Similar sponsored items & Related sponsored items

[ace-campers]

This is not really a technical issue but a cunning way to try to get all sellers to pay extra for  "sponsored items" Adding "Similar sponsored items" & "Related sponsored items" inbetween a sellers add to divide, divert buyers to sellers who pay for these is simply a poor and unfair practice.

Buyers do not even get a chance to read your description before being lured to another sellers listing. We sellers pay a fair price for this space. We do not pay for our space to be divided and our buyers to be diverted away from our listings.  Picture shows in green the paid for space divided by the red, right in the middle.  It needs to be at the bottom, not in the middle. Please can I have the space I pay for?

Anyone else agree this is not good at all?    Have a nice day.

 

[bennotbill]

It's been agreed many times that if there must be ads they all should be at the bottom below the item description.

I've no doubt that this is the majority view of sellers but it makes no difference. eBay goes its own way regardless.

[vinylscot]

Obviously, adverts appearing AFTER the item description will attract less attention, so those paying for them will naturally expect them to be placed where they can be seen.

I do think eBay has gone too far though. For a post on a recent thread, I counted 110 adverts for other sellers selling similar products, on one single listing page. In cases like that, neither the seller nor the advertiser is getting a fair crack of the whip.

[ace-campers]

I get it but its still b.s

[kempseykate]

On my PC it takes ages for them to load, so I keep trying to get to the description and being bounced up the page back to the (rarely) 'similar' items. I now tend to wait for them to load then just scroll past them. In the same way, I always ignore the first few sponsored items if I have done a 'Best Match' search.

[theelench]

So that's why ebay is so slow now going from the search results to viewing one particular ad.?

Surprising that ebay hasn't worked out that being so slow to load the item a buyer is actually interested in is likely to lose sales and while the buyer is waiting, looking at the "Similar" and "Related" sponsored listings, has ample time to realise that so often they are nothing of the sort and only on the screen at all because ebay has to justify the fee for showing them.

[andeb-autos]

Hi All

I was looking for seller's thoughts on whether sales have been dropping off lately and came across this conversation/topic on "Similar sponsored items & Related sponsored items".

I'm pretty sure my sales have dropped since eBay started shoving loads of sponsored items within my listing, between the listing photo/header and the actual item description.

All this does is point buyers away from my listing to sponsored ones, which could be causing me to lose some sales.

Business is cutthroat enough on prices, eBay fees and subscription fees that I don't want to be putting more money in eBay's pocket by paying extra for sponsored ads.

It's getting harder and harder to sell on eBay.

Why can't eBay just be happy with the listing fees and selling fees they earn as when I started years ago and forget about being greedy for sponsored fees? They need to give all sellers a level playing field or there soon won't be many sellers left.

Is anyone else fed up with this and looking to come off the eBay platform?

Are there any better selling platforms out there?

[sumnites]

This is annoying and for buyers you can get distracted, click on an alternative which then has a set of alternatives and you never find your way back or lose interest and give up. What I have also found is if searching by price some of the extra ads are cheaper than those shown via search so end up with the sale. Certainly doesnt help with 'trust' in the search system which probably went years ago.

The answer of course is simple, you have to pay to be listed, pay extra to be promoted and I think also pay not to have ads in your listing? at the same time being undercut by others.

[electrotec-security-supplies]

It is a totally unfair practice putting your competitors ads in the listing page you pay for to sell your own product. Unfortunately most sellers just put up with it without complaining. I have complained directly to eBay but I think it would take tens of thousands of sellers complaining before they act.

Or perhaps there is some legal angle on which they could be challenged for being unfair. In other words the service they are selling, a listing page is not fit for purpose due to it being used to promote competing offers.

After all if you rented a market stall for the day and the seller on the next stall put their products on your stall, I bet you would soon complain. Unfortunately the likes of eBay and Amazon have always bent the rules in favour of higher profits and only do the right thing when facing huge fines.