Perhaps the biggest eBay news, and most significant aspect, of the eBay.com Seller Release news announced this week relates to third party ads on the marketplace.
As the Seller Release page notes about the change: “We’re removing third-party product listing ads across the eBay platform effective May 1, 2017. We will begin replacing the ads with eBay promoted listings at that time, with additional placements coming over the course of the year. Sellers have asked for increased visibility and for removal of ads which take buyers off eBay. With these changes, we are taking strides to provide sellers more opportunity to get added visibility and velocity for their items and to reduce competition from external ad sources. Limited third-party advertisements will continue to be displayed.”
This is a bold and welcome news. On one level these ads represent easy money for eBay. eBay has traffic in abundance and selling ads is a well-trodden path and monetisable. But taking ads does irk on several levels. Firstly, it showed a lack of concern and commitment to paying eBay sellers. It was always a kick in the teeth to have a seller pay for a listing and then display competing products from other retailers. Secondly, it displayed a certain disdain for eBay’s own offerings. Having third-party product ads on the site, directing browsers elsewhere, did rather say “you can do better on another site.”
The big question is whether this change is going to cross the pond from the US to the UK and Europe. We will find out more in due course when the details of the UK Seller Release are made in the coming weeks. Well keep you posted.
7 Responses
Praise be! I get so fed up with ads, particularly the newer list of around 10 ads that clog up the page when you are trying to re-list an item…..who on earth thought that this was a good thing to implement to start with, we are trying to SELL not BUY??
How long has it taken these people to reach the conclusion that it’s a bad idea to lead people off the site for pennies?
How much were they paid?
Do the people responsible for this advertising strategy still work for ebay?
The ads on Ebay pages are getting ridiculuous.
If you view an item, for a fraction of a second you can see the thing, before it disappears under an avalanche of sponsored ads, other items you might like, as the page finally loads. You then have to scroll back down to find the listing again.
We have superfast broadband and it slows loading right down even with a high speed connection. Never mind when the site has technical issues (i.e., most of the time).
If you are viewing via an iphone or ipad, its going to take for ever for this garbage to load and for you to see an item.
This gives a frustrating experience to buyers and certainly doesn’t help sellers either.
It’s yet another way Ebay makes money without even selling a single thing. As long as they make off these clicks, the fact someone gives up and doesn’t buy is not the end of the world for them. But it’s the end of the sale for the seller.
I don’t tend to buy from sites heavily loaded with ads and you’re probably the same.