eBay’s Christmas promotion pushes buyers to favoured merchants

November 14, 2008

Greg FanteBays all over the world begin their Christmas marketing campaigns today. eBay UK put out an announcement this morning about theirs (though you read it here first) highlighting their message that

eBay is on average 25% cheaper than the high street on like for like new items

“eBay is cheap” was very unpopular with sellers last year; will this credit crunch Christmas be any different?

Meanwhile, over the pond, Greg Fant from the Marketing and Buyer Experience team has details of what eBay.com will be doing. “Millions of eligible customers” are to receive coupons for money-off their eBay purchases; the coupons will appear throughout the site and in buyers’ My eBay accounts. Presumably there’s some targetting going on, as the actual percentage discounts offered will vary; several UK members I know have received vouchers for 10% off in specific categories. The coupons will be valid for both auctions and BINs, “for a very limited time” to get shoppers out spending as soon as possible.

from top rated sellers

from top rated sellers




The Bid From $1 promotion, featured on eBay.com’s front page, sees a range of small electronics sold on auction starting at $1, with free shipping. Any sellers thinking of adopting that as a listing strategy in order to gain the extra promotion, however, can forget it: these are specific products from specific big sellers, eforcity and henrys.com, for example. You can see this even on the ones that are sold out: check out the URLs, all of which currently contain the “SpecificSeller” criterion.

The Daily Deal will also highlight a deep-discounted product again with free shipping; a different product, available in limited quantities, will be featured each day. So far, this promo appears to be entirely of buy.com.

Frankly, Mr Fant’s AB post is, at best, disingenuous. These promotions are not for all eBay sellers: they’re of specific, selected sellers, whose IDs are coded into the links from eBay’s home page. Presenting this to eBay sellers generally as “special deals to increase excitement, drive buzz, and keep buyers coming back to eBay for more” is missing the point entirely: what’s being driven is buyers straight from the home page to the listings of eBay’s favoured merchants.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 14 Comments