One of the ways eBay drives traffic to the site is through its affiliate marketing program, and on September 1st, eBay raised rates it pays to members of the ePN program (eBay Partner Network).
That sounds like good news for sellers (and affiliates), but there’s a catch. The new rates are only available to certain members of the program. And more importantly to sellers, the higher rates only apply to certain types of items – so affiliates may not have an increased incentive to drive traffic and sales to your listings.
As we reported last month, eBay introduced the concept of “Priority Listings” in June, which are “items that are particularly valuable for eBay sellers to sell.” ePN Director Michael Lill had indicated that eBay was hoping to offer bonus pricing over time in order to reward partners who drove conversions of Priority Listings.
The Rate Card hasn’t changed since August of 2020, which you can access on the eBay Partner Network website. The new rates for Priority Listings are explained on the eBay Partner Network website, where it explains, “Priority Listing transactions earn 1.5 times the standard commission for that transaction.”
That means a transaction that would normally have pay out $10 in affiliate commission would pay out $15 if it was a Priority Listing item. (That’s the example eBay used, but a $10 affiliate fee would be for a high-value item; for example, the ePN rate for Collectibles is 3%, so a $333 attributable sale of a collectible would net an affiliate $9.99.)
Unfortunately the ePN website doesn’t explain what types of items qualify for Priority Listings, but it’s worth pointing out that eBay has been investing in its Certified Refurbished program and in certain categories including sneakers, trading cards, luxury watches, and designer handbags.
