How EBay’s decision to shift to fixed prices affects affiliates
I read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune today that said EBay will be switching its fee structure to promote fixed prices over bidding. According to another article in the Chicago Tribune, EBay’s number of new users is slightly going down. EBay says the move is to help them compete with Amazon.
So is this change going to help phpBay Pro affiliates?
Well, according to EBay this change will encourage sellers to sell more items, which will mean more products for buyers to choose from and more sales, right?
Not so fast. In my experience “biddable” items get more clicks than buy it now because buyers to your site see the lower price and are intrigued to click. This will help you get more cookies on people’s computers.
On the other hand, how likely are those people to actually buy the item once they realize that wasn’t the selling price, but just the current bid.
I think with EBay’s upcoming changes to the ACRU payout system, the new fee changes will be positive for affiliates. Why? Because if someone sees an item for a fixed price on your site and then signs up to EBay, they are much more likely to buy that item after they sign up since it’s selling for the price “advertised”. And since EBay’s new lead system is based on quality (pay outs are $1-$50 per lead), I think that people’s lead quality should go up.
But will you get as many sales? I’m not sure. Your EPC should go up since more people who click will buy. But your overall sales may not go up since it’s likely less people will be clicking.
All-in-all I think the change will be good for affiliates. What do you guys think?
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August 21st, 2008 at 1:23 am
I recently got a $28 payout for a ACRU, not sure why. But i’m not complaning!
it’ll be interesting to see if this is a good thing for people, buyers, sellers, and EPN members.
A.
http://iphoneauctions.com.au
August 21st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
On paper it seems like a good idea – weed out the ebay affiliates using incentives to get ACRUs, and give the pay out to the affiliates who drive legit traffic to ebay. The only problem is it still leaves the door wide open for ebay to reduce the overall payouts on ACRUs. They hold all the cards, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the vast majority of ebay affiliates see a slow decline in monthly ACRU revenue.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:23 am
For many reasons, I’m in agreement that the changes could be good for affiliates. Glad I’m not the only one who sees it this way. Have seen so many “the sky is falling” posts elsewhere. My opinion, they’re not looking at the big picture.
In the end, I guess really only time will tell.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 am
[...] I went to visit some other blogs I follow. Ross over at epntips.com had a great post about eBay and how the changes at eBay could affect affiliates. He also had posted a link to an article in the Chicago Tribune from August 20 about eBay that will [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:03 am
@ Melissa,
I think the “sky is falling” feelings are only because peoples past frustrations with EPN are adding up and they see another change as a bad thing, b/c the rest of the changes over the past few months have been bad.
When EPN left CJ many people reported a huge dip in earnings (i didn’t have problems). Then with the changes in ACRU payouts many publishers fear they will get screwed. Also it seems many people are being dropped without warning and with no follow up email.
I have also had a few people email me saying earnings randomly stopped for a few weeks and then they emailed EBay and the earnings randomly started again, but they haven’t heard from EBay.
Hell, i have seen my earnings go DOWN twice this month, by $30 each time. I never got an email from EBay or anything. And i don’t use any shady techniques so i can’t imagine it’s bad quality traffic. I’ve never seen this before. (i emailed them today, so we’ll see what happens.)
The point is, seems like EBay is messing up on quite a few things these days, so i understand why people are nervous, but like i said, i think it will be a good change for non-shady affiliates…
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 am
What do you guys think about the mass amount of affiliates that just got the axe? I’m still in, but it seems like a lot of big affiliates got booted. Any thoughts as to why? Do you think they were being shady?
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 am
@Ross,
I agree with everything you said. Frustrations are mounting on many different levels and I think just about everyone is nervous. With all that is going on, it’s understandable.
I was one of those who experienced a drop in earnings with the switch to EPN. I didn’t make a penny in April. Went from earning anywhere from $50-$100 or more (not counting ACRU’s) per day to zero. Was just thankful I hadn’t quit my job yet. Things did start to straighten themselves after that.
Though on CJ I earned them all the time, I never relied on ACRU’s as the main part of my affiliate income and it’s a good thing I didn’t. I just finally earned my first one on ePN this month. Strange.
I still think they are probably working out some kinks in the reporting system.
@Willdini,
eBay itself is being extremely vague. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to check out this post from a “pink” on the eBay forums yesterday:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520001583
Says right in there that these affiliates were not participating in shady tactics. I guess something just didn’t measure up, but of course they are not saying what it is.