Another Way eBay is Evaluating Sellers?
Filed Under Feedback | 4 Comments
I needed a new door handle for my car, so of course I bought one off of eBay. I got the part quickly and it worked well so I faithfully left the seller an excellent feedback and 5-star DSR’s all around.
Apparently that was not sufficient for eBay as they followed up with an email asking me to participate in a three question survey regarding this transaction.
We’re always trying to improve the eBay experience, and there’s no better group of advisors than our own customers.
You purchased “1997-2001 Toyota Camry INSIDE Door HANDLE – Gray LH” from [user ID redacted] on 02/12/2011. We’d love to get your feedback about that experience, and invite you to take a 3 question survey to express your opinions. Your input will help us make eBay easier and more enjoyable to use.
Since I’m always interested in something to write a blog post about, I happily obliged.
Details after the jump…
In my last post I introduced eBay’s penalty for getting your listing found on Google. To recap, if a visitor arrives to your listing via the Google search results, eBay inserts a list of five other (competing) listings immediately before your description. Confused, many visitors take the bait and click off your listing directly to your competitors.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon impacts every seller who manages to get their listing found on Google. There’s no way to opt out, and even Top Rated Sellers get this treatment.
If you are concerned, there are some things you can do to minimize the impact of eBay’s Google Penalty.
Read about them after the jump…
Introducing eBay’s Google Penalty
Filed Under Sellers' Insights | 6 Comments
It seems when a potential customer finds your listing through a Google search and clicks through, eBay is terrified that you as a seller:
- might not make the sale; or
- might not provide this proverbial stranger wandering in the eBay store off the street a good buying experience.
eBay’s Google Penalty
Therefore, when a visitor clicks-through to your listing from Google, they are immediately presented with this unusual box at the top of the listing…
So, if you’re like me and spend the time and effort to run a Search Engine Optimization campaign for your eBay listings (or just lucky enough to rank highly in the search results), eBay thanks you by immediately trying to lure away the customer you just brought to the auction site.
But this is just the first jab of eBay’s Google Penalty. If your customer hasn’t clicked away yet, eBay shameless sticks five links to other listings before your listing’s description above the fold – meaning your customer has to scroll down to view your description, if they have any remaining inclination to do so! Click on the image below to enlarge it.
Are You Promoting Other Sellers on Your eBay Listing?
Filed Under How-To's, Sellers' Insights | 3 Comments
A letter to AuctionBytes a few weeks ago warning sellers that eBay was displaying links to my competitors’ auctions on my listings had me concerned. I immediately tubed up my listings and was relieved when I found that this issue was apparently not impacting me.
It wasn’t until I wanted to make a quick check on my listing description from my work that I discovered that eBay conveniently does not display competitors listings to me (on my auctions) when I’m logged in. Here’s what the bottom of the listing I PAID FOR looks like after I’ve logged out:
Pretty sneaky if you ask me. I’m always logged in when I look at my listings.
How to Stop Promoting Your Competitors
To opt-out of this click on My eBay and log in if prompted.
Click on the on the “Account” tab and select “Marketing Tools” from the menu that appears.
Next, click “Promote Similar Items” from the menu on the left and opt out.
In subdued text, eBay tries to subliminally inform the seller the gravity of their decision:
By declining this option:
- You’ll be missing out on reaching thousands of eBay buyers who are interested in items like yours
- Your items will only be displayed on pages and emails directly related to your listings
- Items from other sellers will not be displayed on your listings and emails related to your items
Of course eBay wants you to think you are missing out on cross-promoting your items on other seller’s listings, but read the fine print:
Items are chosen based on popularity–the items in the same category most watched by buyers.
So, unless your listings is one of the five most watched items in your category, you’re really not getting any additional exposure are you?
Of course, if your listing does garner a lot of watchers, it would be prudent to opt back in to this program. Until then, count me out.