eBay France pushes classified ads above paid-for listings
by Sue Bailey
If you’re listing on eBay France and have seen your sales drop like a stone recently, this may be the reason: eBay France are now promoting their free “petites annonces” (classified ads) above paid-for auction and BIN listings.
For some time now, classifieds have had equal billing on the eBay.fr homepage, with a map of France promoting free listings and speedy local pick-ups of items. But now the default search setting has been changed from “auctions and fixed price listings” to classifieds, so anyone searching eBay.fr without paying much attention to those radio buttons, is going to be presented with classified ads only.
This has some surprising results: one TameBay correspondent was looking for a “velo solex” (bicycle with motor) and found his search only turned up two. “I couldn’t believe that, in the whole of France, there were only two velos for sale”, he told me, “and then I realised it was only showing me classifieds. The proper search turned up nearly 500.” That’s a lot of paid-for listings which have suddenly lost their visibility.
What’s even more worrying is that there’s little indication on the search results page that there would be more items found if a different search were used. There’s an obscure and abbreviated link to switch to auctions and BIN at the top, but for most buyers, that’s an irrelevance: they’re not thinking about what format they want to use to buy their bicycle, they just want to buy it.
I wondered if this was just a bicycle thing. After all, for such a bulky item, local pick-up makes sense. The search form does remember the last format you chose – but that’s no good if you never realise you need to change formats.
And it seems that sellers are increasingly embracing free classifieds as a feeless way to list on eBay. Searching for “jean” turns up nearly 15,000 classified entries today: a quarter of the denim items listed on eBay France are listed as free classifieds. I don’t believe all of those are going to be sold to local buyers; I think most of them will go in the post, without eBay taking their cut. Many of the listings say “frais de port non inclus” (P&P not included), so I think those sellers think the same as me.
So if, like me, you’ve been paying your fees to eBay France, you might like to think again about your listing strategy – because you might just do better not paying eBay a penny more.
9 Responses on "eBay France pushes classified ads above paid-for listings"
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even for ebay that is insane
What loon thought up promoting free ads that they will see very little income from above paid ads?
It will be rolled out the uk and beyond next week no doubt.
I don’t get it. Is there some major classifieds company they are trying to overthrow in France? And don’t classifieds have 0 buyer protection since a sale doesn’t really occur on eBay?
It is a direct copy of a popular French classified ads site – also free – called leboncoin. I have bought and sold well on both this and ebay.fr, but I think ebay are trying to undermine their competitors, then later will make fee charges. Wait and see.
The FR site has changed again.
Several days before the default radio button was “petites annonces” and now is “tout ebay”,less confusing compared to the former one.
However,should I be a buyer,I would definitely choose the previous design for at present the lists under “petites annonces” are far less than those listed in the traditional way,what’s more,the latter one shows directly all the items by list.
Testing the “petite annonces”,it seems that only if you located in France,you’re allowed to post the annonce.
Could I integrate that ebay.fr is protecting its local sellers while searching another format to earn income?
Kathy, that’s interesting – I’m still getting Petites Annonces here. “Toutes les categories” in the drop-down, but I don’t have a “tout eBay” anywhere.
You’re right about only being allowed to post PA if you’re in France – they’re supposed to be local ads, so it makes a certain amount of sense (though promoting them quite this forcefully doesn’t).
Hey! how come this shite gets posted and I get modded
Our moderation filter is very sensitive: it reads what’s in your mind too
Can eBay please stop fiddling with useless changes every other day and let us sellers sell and us buyers buy? First sellers were confused, now buyers are confused. Get your act together eBay.