Would you post eBay listings to social media for reduced fees?
UPDATE 9-6-23
eBay still has no answers for sellers about the fate of the promised 2.5% FVF social sharing incentive.
The last attempt to get an update in January 2023 was met with a reply that eBay community staff was"still waiting on a response" from the appropriate team...and we're still waiting.
Meanwhile, competitor Etsy just launched Share And Save feature that will credit 4% of order value for sales that are made through sharing links on social media and across the web.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
UPDATE 7-27-22
eBay Australia has now expanded the test as a limited time promotion for sellers with Basic, Feature or Anchor Store subscriptions from 26th July 2022 to 30th September 2022.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
UPDATE 4-22-22
It appears the test for the social sharing incentive has begun in Australia as a limited time promotion.
Sellers in the eBay Australia community were discussing a new social sharing option, so I asked if it included the discounted fee incentive.
Here's what one seller shared:
I copied this from what ebay sent me.
- Share your listings by clicking on the ‘Share’ or ‘Share this item’ button from the seller hub active listings page, storefront, view item, coded coupon success page and more
- Items can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, WhatsApp and by Email
- You can also copy the link from the social sharing buttons
- Add an engaging caption and post your listing to social media
- Reach more buyers who might not shop on eBay yet
- Save on your fees. For a limited time, eligible sellers will only be charged a 2.75% category percentage fee (+ $0.33 fixed order fee). Buyers must buy an item from the seller’s store using the shared link within 30 days of clicking the link and during the promotion period
I'm still looking for something more official from eBay on this and will update as soon as more information is available.
UPDATE 3-10-22
When asked about the 2.5% FVF social sharing incentive in the Spring Seller Check In today, Tom Pinckney said:
It's coming soon. It's going into a limited release in AU. As they say, that took longer than expected. 🙂
We'll be keeping an eye out!
Tom Pinckney, VP of eBay Stores, announced at eBay Open Online that eBay will be adding a social media marketing incentive that will discount the final value fee to 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction when buyers buy from your social media posts.
This feature is slated as "coming soon" and while there has been no official timeline given, that hasn't stopped sellers in the community from talking about it.
Last week the ebay for Business podcast concluded a 3 part series on using Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, etc) to drive traffic to your ebay business. At ebay Open Online this year, ebay mentioned that there are plans to release a new fee for sales made via Social Media. There were no details given, but basically it sounded like, if your sale could be traced to your social media post, the Final Value Fee for that sale would be (sorry, I don't remember the exact figure offhand) something like 2.45%...which would be a nice savings for many of us.
So, my questions:
Do you currently use Social Media to drive traffic to your ebay business? If so, what channel(s) do you use, and has it been successful?
If you don't currently use Social Media to drive traffic to your ebay business, would the reduced FVF be an incentive to try it?
Seller feelings on the subject are a bit mixed, some see it is a good opportunity to receive lower fees, many others questioned what eBay's motives may be for offering such a deal.
Who would check each sale to determine if it had resulted from exposure on social media?
And, frankly, what's in it for eBay if the sale happened that way vs the usual? There would HAVE to be some advantage for eBay to compensate for the reduced FVF.
I guess I don't see the advantage, but would be glad to hear from sellers who could explain it to me further.
I’m a fixture on Instagram & post new pix & videos all the time. Have plenty of active followers there yet I follow 0. Why would an Instagram viewer take the trouble to go to eBay to purchase an item there when they could more easily contact me and directly & purchase it from me on Instagram at obviously a lower price with no eBay commission?
No. Social media IMO is not a place to be advertising. It annoys me and I am sure it also annoys others to see people on a social platform to advertise their wares. I consider it spam and if I want to shop I would not be looking at social media to do so.
Any Seller would use it to sell from that social media platform for free (instagram, pininterest, etc) and/or direct someone to their website and sell it for free. I know quite a few who use this model.
Have zero desire, on top of everything else and all the monies I pay to e-Bay to promote listings, to also do social media promotions (which is a ton of work/effort) for e-Bay for free.
If we had steady followers on instagram, etc - I would be directing them to a website of my own - not to e-Bay.
What would be "in" it for us as a Seller?
Agree, IF you have your own site..........no point in directing to EBAY........but if you don't, you could save part of the fvf. If you use those sites.......certainly could pay to try to send them to one of your listings.... This is very reminiscent of the old "Store Referral Fee" and people saved quite a bit with it....over time.
Have to have more details. If it really is 2.45% of course that would be great and sellers should be rewarded if they bring traffic to eBay. We already do most of the heavy lifting.
Whether social works for you would probably depend on what you sell and how you promote on social. I do promote on social but only groups that have formed around the kinds of items I sell. Not all allow sales or only on limited days. I do believe it drives views. Hard to know whether it drives sales or higher prices (I mostly do auctions). One has to assume that many of the people in those groups peruse eBay as well. Have had comments on my posts like already watching or saw it.
I know some of my sales are people in those groups but how did they first find? I have yet to have someone sse my item on eBay, know I am in a group and make an offer off of eBay. But assume that happens.
If they are encouraging cross promotional say from FB marketplace to eBay, how would that work. Also, many people post items on one then more site some dealers have different price points by site. On more than one occasion I have seen a seller have an item on etsy and eBay and different prices on each platform or taking offers on eBay that they can't on etsy.
Currently, FB has waived selling fees but I think fees were like 5%.
My Take
Those who would ask "what's in it for eBay?" need look no further than a typical listing page - with their ad blocker turned off. 😉
Liz Morton ~ Founder
eBay typically stuffs anywhere from 25-30 competitor's ads immediately viewable on the listing page a seller pays for (either through insertion fees or store subscription fees). If you count the scrolling ad carousel bars, there may be as many as 52 ad slots on this page!
When you post a link on social media to drive traffic to your listing, you're also potentially driving traffic to all of those paid promoted listings eBay shows on the page.
Of course, if the buyer were to click through to one of those competitor listings to purchase instead, eBay would be collecting the full FVF plus additional ad fees on the sale. Sounds like a great deal for eBay and more than worth the tradeoff that if the buyer chooses your item, eBay will have to eat the reduction in fees.
As several sellers in that thread stated, why would you want to take the sale back to eBay instead of completing it either on the social media site or some other direct transaction between you and the buyer, like sending them a PayPal invoice?
Facebook has once again extended their waiving of selling fees through Facebook Marketplace - this time out to June 2022. If you and the buyer are already on Facebook, why in the world would you not take advantage of that and give eBay 2.5% + $0.30 instead?!
eBay has been pretty tight lipped on this subject with no further official details released since August. I had hoped we would see it roll out in time for Q4 holiday sales, but at this point I'm not holding my breath it will happen before EOY.
For sellers who only sell on eBay and simply have no desire to deal with sales anywhere else, there may be some benefit to this program. Personally, it would be a hard pass for me as long as eBay continues stuffing all those ads onto seller's listing pages.
Would you drive traffic to eBay from your social media pages in return for reduced fees? Let me know in the comments below!
