Promoted Listings is here to stay

[theteamsetguy]

Ebay is not the only website that charge their sellers to have their items priority treatment. Amazon, VRBO, AirBNB, Etsy, Priceline, Hotels.com, Expedia, and others all do it. Grocery stores, Target, and Walmart  all charge vendors for end cap or front of the store space.

Amazon got 12 BILLION dollars in 3 months from ad revenues. Whether you like it or use it promoted listings on eBay isn't going anywhere.  

Advertising services, which along with AWS delivers fatter profits than core retail, was key to the earnings bump in the third quarter. Revenue accelerated 26%, topping $12 billion. Ad growth is primarily driven by third-party sellers and brands that pay to have their products appear higher in search results on Amazon’s website and app, CFO Brian Olsavsky said.

[valueaddedresource]

@theteamsetguy your comparison to other companies, especially Amazon, is correct and I agree PL ads are likely not going anywhere.

Given that reality, I would love to at least see the media, regulators, etc. acknowledge that reality and give eBay's advertising business practices the same treatment they give Amazon and others.

How many mainstream media articles have been written about how Amazon manipulates search results with ads? And of course we know the FTC has a very keen interest in many of Amazon's business practices, including ads.

Would it do away with PL completely if eBay faced the same public scrutiny? Of course not...but it might at least provide some guardrails and incentives (or disincentives) that are currently very much lacking for eBay.