Scott Wingo has often bemoaned the fact that eBay.com give practically no notice of Cheap Listing Days, whilst eBay.co.uk normally give around 48 hours notice. Generally eBay.com will announce a listing promotion the day before the event, but today they’ve excelled themselves! They’ve waited until 10:13AM PST/PT today to announce a 50¢ Insertion Fee promotion in Motors Parts & Accessories on eBay.com.
Did someone wake up this morning and think “Hey guys, listings are a bit slow, lets have a promo!” or did they just forget to put the announcement out? Maybe it’s the new strategy to wait until many sellers have already done their listings for the day.
Whatever the reason a Cheap Listing Day promotion that’s only announced mid-morning doesn’t appear to make a lot of sense. If it’s to encourage sellers to list more many will be so busy packing orders and running their businesses they’ll probably not notice until this evening. Those that do will have their day wrecked in the scramble to get listings up, or just ignore it as too much trouble.
Thank goodness the UK give ample notice so that sellers can prepare giving the Cheap Listing Day time to effect the behaviour it’s designed to achieve. They’ve given four full days notice of the Cheap Listing Day scheduled for this Thursday.
Does anyone know the reasoning behind announcing a promotion halfway through the day it’s running?
3 Responses
Does anyone have any data (anacdotal or otherwise) on how prices are affected by cheap listing days. Sure it is cheaper to list, but there extra competition probably drives down prices.
There is some data to show that prices are lower on Sunday when lots of items are ending
I can only guess it’s to maximise publicity at minimal cost. If it was an error surely they would have rescheduled the CLD?
Helen, I think if they didn’t want the cost, they wouldn’t run CLDs at all – despite what some sellers think, they’re not a compulsory part of the site, after all! I think the person who was meant to make the announcement was probably late for work that day 😀