To promote listings or not, what works for you? Are you increasing %, unchanged or switching off?

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

With the new changes coming in on promoted listings where you "pay if your promoted listing is clicked" and sells within 30 days, causing some debate, was interested to see if other sellers use promoted listings, what percentage do you set, what type of promotion you use and what works for  you?  Do you sell without any promotion?  Promoted v's not promoted?  Have you recently switched them off with this announcement, will remain unchanged or increase rate?  If you have increased or switched off what are your findings? Would be interested to see. Will you be switching off when this comes into practice or remain the same? With all the changes here and ever increasing fees it is hard to know what to do for the best and what will work, if anything.

On another community chat someone posted their stats where they had recently switched off which was quite interesting, obviously a lot depends on what you sell and the market for it.  Post what you do, how it works for you and maybe show us your promotion/not promoted stats and the type of products you sell.

[9150simon]

I sell mainly used clothing, some new bits and bobs, shoes and accessories.  I have dabbled with promoted listing over the past year or two, but have really found that it makes no difference to my sales whatsoever now.

When promoted listings first came out, I tried it at their recommended % (which was probably around 5/6%) and it made a huge difference to my sales, but I was paying far too much in fees, so I reduced the percentage amount and gradually took it off altogether. 

Over the past couple of years my sales have been dire, and as I said I have dabbled using from 2% up to about 10% (for a brief time) but my sales have been no different, if anything they are worse.  Many of my categories at the moment recommend between 10 and 14% on average which is lower than it has been, in the past some have been up to 18% recommended which is ridiculous.

I think with this new ruling concerning promoted listings, people are stopping promoting which is bringing the percentage down - not a bad thing.

I haven't used promoted listing now for maybe 8 months or so and probably won't use it again as I think it is exploitative, particularly now, where regardless of who, when and where your item is clicked on, if it sells you pay a fee.

I keep reducing my prices to sell items as I would rather give the buyers a better deal than pay ebay - they already get a fee for selling, so why give them more?

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Very interesting, that is the question, are promotions now making any difference at all? We are led to believe it will increase sales but there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that recently, probably because it is all done by AI why sales and views are down and no one is seeing the promotions or at least in the right place, that is the only thing I can think of what has changed in the last year or so.  Made to feel cautious in removing them as they have been around for a while as the minute you stop everything falls of a cliff, instead of holding one's nerve and waiting only to jump back in promoting again as no one wants loss of earnings more so if you have shop fees and stock to pay and nothing is selling.

On the introduction of promoted listings I, like you started out using a low percentage and got sales, it may have been the case I would have sold items without the need to suddenly promote as I did fine before, who knows? I was sold on the Emperors new clothes!  Why back then was 2% fine to make good sales if that really was the case for a good selling strategy but now it has to be around 10%+ and rising? What has changed to justify this (well I kinda know why!)  shouldn't it be an unpressured choice based on cost, sale price, margin, how quick you want to sell etc instead of a "recommendation"  to make you paranoid that you are the only one not promoting or at the correct level? With all the promotion strategies/recommendations ads every where you look,  I know it is only optional, it is getting like the film "total recall" where they are pushing something you didn't realise you needed, maybe the implanted memory of great sales! 

By not promoting and passing that saving on to the buyer as you say, is a good idea that should in principal work if your listings are found as the clothing market is big and especially when buyers now have to fork out extra when buying off private sellers. I keep trialing different ways but nothing has made much of a difference, reduced, increased, taken some off promotion, reduced price and reduced percentage, increased price and increased percentage.  The only one I haven't tried is PPC  and promote your shop as this seems to me a way to hemorrhage money. 

[9150simon]

oceansartnorthdevon wrote

"I keep trialing different ways but nothing has made much of a difference, reduced, increased, taken some off promotion, reduced price and reduced percentage, increased price and increased percentage. The only one I haven't tried is PPC and promote your shop as this seems to me a way to hemorrhage money."

I did have a bit of a smile at this part as it sounds just like me, and I'm sure many many others who fiddle and tinker and try everything going in the hope of reclaiming the golden days of ebay.

When I started here many years ago, it was easy, fun and addictive, to sell things that you no longer wanted, but bit by bit ebay has chipped away at what made it great until it is now no longer easy, fun or addictive, just a bit of a drag. 😑

[akemp1]

I have never promoted anything and my stuff still seems to sell at a predictable rate. Sometimes I wonder if I could get higher prices if I had more prominence but then any premium would just go to ebay so what's the point. I'm happy with the prices I get and the rate things sell at and I have no promoting items experience to compare it with so ignorance is bliss. Just imagine the button was never there and get off the drug of paying to promote stuff if you don't want to.

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Quite agree, they have certainly taken all the fun out of selling and made it stressful!  When things went quiet there use to be a few work arounds to get things moving, nothing works now it is like all avenues are closed, sewn up unless you sell to a strict criteria, promote high, sell cheap, sell lots! That is assuming it hasn't affected the big sellers as well?

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Interesting to hear you have never promoted but sales not affected and quite encouraging to know.  Do your sales tick along at a steady pace or do you go days with nothing before they resume?  

[akemp1]

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@oceanartsnorthdevon wrote:

Interesting to hear you have never promoted but sales not affected and quite encouraging to know.  Do your sales tick along at a steady pace or do you go days with nothing before they resume?  

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I wouldn't know sales are affected as I have no promoted listing experience to compare against.

I am just a private seller clearing family type stuff (and where I have historically overpurchased or gone too deep into a hobby) but I tend to get around 7 sales a week. Sometimes I can go a weekend with no sales and then get 3 different buyers in one day but over the course of a week or two it tends to average out. I wouldn't want a consistent sale every day as that would be a lot of visits to drop off.

If I haven't listed for a while then things tend to slow down and I might do some price reductions on the remaining listings to help pick up the pace. Overall I am still happy with the prices achieved but I am not doing this for profit it's mostly for cost/value recovery or to find a good home for items. I wouldn't want a faster rate of sales as it's hard to fit the packing etc in around family life.

I get a lot of family members giving me their stuff to sell and I tend to buy too much and then change my mind and then it needs selling. Ideally I would like to have less listings and less selling activity to do but it doesn't seem to happen. My dream is an empty house and minimalist lifestyle but that would be boring.

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

It is interesting to know what works for others and what doesn't in these uncertain times and all the changes that have happened on site, it is hard to keep up and keep the sales coming in.

[twofourdeltasurplus]

Shared some of this on another topic, and dont mind sharing it again, I have dropped PL  around the 25th of may if not a little sooner. Always thought PL was a con anyhow, but gave it a go from time to time, but never again.

Zero days were because the last bank holiday, I was at a show ( took £5500 in two days 😀 ) and the other as had an ongoing issue with my VAT number, so ebay restricted my account.

Cant really put my finger on the date where things picked up, but I have a feeling its around the time of the automatic feedback came in, but this is only a rough guess / idea.

So long as I hit at least £1000 a week I am happy, if it drops below that it makes me drop a gear and look at things to bring it back up, but for me its not all about the money, mostly being my own boss and cutting my own detail.

[9150simon]

Yes you are right, there used to be work arounds - that don't work anymore.  Like doing a "refresh" in bulk listings, this seemed to put things to the top of searches, that no longer has any effect. Tweaking item specifics and title details, don't have any effect.   Putting on a sale, listing new items consistently, or sending out offers doesn't seem to generate any extra sales - I read somewhere that doing these things regularly would generate regular sales. 🤔

For the past few weekends I have sent out all the offers I am able (approx 60 - 80 items) at between 10 and 20%, but if I get one or two of these offers taken up I am lucky.

Oh well nothing lasts forever. 🙄

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Thank you for sharing and a great insight that promotion's are not necessarily the be all and end all to get sales which you have proved and doing well without them.  It does make you stop and think do I actually need to promote my items?  Will they in fact do better without any kind of promotion/AI being involved?  Is that all about to change this month?  

Are your sales still remaining constant? Before removing the promotions were your sales erratic? A steady tick over then nothing for days then the sudden restart and a loop of uncertainty?  Could this be caused by the promotions? Or something else?

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Ditto, I tried all of the above that use to have some effect but nothing works now that changes anything, I think AI has a lot to do with that, it seems to be left in its capable hands, unless there is something else causing this slow down.

[twofourdeltasurplus]

Sales are still up, better than have been in  along while, never had nothing for a day, and as I said cant think of the last zero sales day that hasnt been up to me and having a break from here.

think I am going to have to dig deeper and see when things picked up, nothing to do with PL that much is for sure.

should point out not all my listings were promoted only a slack handful

[caddyscane]

I find for a long time, promoted listings don't make you sell more....they just mean you sell at all. 10% i could live with but now ur getting asked to choose 20-25%......ebays greed is out of control

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

I get that feeling that you have to promote just to sell anything at all and get caught up in the rut of promoting for fear of it all going wrong, and when the promotions stop working you question is it because you are not selling at their recommended rate? Its like mind games.  

As others have pointed out, some do not promote at all and never have and still make healthy sales. Signing up to promoted listings is like joining a cult you cant escape!

[akemp1]

As others have pointed out, some do not promote at all and never have and still make healthy sales. Signing up to promoted listings is like joining a cult you cant escape!

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Yup already sold 2 things this morning despite never promoting. One was listed recently and the other was a long term stale listing.

I didn't even have to send an offer or do any price reductions. Sometimes stuff just sells because the listing happens to find a buyer that day despite all of ebay's nefarious search manipulation.

If you are selling something very generic with lots of competition or going for top end prices then I guess promoting might help but I am not in that game.

[9150simon]

Yes I get the "cult" thing.  Although I haven't promoted for a good few months, it doesn't matter where you look when trying to get information to increase sales (generally you tube), the general consensus is always the same. 

Keep listing new products

Promote your listings

Send offers

Put regular sales on

Ensure all possible item specifics are filled in - and if you do all of these things your sales will increase, well it doesn't work anymore - it used to but not now.

Since joining in this thread, I am wondering "should I promote again", but no! I'm not giving in. 😖

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

I am starting to think may be if I never promoted in the first place I would not be stuck in this perpetual cycle of wondering should I increase, decrease or switch off just to get sales!  Ignorance would have been bliss if left to fate!

[akemp1]

Why pay for something if you cannot see a clear benefit? If in doubt then be cautious and save your money. On ebay nearly everything seems to sell eventually in my experience.