eBay told attendees of its annual eBay Open seller conference that it’s modernizing its platform – and, in keeping with its aim to further monetize the site, it announced the launch of a Cost Per Click (CPC) ad program that will give participating sellers access to the top of eBay search results.
During the 3-day event that kicked off on August 4th, eBay also announced features it will be adding, such as video to eBay Stores, as it catches up with other marketplaces. In a bid to draw more shoppers, eBay will also introduce reduced fees for Store sellers who send traffic to eBay from social networking platforms.
eBay Launches CPC Ads at Top of Search Results
eBay’s Vice President and General Manager of Global Advertising Alex Kazim introduced Promoted Listings Advanced, which is a Cost Per Click model – sellers bid on keywords. Kazim said the advanced version of eBay Promoted Listings, available only in the US and UK for now, will give sellers priority access to the top of eBay search results pages.
eBay Stores Plays Catch-up
eBay’s Vice President of Stores Thomas Pinckney said eBay is reimagining Stores with new tools and said eBay will help Store owners build their brand and cultivate customers. He said eBay is building a “modern storefront with rich merchandising capabilities” and will make sellers’ Stores prominent on listings’ View Item pages. Among the changes to eBay Stores are the following:
- add video to Stores’ About tab;
- improving Store search;
- better feature Stores’ newsletters;
- improving sharing on social sites.
Seller Protections from Deadbeats and Returns Abuse
eBay’s CEO Jamie Iannone said eBay will introduce new ways to protect sellers from deadbeats, and it will extend protections when buyers misuse the returns process.
Changes to View Item Page; New Tools and Capabilities
eBay’s Chief Product Officer Pete Thompson said eBay is re-architecting the View Item page so that it can introduce changes more quickly, and he said eBay is working on new tools, features, and new shopping experiences.
Closing Remarks
eBay’s General Manager of North America Jordan Sweetnam presented closing remarks on Friday.
Note 8/10/2021: eBay published a playlist on YouTube of recordings of many of the sessions.
I was wondering when Ebay was going to finally add the Cost per Click advertising to their menu of optional increased Seller costs. I can see it now, Ebay will be hiring a lot more offshore contractors whose sole job will be to click on these ads all day so that Ebay makes more and more money. Cheerleaders can try and defend this anyway they want, but we all know that it will wind up happening and there will be no way to determine that it is happening or who is doing it as Ebay will never allow Sellers to have any of that type of information. I can also see Sellers doing the exact same thing to their competitors to force them to increase their prices and again Ebay will do nothing about it other than keep adding all of that extra money to their coffers. Eventually they are going to run out of these types of ideas and have to survive on what little remains as more and more buyers and sellers leave their site so they can actually see what they are looking to buy.
Once again the search engine is going to have another option added to it when Ebay already cannot fix what they have damaged with it. So now buyers will always get to see those items first and foremost rather than what they really want to see when they type in their search. Once again sellers who choose to not hand Ebay Carte Blanche with their fees will drop to the bottom of the search or be completely excluded as they are not willing to pay more than normal FVF. It is once again another way for Ebay to monetize their system even if the Seller has not sold anything, just more up front fees very similar to Listing Fees. Then Ebay will wonder why their number of listings start falling as more and more sellers list on other sites to avoid the continuing uneven playing field that Ebay now creates. This will also effect buyers who will no longer be able to see what they are really looking for but only more of what Ebay wants them to see so that Ebay can make more money without having to even worry about whether the buyer buys anything.
ANYONE who uses eBays CPC needs severe mental assistance.
The company is the most dishonest on the planet and theres no way to know if it works
Its yet another MAFIA style money stealing scheme – and penalizes sellers who will not or can not afford to play this game.
We all just want to sell our products with out hassle – why must it be so difficult?
The only people who benefit are Mercari and Poshmark – no games – just sales (sometimes)
As well – what good is having a good feedback score? You can have a marginal one and then just buy clicks and get boosted/pushed up in ratings ….. makes zero sense.
Smart people know a con game when they see it … aka eBay OPEN/CLOSED
“Seller Protections from Deadbeats and Returns Abuse”
Highly doubtful.
agree with SIK about the cost per click, fleecebay will be stealing from sellers again.
Won’t matter, 1st of 2022 most of the part time sellers will leave once they figure out they’ll get a 1099 after $600