eBay Head of Business Development Gives Sellers Tips To Jumpstart Slow Sales
Head of Seller Business Development, Stephen Weller, stopped by the eBay for Business podcast today to share tips for how sellers can jumpstart sales during the dreaded summer slump.
Weller's suggestions ranged from listing best practices and shipping strategies to pricing and sourcing, but it was his comments about Promoted Listings that got the most attention from sellers in the eBay community.
From today's ebay for Business podcast, ebay head of Business Development US (and ebay seller) Stephen Weller:
"I do use them religiously. In fact, every item I have has two percent across the board for promoted listings. I use a standard model. So the great thing is I don't pay unless it sells. Right? So there's no extra money out of pocket.
We do have an advanced option to where if you wanna do, pay per click and things like that, but I love the standard version. And, I use two percent. So what I'd recommend is taking your items depending on the category, depending on your cost and how much margin you have. Play around with it. Don't set it really high. Don't set it really low, but go somewhere in between and and see how your sales are and see if it's working. And, every category is different. Every item is different.
And so, it's really nice to be featured in the promoted spots, carousels, different things like that. So I highly recommend at least a a two percent minimum promoted listings fee. That's me as a seller talking here. You know what? On some of my items where maybe I have more margin or one move a little bit faster, I will up the promoter listing as well to a little bit higher rate. So I think everyone should participate just depending on their level."
So, basically, this is an ebay exec and actual seller recommending experiment with PLS, but suggesting that the 2% minimum is probably just fine. Thank you, Stephen Weller.
Sellers mostly praised Weller for giving an "honest take" on Promoted Listings and not going for a "gotcha" of trying to get sellers to opt for higher rate and give more money to eBay than may be necessary, while others suggested it could be a subtle pitch to try to get sellers who don't already participate in Promoted Listings onboard - a bit like the chef telling the frog to hop on in the pot, the water's fine!
Although it does seem like an honest take on PL it also is suggesting everyone to use PL at 2%. I wonder how many more sellers will implement 2% that was not enrolled in PL?
Good honest take or clever sales pitch to get more to use PL ?
As for why he seems to be advocating such a low % for promotion, it's hard to tell if he really thinks 2% is sufficient or if he is just trying to appeal to sellers who don't promote at all...
...It would seem just as much a risk of signaling to sellers who promote at higher rates that they are wasting money needlessly, and could lower their rates accordingly. But who knows, maybe they figure the risk/reward ratio favors getting non-promoters to do at least do 2%.
Then again, maybe the real 'who knows' is, maybe this guy wasn't given any suggestions from eBay higher-ups, and he just winged that answer ... now they're chewing his face off for saying such a disastrous thing.🤣
I think it is a sincere recommendation, based on his experience as a seller, that sellers should give it a try and they may find that even the minimum rate helps with sales. I've been using 2.2% on a percentage of my listings (never newer listings).
I do think it is refreshing that he isn't pushing Pay Per Click nor is he pushing for sellers to use the ebay recommended rates.
And still others questioned whether the minimum 2% would really be enough to gain traction, or if eBay might even intentionally allow that to work in the beginning before slowly ratcheting up rates.
All I can say is last year I finally gave in to this on the 2 percent level and as a result I did see some magical moments from time to time. But not consistently. I still have half my listings at 2 percent and some of them have been sitting there for an eternity still. They need a boost I guess or there are no customers at this time on ebay actually here to buy this stuff in greater quantity right now. Our sales are extremely good promoted or not on Holiday’s because of what we sell.
I bet eBay would LOVE a million sellers that are not using PLS, to just do a little bity insignificant 2%
If you do? Sure, your sales might bump up a notch for a few days.Well, unless everybody does it...
Pretty sure your monthly average won't change much. And if you ever stop PLS You'll sure notice that.
What do you think is using Promoted Listings at the minimum 2% rate good, honest advice for most sellers? Do you find you can get traction at the minimum rate or is a higher investment required? Let us know in the comments below!
