eBay say that they are the home of the small business and never more so than on Black Friday. They are getting set to welcome an anticipated 20.7 million visitors on the weekend of Black Friday 2016.
As in previous years, eBay have once again committed to giving prime deal space to smaller businesses, placing them front and centre on one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. Thousands of products will be on offer from small businesses this Black Friday on eBay UK including:
– Brands such as Apple, Dyson, GoPro and Microsoft, which are expected to be topping Christmas lists in eBay’s Black Friday offering
– Some of the most popular tech items on the market – including the PS4 Slim, Xbox One S and 4k televisions
– Both brand new and refurbished technology– offering ‘must have’ items like Apple iPhones at a range of price points
Sellers from outside the tech space are also expected to benefit from the event. eBay data from Black Friday 2015 showed that businesses in fashion, home and garden and toys all benefitted from increased customer interest over the Black Friday period – showing that British shoppers are not limiting their searches to tech deals.
New deals will be released throughout the Black Friday period.
Mobile is also expected to be crucial to this year’s trading period, with over half of sales on ebay.co.uk touched by mobile devices this season.
To lift the lid on how small businesses and sellers are preparing for Black Friday, eBay has created a short film – T’Was the Night Before Black Friday. Detailing eBay’s position as the ultimate shop supporting British business, the film features three small businesses (Time to play spot the Tamebay readers in the advert…) from across the UK: ShopTo, a technology business based in Bracknell, Thingimijigs, a children’s clothing brand based in Burnley and ColorPro, a family-run tech outlet in Wokingham:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=a-UXivm7WW0
11 Responses
What a joke, most sellers I know are way way way down on sales from a year ago, and this past weekend was non existent. eBay have arrogantly avoided advertising for a long time and now to come out with two recent uninspiring ‘attempts’ is telling. Genuinely I question how long eBay will be around.
If Ebay are the “home” of small businesses, why have they taken the Ebay Shops visibility away from the searches?
Many of these small businesses will now struggle to survive on Ebay
Now I would hardly call ebay “the home of small business”. They are an outlet only. It strikes me as more and more the home of fellow Multinational and National chains. What have they done for small business this year “suck them dry”, while offering private sellers 75% of FVF etc etc. I have seen nothing to help small business.
Amazon or eBay are not the home of any small business.
Time for something NEW out there I think.
Don’t you think ebay are aware that many of these promos are being used by the really small businesses consisting of one man and his dog working from home ?
The 100 listings per day until 31st December promo is surely aimed at small businesses rather than private sellers.
I honestly think ebay are trying to promote the one man business without actually stating it, so as to avoid upsetting many business sellers who are fully registered and paying for the privilege.
Someone employing staff and renting premises might well be viewed differently from a seller with a few bits they sell from their spare bedroom – I am not taking sides on this, and it is a hotly debated topic on the ebay forums, but ebay cannot be so stupid as to not realise many private sellers are actually running a small business.
Ebay talk about promoting the small business, but their actions do the exact opposite:
Removal of shop links from searches
Withdrawal of Turbolister (used by many smaller sellers) replaced with nothing
Never mind keeping the site running properly and enabling customers to buy.
I tried buy something this afternoon and each page took several minutes to load, so I gave up.
Had a conversation today with an eBay rep, as many competitors list items using store brand names in the item title as they are old stock or customer returns from that store.
One seller had over 500 mostly new items for sale, yet no business information displayed, so more than likely paying no tax on this, getting ebay free listings and final value discounts.
Was told by the ebay rep that private sellers don’t have to be registered as a business.
There are countless others that are the same who use false titles, no business information when clearly they are a business.
Yet eBay don’t want to know
Oh please. I really don’t think that ‘Black Friday’ will work with small sellers.
Multinationals might use it to drag in customers to a B&M store where they are prepared to sell a TV at a loss in the hope that customers might buy some scented candles at a huge mark-up (and also a cappuccino & croissant), but this marketing ploy is not something for sellers on small margins.