Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
When I first started using PL I was making multiple promotions based on the product category. The rate always stayed the same for each listing in the category.
I would adjust each category separately as trending rates changed, but that gets to be too much work when I had so many to edit. Starting Oct 1st I changed to doing PL using a flat-file download/upload (not much work for a geek). The file has 3 columns, Item ID, Ad Rate, Trending Rate. I can let Excel do the heavy lifting and edit all (almost 3000) in a few minutes. All at the trending rate, all at a fixed %, x% over or under, etc.
This allows me to try various strategies to see if there is any noticeable effect, I’ll be looking at impressions and click rate as well as sales and PL cost for those sales. PL sales as a % of total sales also. It’s not precise but maybe better than just throwing mud at the wall.
eBay File Exchange is free but there is a learning curve. It’s all done as a csv file, no user interface at all, but if all listings are the same except for title and photos it should be a snap once you get the first row the way it needs to be.
Its going to be a lot of work, answering questions, managing invoicing and likely some non-paying bidders, etc. I doubt that all will sell and might require more rounds of auctions.
My casual observation is that fewer Chinese sellers ship directly from China nowadays, and instead use in-country fulfillment and USPS rates to the end consumer already. It might be interesting to see the effect, if any, on USPS revenue and profit when this is finally implemented (probably next year).
If I were in your position I would lean towards opening a new store dedicated to this product and consider Amazon also after getting the eBay store running routinely. Warehousing the product is another consideration, as well as the shipping labor if the orders take off. I would want some kind of exclusive agreement for online sales if I could get it, and payment terms that would help float the inventory cost. It might be wise to try to hire, or partner with, someone with experience in skincare products unless you have the knowledge, but the learning curve might not be too big either.
Thanks for that link, Sharyn. I had high hopes, but it turns out to just be what I could already see from the listing.
I had sent this offer more than 2 days ago, it expired then the buyer sent me an email that he was ready to go ahead if he could get the offer again. I could see the amount but can’t see how I answered his question. I will do this differently in the future.
Well, the good news is its a $400 offer, $75 off an item that has been listed for 2 1/2 years. Hopefully, the sold notice will be one of the first things I see in the morning.
The unknown factor is how many sales $ there would be if paying a higher PL rate.
Ryan is a lot calmer and rational in the last video, therefore more credible.
Personally, I think getting paid for more sales from promoted listings is a primary driving force behind eBay making this coding change, with the sounds good reason being there is less clutter.
I may sound cynical, but I worked in marketing management for a large company and learned then there are always at least two reasons for any change. The real reason and one that sounds good.
I think we just need to watch closely and try to tell if there are any upward sales trends from this change and compare that to the cost. It’s hard to be accurate with that when we’re working with small numbers.
I just upgraded to anchor a few weeks ago. I don’t know about the fee credits, haven’t looked at that yet.
There is a dedicated number for Anchor Support. I ran into the same thing where the regular rep had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to search it out on Google and when I got through and confirmed it was Anchor Support the rep told me I should have received a welcome email with that information, which I definitely didn’t get. I don’t know if I can post that number here since this is a publicly viewable forum. Hopefully, someone else will jump in here and clarify that. I wish for a PM service on this forum.
I was surprised to learn that I could use the $150 shipping supplies coupon code right away, even though I had already used this quarter allowance for the previous store. Score! Don’t forget to do that before the end of the month, it’s coming up fast.
For the past 14 days prior to today, 21.1% of orders (count) came from promoted listings. The PL dashboard for 14 days shows we paid a cumulative 3.8% extra for PL sales. During that time I’ve been using the typical rate, updated about once a week as those percentages change.
There is really no way to tell what would have happened with a different %, or how many of those orders I would have received regardless. In general, I’m happy with the results but I’m going to keep watching the fuzzy results.
A general observation, it looks like trending rates are going down a little bit, perhaps because of the PL/Ad Blocker scare.
Here’s an eBay page that shows trending rates in various categories, if you haven’t seen it. https://pages.ebay.com/promoted-listings/adrates.html
A thermal printer will give you more speed and lower cost, but a little more expensive upfront. I use a Zebra ZP450 that I bought reconditioned and have been using for several years. In my opinion, HippoDeals is the best source, they have a website: https://www.hippodeals.com/zebraprinters.html, and also sell on eBay. What I like is their support is very knowledgeable and willing to spend time on the phone with you to help get it set up, which is good because the setup on these can be a little weird.
There are other brands and varying costs, but for me, Zebra has worked fine.
I was thinking about this today and had a blue-sky idea pop up.
Every go to a page and get a pop-up that says “You seem to be running an ad blocker, you must disable it to view this page” (very irritating).
So, it seems page code can detect an ad blocker. Is it far fetched to think eBay could only show organic results if they detect an ad blocker? Just a thought, it sure would put a stop to the concerns I think.
I’m skeptical. I don’t know this person or his reputation.
I did a basic search for information on how many internet users have an ad blocker enabled. The results I found ranged from 26% to 30%, he says 50% multiple times. That still could be bad if Promoted listings are blocked. I use an ad-blocker, “AdBlock”, one of the most popular and high rated blockers. I searched eBay for a common word, “iPhone”, both with AdBlock enabled and disabled, clearing the browser cache before each test. 84,723 results with, 84,720 without.
I suspect the sky is not really falling and there is no wolf.
