Online sellers want to capitalize on Amazon Prime Day, on or off of Amazon, and one seller made an interesting suggestion to eBay on how it could help.
eBay itself has been running a campaign to grab traffic by positioning itself as an alternative channel if Amazon runs in to technical problems this week. But the “Crash Day” marketing links only to eBay Deals, which are unavailable to most sellers.
A seller using the handle bigger.fish.to.fry suggested during a weekly chat session in June that eBay leverage the Crash Day marketing campaign to benefit smaller sellers as well. He wrote the following:
Maximizing Sales From Sitewide Promotions
Mid-July brings with it a big summer retail moment. From Amazon’s Prime Day to Target’s Deals Day to eBay’s Crash Day there will be a lot going on. My question is how will eBay promote the smaller sellers in tandem with the promotion of Deals sellers? When there are deals on televisions, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like HDMI cables, universal remotes, hot air poppers, blu-rays, etc? When there are deals on stand mixers, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like kitchen utensils, cake pans, aprons, etc? When there are deals on large camping gear like tents, will eBay include prominent links for accessories like canteens, hiking boots, lanterns, etc? If the answer to my above questions is a general “no”, then how exactly will – if at all – eBay promote sales for small sellers alongside the mega-Deals sellers? In addition, what can smaller sellers do on their own to piggyback on the high-end deals happening those three weeks? Finally, will eBay publish (in advance) a list of items and/or categories they will be featuring so that we can prepare any relevant inventory we have and run our own promotions?
An eBay moderator responded, “It’s great to see you working to maximize your success in conjunction with the increased traffic that comes from eBay promotions. While we don’t have additional information to provide at the moment, we’re happy to see what we can find out!”
When the seller followed up last week, an eBay moderator said, “we got these questions and input to marketing and PR, and haven’t heard back. While I’m not certain what cross promotions are being planned it’s great to know that folks are primed and eager to capitalize on the Crash Sale!”
The seller also asked if eBay planned to publish in advance a list of items and/or categories they would be featuring “so that we can prepare any relevant inventory we have and run our own promotions.”
As the week plays out, let us know if you’ve been able to capitalize on Prime Day fever and experienced any change in sales.
These 2 paragraphs I’m posting below from this article with the eBay moderator’s responses say it all. Total BS and the seller was given the runaround. eBay has ZERO interest in helping the smaller or casual seller. It’s all about Big Brands, Chinese sellers, or other very large sellers. If you’re not giving $Hundreds-of-Thousands or $Millions to eBay in fees, you’re nothing to them. I for one am hoping Amazon has no issues with the overwhelming customer load they’ll receive, which would be the only reason they have a problem. Meanwhile, eBay can Crash all by itself with the meaningless number of customers. eBay has thousands of mini-crashes on their garbage site daily with a small fraction of Amazon’s customers. So bad, so sad.
An eBay moderator responded, “It’s great to see you working to maximize your success in conjunction with the increased traffic that comes from eBay promotions. While we don’t have additional information to provide at the moment, we’re happy to see what we can find out!”
When the seller followed up last week, an eBay moderator said, “we got these questions and input to marketing and PR, and haven’t heard back. While I’m not certain what cross promotions are being planned it’s great to know that folks are primed and eager to capitalize on the Crash Sale!”