This weekend past, especially Sunday, should prove to be the biggest cumulative ecommerce shopping weekend this year in the UK. It’s the climax of the shopping calendar online and (certainly down my way in Southern England where it tipped it down most of Sunday) the rain should be good news for the average e-entrepreneur.
A wet day is a click day, as we like to say on Tamebay.
With any luck hordes of shoppers were at home, buying online with plenty of time for delivery before Christmas, and clicking merrily on your sales. I certainly did my bit on eBay, and bought a fair few gifts and other oddments. Some of my custom went to Amazon too.
But, dear friends of Tamebay, let it be known that eBay was selling burgers again.
The product they put at the top of their shop window was not what you or any other eBay seller had for sale. As the seasonal traffic flooded in, for what will be the biggest weekend in the year, eBay urged buyers to get their chops round a Big Mac.
eBay is mad about Burgers. Just a few weeks back, the top of the homepage was given over to Burger King, as we reported at the time. eBay’s Christmas slogan this year must surely be: “Would you like fries with that?”
Wouldn’t it be nice if eBay concentrated on selling what sellers have listed for sale on the site? I don’t see such adverts on Amazon. Or John Lewis. Or Argos. Or Debenham’s. Or Tesco. Or indeed any other serious ecommerce player out there.
Why is eBay the whore of the sector, willing to give over such valuable homepage space at the climax of the commercial year to the highest fast food bidder? Can it not make enough money from selling goods on the marketplace?
eBay UK’s head of adverts has been in the press recently boasting about how targeted and relevant the eBay ads are. The focus of his comments note how great the ads are for buyers.
He said: “Because we may not need the revenues, it means that there’s a real drive for an amazing advertising experience on eBay to make sure advertising is relevant and really adds to the shopping experience.”
He didn’t ask: “Would you like fries with that?”
6 Responses
Do vegetarians see these adverts?
Online shopping gives you the munchies!!
Maybe I’m too cynical, but the banner seems to be placed so that you ‘accidentally’ press it if you’re using a tablet or a mobile, because it’s so narrow and so close to the top menu in My eBay.
I think the phrase ‘amazing advertising experience’ is an oxymoron