eBay plans to open up its Promoted Listings advertising program more broadly ahead of the holiday season, according to Mark May of Citi. The revelation came in a report from the Wall Street analyst that described seven key takeaways after a recent discussion with the online marketplace.
eBay had beta tested the program during last year’s holiday shopping season, as EcommerceBytes reported in May prior to eBay making it available by invitation in June in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia.
eBay had done away with its previous ad program for sellers in 2010 in anticipation of its Cassini search technology being able to show shoppers the most relevant listings.
Citi’s May also addressed the negative reception eBay’s new mobile app has been receiving from users described in Monday’s Newsflash.
May wrote, “Last week, eBay updated its mobile app and while the company did extensive testing ahead of the release, the initial reviews and ratings in the app stores have been poor. eBay stated that feedback from the lengthy beta release was positive, that it’s not uncommon for earlier release reviews to be sub-par, and it highlighted the Dec 2014 iPad app release as following a similar pattern.”
As for eBay Plus, the shipping-membership program eBay launched in Germany, eBay told May that it is aiming to at least make up in increased volume what it gives up in seller fee discounts (15%) for participating in the program.
