Other sellers’ listings appearing on all BINs
16/03/2010 at 19:46
eBay UK has announced that from 17th March, all fixed price listings will show “seller merchandising” on the live listings pages; in practice, this means cross-promoted items from other sellers.
Sellers may (at the moment) opt out of this programme: if you opt out, you will neither have other sellers’ cross promos shown on your listings, nor have the opportunity to appear in cross promos yourself. This one is all or nothing.
The roll-out follows a test begun in January which added cross-promotions to the bottom of some live listings. The new announcement doesn’t specify where exactly on the listing the other items are to be displayed (if anyone sees it, please leave us a comment), but it does clarify that cross-promoted listings will be from the same category: previously, they were just “relevant”.
It’s a tough call: do you opt out and miss out on the extra promotion, or stay in and deal with the extra competition? It would be helpful to know exactly how eBay are choosing the listings that get cross-promoted: does everyone have an even chance? do sellers with more listings appear more often in cross-promotions? is it limited to TRS? We just don’t know. And eBay, of course, aren’t saying.
Gary says
8:12 pm on 16/03/2010
If you consider yourself successful on eBay up until now (before cross promo) then why promote the less successful competition?
It appears that opt out would be the best option for successful sellers.
If you consider that eBay has been a struggle then you have nothing to loose by opting in.
The extra promo may bring extra business.
Thats my take on the sitution anyway.
If others think like me then the promo slots are likely to be full of items from less successful sellers. This could of course mean that the promo items will be higher priced than those available in a general search.
I personally do not think that anybody would buy impulsively a cross promo item without doing further research. Those looking at the cross promos won’t be impulsive buyers and will be looking for the best deal whatever eBay try and do to manipulate buying patterns.
But I may be wrong!
Gary says
8:26 pm on 16/03/2010
eBay’s cross promotion settings manager still says this:-
“Having eBay cross-promote your items is a great way to increase your sales. When a buyer shows interest in one of your items (such as by placing a bid), eBay will display your other items to the buyer. Note: Other sellers’ items will not be cross-promoted in your listings.”
Hopefully this script will change on 17th.
Gary says
8:52 pm on 16/03/2010
It will be interesting to see what the large outlets decide to do with their listings.
Will the outlets be happy promoting the goods offered by their competitors?
Or will they be hitting the cross promo off button?
I for one will be watching their listings with interest and will probably follow their lead.
Richard says
9:09 pm on 16/03/2010
Advertise other sellers? NEVER!!
Terry says
10:14 pm on 16/03/2010
Could also cause some problems, one of which is buyers see cross promo item and buys it then, has problem with order and comes to you to complain.
We had this issue a while ago with a seller who choose to sell the same products as us and choose their username which was nearly the same as ours – we have now changed our username to something else, but we kept getting emails from their buyers, we could not work out why to start with.
This could lead up the same path.
We do very well on ebay and we will NOT be opting in.
And to anyone who is not dong so well some advice
Ebay is a numbers game – the more products you have the more will sell.
Keep your prices reasonable but make sure there is a profit, we work on 100% plus.
A daft idea of ebays – my guess its designed to make sellers look at other what sellers and what they are doing and bringing down prices if a cross promo item is cheaper than urs – which one sells?
We dont look at other sellers not got time – we choose our price and thats it, if the product does not sell we chnage the title and description sometimes and look at the price sometimes
Anyway going way off track ere
Im with Gary on this one
Bunchy says
12:21 am on March 17th, 2010
I also forsee problems with buyers being confused with other seller’s listings. Heck, I even get grief from buyers who pay all sellers at once via paypal and think it’s the same seller for everything!
I remember ebay used to allow us to cross promote other sellers. We had a list and both sellers had to agree (one to invite, the other to accept). Does anyone else remember this scheme?
Most sellers just used it to cross promote thier other selling id’s, but at least we had some control.
Maybe those with TRS status will be the ones promoted first, and the rest of the asses to follow etc.
Steve Antony Williams says
10:48 am on March 17th, 2010
“We had this issue a while ago with a seller who choose to sell the same products as us and choose their username which was nearly the same as ours”
I’ve already had a similar problem in the past on eBay. Both DrSteveW and SODVDs ID’s were/are run by someone with the same name, one Steve Williams (myself) and the other Steven Williams (SODVDS). We sold a Soldier Soldier DVD to a buyer who then a week or two bought another Soldier Soldier DVD from SODVDs. When the second order didn’t arrive he rung me and hurled abuse at me and left me a neg etc because he ASSUMED both IDs were run by the same person.
This used to cause a little confusion with the DVD wholesalers as well such as THE and Golds because not only the same name but not geographically far apart either so we’d have the same reps/account managers etc at the suppliers.
As for this cross promoting idea, it’s just more eBay money grabbing, the eBay management really does need to wake up and smell the coffee.
sinbad says
3:24 pm on 17/03/2010
It would be nice if they could show the top seller status as well as the price in the cross promotions. Otherwise, the general trend will be towards ever lower prices.
VW Teesside says
8:36 pm on 17/03/2010
Just come across one of these ‘tests’ on the 1kg Fire Extinguisher Daily Deal
Image; http://vwgolfr32.co.uk/images/120542372323.gif
Gary says
7:49 am on 18/03/2010
The most watched item of those 4 is…
…the daily deal!
Am I missing something here?
There is a suggestion that revenue is being generated out of these promo slots.
How is it and who does it go to?
If you are hitting a promo spot that takes you back to your own item and it is a revenue generator for eBay it seems like a bit of a scam to me.
But I may be wrong!
Lino says
8:12 am on 18/03/2010
Am I being cynical in presuming that most of the items advertised on listings will be from Outlet Sellers?
Gary says
8:22 am on 18/03/2010
I have just clicked on the my eBay marketing tools cross promotion default edit link and it is now a blank page.
Gary says
9:24 am on 18/03/2010
It has gone live. The marketing menu has changed and I am checking it out on my own listings to see what appears at the bottom.
eBay are suggesting the 4 items shown are the most watched items having the same theme as your own. There is a top rated seller icon showing against some images but not all. It is not for me to question why these items are being watched by large numbers of folk but I do wonder!
I cannot see any threat as the items shown would not be of interest to me if I was viewing my item so on that basis I have an open mind and will leave the promo setting on for the moment and see if there is any difference to sales patterns.
Whilst I am open minded a concern is who pays for this?
Or is it a free opt in/opt out service?
Luke says
7:11 am on 25/03/2010
What some don’t seem to grasp is that other sellers are advertising your items as well.