Does eBay Reward Sellers Who Lower Prices?

by: FeelingFroggy

We currently see an ebay ad on CNN.com Cost of item is advertised as 6.10 marked down from 116.10. So funny it is that this item can be purchased just about anywhere for 5.00.

When we sold out last week we just upped the price 100.00 for the last bottle and when the new shipment came in we lowered it back down to where it had always been.

I agree ebay bots are just picking up items that have been marked down but they don't know why it was marked down.

Was the mark down by accident or on purpose like ours was.

How dishonest this company is.

by: Ric

eBay's search is such a pathetic mess because of uncountable numbers of reasons listings can be elevated or lowered in search....

TRS+ you allegedly get a bump in search.

Enter UPC codes and product identifiers, you allegedly get a bump in search, but if you fail to jump for that carrot, your items are pushed down.

Run a sale and your listings are allegedly bumped up in search.

Have 100% feedback, you allegedly get a bump in search.

If you are a what used to be referred to as a diamond seller, you allegedly get a bump in search.

If you jump for the carrot and offer 30 day returns, you allegedly get a bump in search.

eBay is the only search engine on the planet that can not handle wild card search functionality, making it impossible for buyers to do a broad search of listings.

It is no wonder that buyers become frustrated at the hot stinking mess they get when searching for items that they simply abandon their search and go to Amazon where they find what they are looking for the first time because Amazon's search engine is not impeded with all the various criteria eBay has built in to their search.


Bottom line - eBay's search algorithms and it's various carrot jumping placement modifications are both defective and ineffective which makes search results an inconsistent hot stinking mess.

Search is the most basic and essential function of a marketplace.  eBay's search is a convoluted mess that frustrates, buyers, hurts sellers, and assures eBay's sales growth will remain in the low single digits.

by: Ina

Seller on our Facebook page made an interesting point: it might have been a "retargeting" ad.

If that's true and the price-lowering was not why eBay displayed the ad, it would indicate eBay is paying for retargeting ads.

Does it make sense for eBay to pay for ads that remind shoppers of items they'd previously viewed after they leave eBay?

by: FeelingFroggy

Retargeting who on CNN.com....

@Ric

We don't do carrot jumping...
We have no returns on all of
ourlistings.
We never run sales
We never do auctions.
Out feedback is 99.7
We have 5 day shipping.

And Fleecebay still advertises us on a major news network.

Never will understand why anyone believes anything Ebay has to say.

And off of the topic a tad. This Sunday we watched the Nascar race. Announcers said Ebay Motors about 30 different times. Just Ebay Motors....Never explained what Ebay Motors was.

If one calls that major advertising they are operating with a short pit stop.

by: lessthanthreerecords
Web Site

I think there is some truth to the "retargeting" idea.  I see eBay ads on Facebook all the time, and about 75% (or more) of the time, it's advertising my own item.  Almost always, it's advertising an item I've already viewed.

by: Marie

I also agree that Ebay retargeting.  I often will research something on Ebay to see what price they are fetching or availability on Ebay.  About 3 weeks ago I started getting emails from Ebay notifying me that there has been a price reduction on an item I have viewed and /or went out of stock.  If it went OOS, then Ebay gave me some alternatives in the email.

When I started getting these emails I was really concerned because I thought they were telling me that an item of mine had gone OOS and were referring me to other like items on the site.

But once I stopped screaming and having a tantrum I read the email a bit closer and found I was mistaken.  It was just a marketing email that had nothing to do with my inventory.

As for lowering pricing.  I've rarely seen anything like the OP is reporting.  I run sales off and on during the year.  On those I don't see what the OP is suggesting either.

Why would Ebay know why you marked down an item?  Are some of you suggesting they should know why a price was changed?  If the later would be true, then we would have yet another step in managing our listings by having to take time to report to Ebay why I lowered pricing.  I certainly don't feel Ebay has any right to that information or to cause that kind of extra work.  I wouldn't participate if it were offered.

by: Ming the Merciless

Small and mediums sellers are frogs that ebay has been been slowly boiling to death since the The Coming of the Ho.

My combined ebafia and PreyPal fees have gone up more than 500% while my sales are now 40% of what they were when the The Ho took over.

Sellers now have to PAY for US based customer support. Are we getting our money's worth? Not from my experience -- long waits, CSRs reading from scripts, and CSRs adamantly denying the existence of throttling and problem buyers (only problems are sellers).

If exorbitantly high FVFs and store fees weren't enough, these geniuses now demand we PAY more for exposure through worthless promoted listings.

Additionally, another ongoing consequence of ebafia's history of theft from sellers is evidenced by the essentially stagnant stock prices after adjusting for the PreyPal split.

Millions of sellers have left taking not only their buyers but their buying power with them. The shiny objects ebafia put in the room to show to Wall Street are millions of cheap crap Chinese listings that have replaced the quality listings of alienated sellers.

Ebay has become a cesspool of liar buyers, VERO abusers, and fraudsters who count on their best criminal co conspirator friend, ebafia, to enable a multiplicity of crimes so that ebafia can out on yet another happy face in their deceptive quarterly reports to their criminal brethren on Wall Street.

Ebafia has grown too fat and addicted to generating revenue by stealing from sellers.

Experienced sellers who read and/or participate in these blogs should ask themselves if their businesses are any better off now than they were during the Ho's reign of terror.

I think most would answer no.

Is ebafia any better off now than it was since Neg Meg Whitman left?

Obviously not. In fact a solid case can be made for quite the opposite.

It appears that the current management team is just as incapable of making the right decisions as The Ho was.

They just don't get it, and they're deservedly drifting off into the abyss of e commerce and "tech" company (LOL) trash heap of history.

by: toolguy

"My combined ebafia and PreyPal fees have gone up more than 500% "

Someone is stretching the truth just a wee bit ~ LOL

by: Ming the Merciless

@Toolguy

Stop -- and I mean stop -- making really stupid statements simply because your reading comprehension leaves something to be desired.

I was giving an historical overview, and my fees have indeed gone up 500% and sales have decreased by 40% (and falling) since I started selling on ebay which was LONG before you did.

by: thebobman

I've been selling on ebay since about 2002, and really starting getting in the 5 figures about 2008.

In 2010, I had $18,000 sales with $1,348 fees
In 2012, I had $42,000 sales with $3,367 fees
In 2014, I had $52,500 sales with $3,933 fees
In 2016, I had $67,000 sales with $5,572 fees

In 2010, fees were 7.489%
In 2012, fees were 8.017%
In 2014, fees were 7.491%
In 2016, fees were 8.316%

While the fees have increased slightly, It only amounts to about $30 per $10,000 since 2012. Also, I decided to give up the 20% FVF discount because I refuse to encourage returns. I'd rather pay an extra $500 in fees than take 20 discretionary returns

by: thebobman

Ok, so it did say combined ebay/paypal fees.

My 2010 PP was 4.186%
My 2014 PP was 3.292%
My 2016 PP was 3.428%

Granted, I'm paying less than 2010, but I had fewer orders for lower amounts and the fixed fee hurt me.

by: frustrated

UPDATE:  

We tried lowering/raising prices.

The ONLY things I ever saw in the "retargeting" ads were my OWN items, or items that I had looked at to try to get more accurate pricing.

Great, ebay, show me MY items.  That is so helpful!

It will show me others items, but ONLY items in the watch list.

Bummer!

by: Windkissed
Web Site

Of coarse its a win for ebay when anyone of the sellers lowers their prices.  They make a point of "push the merchandise" theory.  It puts the money in their pockets.  But why would a seler lower their price and take a loss?

by: Windkissed
Web Site

I have actually been looking at an item and the price is lowered while I am doing it.  Is that a poof from heaven or what?

by: userfish
Web Site

I used to fear Amazon and rely on eBay.

Since listening to Skip McGrath rants, I put equal effort into Amazon.

Sales of exact products are now 7 Amazon to 1 GreedyBay.

by: RL15

if you lower your prices, fleabay will reward you with less profit.

by: scaryguy

I could not agree more with what I am reading. 5 years ago I was doing $15,000/mnth in ebay sales with an inventory of about 400-500 items listed.
Currently (2016-now) I am lucky to do $2,000/mnth in sales with over a 1,000 items listed. Im top rated seller and see NO boost in searches. Usually unable to find my own items in searches. I do everything ebay wants (ie: 30 day returns. 1 day handling time, etc) and still no sales!
Ebay's time has come and gone as far as I am concerned.

Unfortunately Amazon is a no go. I cant compete with the low prices of what I assume are goods that "fell off the back of a truck". Selling prices lower than what I pay for wholesale. MAP pricing is a thing of the past and completely ignored these days.
Factor in rising costs via usps, UPS and FedEx, and you can stick a fork in the mail order industry. It is done!

by: scaryguy

I also forgot to mention that 5yrs ago and longer I would have about one return a year. Now I do about 30% of my sales are returned (or attempted) for 99.9% of them being the buyers fault or carriers. What does that tell you. The returns alone will kill a business!

by: donald

ebay needs to stop meddling with our individual businesses and really start improving theirs.

The reason I can not lower my prices is #1 I sell unique items, #2 If I sell for less I attract buyers from the bottom of the scale that brings more headaches, returns, unjust negative feedback and extortion, #3 ebay is no longer what it use to be. I had no choice but to diversify. In other words I have no reason to lower my prices when I can sell them thru other channels.


Why don't they work on their web site. Expecially the shopping cart. I try to buy several items last week and as I was shopping along I place an item in the shopping cart by mistake. It would not let me take it out when I try to pay. I called CS and after spending 20+ minutes she told me to pay each item individually.  Things like this does not make sense and if it happens to me is probably happening to other buyers.

by: RKTOYS

@toolguy
You have to understand, some of us were selling on eBay when the FVF was 2% and there was no Paypal.  So getting whacked for 13%-14% now between them does represent a 550%-600% increase.  This is just mathematics.

I don't have Ming's numbers but I can tell you that yesterday, in 8 hours of live sales, I sold more than in 8 average months on eBay put together.  Commission worked out to under 17%.  The only venue priced appropriate for services delivered is probably eCrater; 3% is fair for a slow trickle of sales.