50,000 Free listings for BUSINESS Sellers
Yes you did read that title correctly, it’s free listing AND it’s for business sellers on eBay UK. The promotion runs between the 22nd and the 26th October for new 30 day or Good til Cancelled listings for business sellers with a basic or featured eBay shop (If you’ve got an Anchor shop you already have free listings).
Business sellers will automatically receive zero Insertion Fees when you create new listings on ebay (Thankfully with pro listing tools such as Sell Your Item Form, eBay Seller Tools, eBay Mobile apps and most third-party tools), for up to 50,000 listings with a start price of 99p or more.
There are a few exclusions such as listing motors and property, but so long as your account’s seller performance is not below standard you’re good to go. Also make sure you don’t fall foul of the duplicate listing policy. The promotion is for NEW listings, you won’t get free listings if your existing listings simply renew during the promotion period. If you’ve got inventory not currently on eBay this promotion period is the time to get the listed.
I’ve heard lots of complaints about free listing days enabling private sellers to flood the site with free listings. I’ve heard lots of complaints about the US getting a ton of free listings and the UK only giving it’s sellers 100 free listings. All I can say is fill yer boots, eBay have given you what you asked for. Unless you’ve got more than 50,000 products (more if you use multi-variation listings) then list the lot for free!
This is going to be an interesting month… I can’t wait to see how it affects sales and if you’re the first person to run out of free listings because you have more than 50,000 to fling up please do feel free to come back and complain vociferously on Tamebay.
Gary says
11:48 am on 18/10/2012
A step in the right direction but not for auctions though just for BIN sales only so saving just 10P per listing.
If I list an extra 500 items it will save me £50 (does this matter in the grand scheme of things?) but then I end up paying £1000 in ebay FVF’s when sales through my google world top 5 website that I have incur 0% FVF’s.
Why can’t business sellers have free auction listings?
Notwithstanding the comments above I will take advantage of the offer, adjust the prices to cover the FVF’s, and see what happens.
Chris Dawson says
12:12 pm on 18/10/2012
Aww come one… the fact that it’s not much of a saving from 10p to free is just because eBay is so cost effective to list on in the first place!
The big question you have to ask yourself is could you increase your sales on eBay with free (or 10p) listings and paying ~10% final value fees, or would you get more by investing in paid search for your website?
I suspect even if the results were the same it’s a different subset of customers and so doing both eBay listings and Google adwords makes sense.
The difference is with eBay you pay nothing unless you get a sale and with Google you pay a lot with no surety that you’ll sell anything. eBay is the low risk option in my opinion.
Gary says
12:37 pm on 18/10/2012
Agree that ebay and the website do have a different subset of customers although I do occasionally encounter duplication. So a bonus mark for ebay!
The niche products that I offer rarely require paid google search as such.
When I use adwords which I occasionally do to test it out I find that organic search always outperforms adwords by a huge margin traffic wise. And you seem to get ripped off by all those single page websites that exist. If the products were less niche then adwords would probably have greater value.
Anyway at least ebay are thinking of smaller and medium sized business sellers with this one so we can only hope that ebay management are changing their focus and moving in what I consider to be the right direction.
Del says
12:46 pm on 18/10/2012
I have 3600 items listed on good till cancelled, are the ones that renew between 22-26 October excluded from the promotion, or if I take them off and relist will I get the free listing?
‘During the promotional period, if business sellers re-list an eligible item that had previously closed without a successful sale, the re-listed item will qualify for the promotion and be included in the 50,000 listings limit’
Chris Dawson says
12:58 pm on October 18th, 2012
The promotion says “New 30 Day, or Good ’til cancelled listings only”
If it’s a good ’til cancelled listing which renews I’m guessing that doesn’t qualify (I may be wrong) and you won’t want to cancel, relist and lose your best match placement just to save 10p, especially with a ton of new inventory arriving on the site.
paddy says
12:57 pm on 18/10/2012
Wow, this could potentially save me £4 to £5 !
Joking aside I think its a step in the right direction by Ebay. I’d still prefer them to introduce a FVF cap for business sellers but any help is welcomed.
Moom says
4:02 pm on 18/10/2012
I was excited until I realised it was only for BIN listings. I mostly use the auction format as I often sell collectables. I’ve often wondered why eBay make it more costly to use the auction format. Any ideas?
Andrew Milburn says
6:53 pm on 18/10/2012
Hi
This is great news as Chris says. In fact I could not believe when I saw the email in my account, so popped on over here to check it out, as I know Chris is always the first with the breaking news.
And good to see we can use listing tools
Peter says
7:32 pm on 18/10/2012
I think this is a great offer.
With savings (£5.00 or so ) I’ll treat myself to a MacDonalds Happy Meal, that’s if I have the energy to leave the office after knocking out a load of new listings.
karenswift13 says
8:02 am on 19/10/2012
Daft as it seems if you have hundreds or thousands of listings ending in, say 2 weeks time you may as well end them all and relist them during the promo !….
“During the promotional period, if business sellers re-list an eligible item that had previously closed without a successful sale, the re-listed item will qualify for the promotion and be included in the 50,000 listings limit”
Gary says
8:04 am on October 19th, 2012
Then you loose any search ranking benefits that these listings will have accrued. And all your watchers have to start again.
ebuyerfb says
9:04 am on October 19th, 2012
When you relist you keep the recent sales which is the most important factor in best match. You lose the watchers but are those really worth anything?
Juzza says
8:46 am on October 22nd, 2012
Does it really keep the recent sales?
I did not know it did that
Ron says
8:29 pm on 19/10/2012
Slightly confused why this deal includes “Good till cancelled” or are they hoping to catch people out. As far as I can see, if I list using GTC, and then do not cancel, or will get clobbered with relisting fees next time around
We don’t list everything we have not because of the 4p a month listing fee, but because we don’t think they will sell often enough.
For most people the listing fee is worth it if items sell.
Ron
Chris Max says
3:19 pm on 22/10/2012
I quote what another seller on Ebay.ie has written
***Zero insertion fees for business sellers with Basic and Featured Shop subscriptions on eBay.co.uk***
I know this page is not used much but I feel I have to ask someone from ebay:
‘Why is the ***Zero insertion fees for business sellers with Basic and Featured Shop subscriptions on eBay.co.uk*** and is not being offered to ebay.ie also?
With this promotion for .co.uk only, Irish Business sellers are going to be pushed to the bottom after this with Best Match and will more than likely affect sales badly. It is hard enough to compete with the UK as we do need the sales from the UK to help boost sales, as there are not enough Irish buyers. We are measured on our DSRs exactly the same as UK sellers when we sell to the UK, even though post takes longer to the UK and have higher postal costs, so why are we not allowed to benefit from this promotion also if all is fair in selling on both sites?
We are going to be swamped by the co.uk listings and at such an important time of year when everyone will want to list Christmas stock we on .ie won’t stand a chance of competing.
Can someone explain WHY???????’
I totally agree.
Gareth says
7:19 am on October 23rd, 2012
Have to agree as well. Whenever eBay.com ran their promotions in the past (which were generally for up to 50,000 auction listings), they allowed anybody who posted on the US site (sometimes with a shop, and sometimes without).
Why the UK site is so discriminatory I do not know. I’ve always been signed up with co.uk and am measured by UK DSR’s, but because I do not live in the UK, I am excluded. Please take a leaf from eBay.com on future promotions!
radroach says
4:26 pm on 22/10/2012
Does seem unfair that the Irish site is not included in this promotion, especially in view of the fact that zero listing fee offers for private sellers do always seem to include both sites.
Chris Max says
6:20 pm on October 22nd, 2012
It’s very one sided not a level playing field and I would think there are a limited number of sellers who would qualify on Irish site, remember they also have Northern Ireland to contend with as part of this promotion and most Irish buyer would rather buy off the UK site if it’s not available in Ireland as it’s near and the post doesn’t take long rather than the rest of the countries in Europe.
Also on the Irish site in the music section they show UK shops in the matching shops box on the left of the page,what chance Irish sellers.