eBay Affiliate Program Will See Improvements in 2022

The eBay affiliate program will see improvements in 2022, according to the director of the program, Michael Lill. In an end-of-year message for participants in the eBay Partner Network (ePN), Lill recapped the year and, looking ahead, said there was more to come.

The eBay Partner Network rewards participants for driving traffic and sales. But Lill described a problem with its current approach: links that point to individual listings that have ended can result in buyer confusion and frustration.

This year, eBay has focused on “Priority Listings,” as we’ve reported in previous coverage, though the company has been vague about how it assigns a listing “priority” status and which affiliates can take advantage of the new initiative. In Lill’s words:

“One of our 2021 initiatives involved reducing the number of links pointing to expired listings. EPN links often point to individual listings, so if those links aren’t refreshed, they may persist even after the items have sold or the listings have ended. If that happens, buyers get redirected on eBay, which could be confusing and frustrating for customers. To address this challenge, we’ve been working with partners to reduce the number of links pointing to expired listings. Our efforts for this will extend into 2022.

“We’ve also been working to create richer incentives for partners to work with EPN. A key initiative addressing this was encouraging partners to drive more Priority Listings (PL).

“Priority listings are listings that are more valuable to eBay sellers, and for which EPN is willing to pay higher commissions. This year, we’ve added PL flags to EPN’s Feeds, APIs, and our linking tools, and also added bonus pricing to partners who feature Priority Listings.”

(See the EcommerceBytes Blog on why eBay should tell sellers how to get Priority status for their listings.)

Lill said eBay had more improvements planned for the affiliate program in 2022. He did not mention the departure from the program of Dan Filowitz, Global Customer Support Manager, who moved to a different role at eBay after 5 years at ePN. Nor did he mention Filowitz’s successor.

Here is our take on Lill’s recap of 2020, and you can find his full 2021-recap post on LinkedIn.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.