eBay Germany Recruits Private Sellers For Pilot Program Featuring Curated Feeds & Social Sharing
eBay Germany has put out the call to private sellers, inviting them to sign up for a new pilot program with promises of increased exposure through curated product feeds and social sharing opportunities.
The invite came via a post in the eBay.DE community forum telling private sellers taking part in the product pilot project could improve their eBay profile (translated by Google).
Hello dear private sellers on eBay!
We are currently looking for 5 to 10 private sellers with eBay sales experience who regularly sell several privately owned items that they no longer need and who currently have some items on offer through our platform.
Anyone interested is invited to participate in a pilot project to test a new feed view with social sharing options. In this view, collections can be created and the offers can be curated.
The view to be tested will look something like this one from influencer Jade Fox on the eBay.co.uk page, and those who take part can share feedback directly with the project team. The team will guide the selected participants step by step through the onboarding process as part of the pilot project.
It would appear eBay may not have gotten the enthusiastic reception they were hoping for as the original January 28 deadline to apply has now been extended to February 3rd.
Interestingly, while the post references an influencer page on eBay.co.uk, it actually links to a page on the US site which appears to be an "influencer profile" for JadeFoxCloset.
This profile page is similar to a seller's profile or store page with one important difference - Jade Fox is not actually selling anything directly, just "curating" a list of favorite items offered by different sellers across the platform.
Mention of a Social Sharing option piqued my interest - but unfortunately it's just a basic, boring link sharing pop up, not the long ago promised but apparently now abandoned offering that would have offered fee discounts for sales made through links shared on social media.
That incentive wouldn't mean much for German private sellers of course, since they have paid Final Value Fees on sales since early 2023, but I'm sure business sellers would still love to see eBay provide that option.
It will be interesting to see if the German private seller program also offers priority placements in the new eBay Facebook Marketplace partnership being tested in that market.
Liz Morton
The profile appears to be an extension of the influencer curated Holiday Treasures gift guide initiative eBay launched last month and just like with that campaign, when you click on an item, it shows a "quick view" pop up which allows the buyer to skip the item page and head directly to check out.
Also like with the Holiday Treasures feature - it appears eBay still hasn't figured out how to remove out of stock items from the feed, which could lead to a very disappointing browsing experience.
Sellers should be aware the most recent Marketing Terms update added "add to cart, quick view, or other interactive functionality" as actions which trigger Promoted Listings ad attribution, so if your item is featured in one of these curated collections and you use Promoted Listings - you may end up paying an ad fee if it sells.
That could be particularly important for German sellers as changes to Promoted Listings ad attribution going into effect next month will vastly expand the number of sales which will have ad fees applied.
Liz Morton
Speaking of ads - it's also very interesting that nothing on that profile indicates these collections are the result of paid partnerships with the influencer.
The "eBay Partner" tag is not enough to comply with regulations about advertising transparency in most countries and we can see that Jade Fox does make sure to properly tag her Instagram posts as paid partnerships.
So why does eBay not provide the same level of transparency for consumers who may find the curated collection through onsite navigation rather than social media links?
It's not the first time eBay has blurred ethical and regulatory lines with media campaigns or influencer outreach, and unfortunately likely won't be the last.
Liz Morton
Time will tell how eBay will handle similar profiles in this German private seller pilot - let us know what you think about the program in the comments below!
