 'adverts' from E-Bay to 'promote'

[j.p.greenwood]

....listings?

Surely most (genuine)  Private Sellers aren't really timescale motivated by when their item sells as they're not relying on the sale.

However, over the last monthish I guess, I'm getting increasingly inundated with 'push banner adverts' telling me I should 'promote' my listings (I actually received four in total yesterday which is what prompted me to write this), what is quite Orwellian NewSpeak hilarious is when you dismiss one a little box pops up telling you you'd 'missed an opportunity', when the reality is that you're giving away 10% of the value of your item, for an 'advert' within E-Bay, that you have no control over where it's placed or any metric for you to optimise it's positioning, instead having to rely on E-Bays 'integrity' to position what you pay for to your advantage rather than theirs.

There will I'm sure be the usual comments along shortly along the lines of "....well they only get paid when it sells....", which somewhat misses the point as items 'priced' correctly sell without any real issues and E-Bay's 'promotion' ties you into paying them, even if you end up dropping the price later, so not really to the benefit of (genuine) Private Sellers IMHO,

[superchallenge]

In short, because eBay are a business and businesses like to make money.

[jonatjonatjonat]

It depends on the competition of the product. If you want the possibility of selling it quicker then a promoted listing might make sense. 

some are even pay per click as well.

and at the end of the day, it’s optional! EBay will as stated above like you to pay more, so it’s in their interests to do the usual pushy sell. It’s just standard ecommerce practice these days, giving it the hard sell.

[the_book_seekers]

what is quite Orwellian NewSpeak hilarious is when you dismiss one a little box pops up telling you you'd 'missed an opportunity', 

As a business seller ebay has inserted suggestions and promotions on to my  Manage Active Listings page. I currently have one suggesting I reduce dispatch time by a day, another suggesting I send offers to my watchers and 2 promotions for promoted listings. I ignore them because if I hit the delete I get a very annoying message telling me I've 'dismissed an opportunity'. No I haven't, I'm 'dismissing' unwanted interference. 

[banditfrenzy]

I suspect that you aren't really a genuine private seller & you are quite possibly just one of the many traders who masquerade as a private seller to manipulate ebays fee structure & also to gain a competitive advantage over your peers who choose to operate legitimately. Whatever, I'm not someone that you need to convince. 

As a trader myself, with a moderately successful business account that trades here legitimately, I applaud ebays recent changes. They seem to be squarely aimed at the vast army of traders masquerading as private sellers & this can be clearly seen by the reaction of that community to those changes which most affect their profits.

All I can say is . . . "You ain't seen nothing yet". If you were not a trader then your profits wouldn't really matter to the extent of the moaning & whinging that is being voiced right here on this very forum . You would not be as upset by your marketplace chipping away at your profits because it is not the profits for your time that would be your focus point if you were a genuine 'private' seller.

Ebay is a business, while I personally do not consider it a good business, it is nonetheless a business. It exists purely to make profit for itself. It is not some kind of beneficial co-operative that exists solely to put profits in your pocket.

As a business. ebay needs to always be increasing its profits, otherwise it is seen to be failing. Any bona fide business person knows the ways to increase profits & ebay has chosen to focus on the traders masquerading as private sellers to increase its profits. If you want to hold out & maintain your stance as a  private seller then good luck to you, I wish you well. But you ain't seen nothing yet & unless you start to look at the whole scenario as a reality & what the future may bring, then ebay will plough you into the gutter & carry on as if you never existed.

[j.p.greenwood]

You're an idiot.

Two minutes looking at my feedback would clearly show you I'm a private seller, of course it's much easier not to do the work and sheetpost, then do some proper analytical research and come to a correct conclusion.

Do you honestly think any 'trader' would focus on just a few tablets and a restricted product selection generally priced under what others sell the same units for?  If you think that's a business model that would survive very long ,it just shows how little you understand about business.

If you check out my posts in this forum you'll see I've never complained about any of the fee structures or anything similar, I have objected vociferously to the removal of Royal Mail Special Delivery from the shipping options and that's been my only complaint.

[vinylscot]

As has been pointed out to you on another thread, bona fide private sellers do not sell a dozen tablets in a year, some of which are mint and in their boxes. Nor do they stock multiples of computer parts/remotes, etc.

Private sellers sell off their own unwanted possessions.

Your feedback and listings clearly show that you are a business seller passing yourself off as a private seller, depriving potential buyers of some of their legal rights under consumer laws, and in contravention of the terms and conditions of eBay itself.

Just because this may be to you, a small account, doesn't mean it's not a business account. You could have many more accounts, or eBay may only be a small part of your business, or it may just be a very small business (a "side-hustle"). Bottom line, you should be operating a business account.

[j.p.greenwood]

Once again, not a business account, have no other E-Bay accounts nor do I trade anywhere else.

As to why I have quite a few tabs, if you look at my other posting in this forum you'll see I use tablets for quite a lot of different things and am in an upgrade cycle.  Keeping the original boxes for things is prudent to ensure I get the best price when I come to sell them.

So the evidence you are relying on to make your incorrect prejudiced assumption is far from convincing, yet instead of choosing to accept you're actually wrong, you decide to make accusations that are without foundation, in writing.

Find me one post here that shows I've complained about the fee structures or talked about profit, you won't be able to.....so take your small minded assumptions and hop off.

[crn303]

Agree with your posting reply JP …. If people only see what they want to see, they might as well keep their eyes closed.

[vinylscot]

You are unlikely to complain about fee structures, given that you are paying no fees as a result of your illegal trading. It's also completely irrelevant that you haven't spoken about profit; you are clearly running a business account. 

I'll repeat, genuine private sellers will not be selling a dozen tablets in a year. Nor will they be stocking multiples of various computer-related items and remotes, etc.

You may receive some support on here from like-minded individuals, but that doesn't mean either they or you are right. You very clearly are not.

[j.p.greenwood]

You're wrong.

[wellingnorth]

I've had these emails recently as well and for me it feels a bit unnecessary - I don't want to spend my time working out which items to promote at what extra fee percentage etc, I just want to list items and have ebay present them to the buyers who are most likely to be interested at any particular time. 

This sort of active promotion / advertising seems like something you might expect ebay to limit to business sellers, particularly at a time when they're making things 'simpler' for private sellers in other areas like selling fees and how to post an item. I'm sure as others have said it's for making money, but the heavy promotion of this does seem at odds with the general strategy.

[papso22]

Just a heads up that you are not meant to list without photos and cash on collection is no longer allowed.

[j.p.greenwood]

Thanks, most of them are old listings, I'll update them this weekend.

[honeymonster007]

nor do I trade anywhere else

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Sometimes it's just wiser to stay under the radar