eBay Tries Competing with Amazon on Price in New Ads

by: pace306

...... nobody really cares ... except "wenig & the cupcake"  (sounds like a cheap tv detective movie)

for $119 you get prime level service, tv shows, movies, music, discounts in Whole Foods and more.

when you grow %6-7 and you have to STRETCH to get to that point - all while "the guy you are throwing shade at" does many multiples of that - its meaningless.

Its like wenigs "mr grumpy impersonation" that the world cup is "interfering" with people buying on eBay - dramatic but DUMB not to mention childish.

Here in the good old east coast, I havent seen any eBay commercials - lets see a REAL test - will they be at NY NOW in August in NYC?  (hint: based on the exhibitor list - NO) (thats the next big show).

I love these articles - when work is tiring and I need a laugh - I come here and Ina posts another eBay insanity... TY INA!

by: Rexford

Yawn........like a gimp tea cup Chihuahua trying to catch a Great Dane.

by: ebayout

Spending $119 is ONE AND DONE if spent on ebay...ZERO residual benefits.
If ebay is going after the low IQ market:
a) it doesn't have $119
b) it doesn't have $119
Plus, the low IQ execs pushing the promo must think that losing money on a promo is a GOOD thing.
Not sure they understand how the "loss leader" concept works...which brings us back to low IQ.

by: I Must be Crazy

Haven't seen any adds here on the west coast. I have seen many, many Amazon Prime ads. I have even seen many Macy's ads...not that it's related, but Wenig's former direct report seems to be buying some good exposure for his company.

The ''no membership required'' campaign really is silly to me. Let's call it what it is, nobody would pay for a membership to buy anything on eBay. People pay for Prime, which includes free shipping, a bunch of movies and various other perks. Anybody can buy on Amazon; they just don't get the Prime benefits. eBay cannot offer any such thing. The brain trusts at eBay fail to wrap their brains around this bit of reality. A membership would be like most things we sellers pay for, a program of little or no value.

All the campaign achieves in my opinion, is shine a light on the fact that eBay is losing ground in the e commerce space.

by: sasikat9

And today Ebay is still dragging up the rear. They never learn.

by: Chicago48

EB needs a creative ad and promo team.  I'm a prime member and you can't beat the 10% disc on Whole Foods; or the $10 coupon credit for Prime day.  Yes! they gave me a $10 coupon to buy anything on Prime day.
How about this EB:  How about following AMZ into Coinstar?  I just cashed in some coins and the ONLY gift card offered was AMAZON!!!

by: Silver Ice King

Ebay can't afford a creative ad and promo team as all that money is designated for Wenigs bonus check.  That is all he cares about and nothing else.   He is EBays creative team, can't you tell??  I mean look at all those witty Tweets he makes in response to anything Amazon or where Ebay is cast in a bad light.  The man is basically useless and should just go destroy his next company (GM even from the board room).His whining about anything Amazon or any excuse he can throw out there as to why Ebay sales are down is just another way of deflecting attention from the fact he has no clue how to run a company let alone a company involved in retail.  The only thing that scares me about Ebay finally letting Wenig go is their lack of ability to actually hire somebody decent and the reality that the next CEO could very well be worse as I am sure he or she will come from Bain Capital as the BOD seems to have undying loyalty to them.

I do not buy Prime as i do not have a need for it, but I would be a heck of a lot more tempted to pay $119 for Prime than anything that I have seen Ebay throw out there for $119 as I would be getting a variety of services over a 12 month period, not something that I really have no use for one time.  Wenig, come up with something creative that works, in fact  change that comment.  Just give us a working platform that has all the issues you keep throwing at us with your Disruptive Technology fixed and working correctly before focusing on anything else because that is what is needed the most.

by: toolguy

@ Rexford

I guess you've never seen this guy!

Cinnamon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3xMup_gEQ

by: Ming the Merciless

Perhaps if ebafia's crack management teams of the last 10 years hadn't been throwing the shade at sellers 24/365, we'd all be in a much better place.

by: FidoMaster

The "Fill your cart with color" campaign slogan doesn't resonate with me (but maybe it does with some?).  

It doesn't seem more memorable or effective than when eBay launched it more a year ago. Maybe if you're buying Crayolas or Skittles, but the whole "color" thing seems to miss the mark for a marketplace platform.

One thing I did notice was that the eBay supply poly-mailers we received changed at some point last year from the multi-color (presumably aligned with the marketing campaign slogan) to the flat (cheaper) single-color blue.

Since they went from the multi-color eBay logo polys to the single blue polys I assumed eBay was going to adopt a better campaign and slogan? Since they didn't, I'm calling that out as poor decision. (There are still lots of colorful stickers and tape rolls available, maybe those are flying off the shelf? but the polys, last time I looked were all flat blue.)

Hopefully whatever marketing guru that made that particular choice was in the layoff club.

One of the ads I saw ebay post on twitter had some young 20-somethings playing video games.

I was told that the people in the ad were gamer YouTube personalities, so it appears eBay is definitely pursuing the younger millennial demographic.

How effectively, I don't know, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Wenig is to Bezos what Mini-me is to Dr. Evil. There is just no comparison.

Wenig should stop embarrassing himself with his pathetic aping emulation of all things Amazon and just resign.

by: ebayout

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"

Unless you're ebay....imitation by their clueless goons is borderline plagarism.

by: Carol Is Here

Ebay needs a seasoned CEO with a strong background in advertising and marketing.

Keep it simple. Let the sellers do their thing while keeping out things like Chinese search manipulators, and put Ebay's prime corporate push into advertising and marketing.

by: Silver Ice King

@Carol is Here

Or as Meg said so many years ago, put a monkey in charge as Ebay pretty much runs itself when it is left alone.  When they put Donohoe in, Ebay was completely self running, then the Short Term thinker stepped in and wiped out all the goodwill and loyalty that Ebay had built all those years.  

I would love nothing better than to see Wenig gone, but I am scared stiff that the BOD is so intently loyal to Bain and their thinking that all we would get is a worse example of what a strong experienced CEO should be.

by: justchangecarriers

I took off my sale on markdown manager. Sales got better overnight. Double First Day. Tripled Second Day. Decent 3rd day. Still not great and sales are still piss poor, but Ebay was suppressing my stuff obviously deeming it not a good sale.

Thanks ebay for finally admitting it. Gave me the idea to end it, and it helped. My sales in june were down 30 percent. Now the last 3 days have climbed back to only down 22 percent.

by: maxmad

I guess this is the Big marketing campaign Devin was bragging about,,,, haha actually quite sad

while ebay spent all it's time destroying it's suppliers aka the customer, aka the sellers, Amazon spent it's time more productively and has surpassed ebay to the point of nonexistence ,

for the losers at ebay to somehow think Amazon is their competition are delusional , and shows how incompetent they really are

Ebay is in deep trouble, you can see and feel the desperation ,and panic

by: Carol Is Here

As bad as Wenig and Ebay are, sellers won't know true slavery until they end up selling for a monopoly like Amazon.

Wall Street that is boosting Amazon and solidifying their monopoly status does not want American small and medium business. They want to be the middlemen who make the money from the Chinese sweat shop junk, and shut American sellers out. Wall Street's goal is monopolization where the few profit.

Bezos is just a puppet and frontman for the people building this dangerous retail monopoly.

The sad thing is that Americans seem to be very willing to destroy American small business and help Wall Street turn both buyer and sellers into slaves.

by: Carol Is Here

Donohoe was Bain.

Wall Street plunderer.

He set up the chain of events where the few at the top and some Wall Street associates plunder Ebay and its sellers. He also set up the chain of events to hand the site over to the Chinese and destroy American small and medium business.

The person who put him there was former Bain leader Tierney on the Board of Directors.

These people are playing with people's lives so they and their friends can get richer and keep the money in the hands of the fWall Street ew for max power.

by: b86fiero

Primo Deals - $119 - subtle but maybe effective at attracting shoppers who do not like Amazon.

Saw a Target ad last night.  "No membership required and next day delivery" were touted.

Saw a couple of local area business ads running the past few days "Why wait for next day delivery when you can take it home today"  and "the package you carry home makes it to your home."

eBay is not the only entity competing with Amazon.  Walmart ads seem to be running at breakneck speed.  As are Wayfair and Overstock.

by: iheartjacksparrow

From the Ad Age article:

"'Shoppers are smart, and they want to make the most of their $119, so eBay is offering hundreds of deals with free shipping and no membership required,' Suzy Deering, chief marketing officer...."

And people who spend $119 for their Prime membership do make the most of their money. The movies alone save a person thousands of dollars over what they would have had to pay in a theater. Why would I want to spend $119 on a widget (which I might be able to buy for less on Amazon), when I can get so much more via my Prime membership.

eBay really needs to stop obsessing about Amazon and get their own identity.

by: ebayout

Too funny...WalMart & Target are jumping into the fray.
The 5 lb. monkey versus THREE 800 lb. gorillas...who's gonna win?

Won't be ebay, who's gonna lose 5%+ on every one of their sponsored "deals".