eBay to Remove Several Cross-Promotion Features

[mandy]

***Several Cross-Promotion Features to be Removed*** 

Hi everyone ... I'm Diana Baraniewicz with eBay's Finding team. As we focus on ways to make it easier for you to find the items you're looking for, we're also taking a fresh look at some of our existing tools and assessing their effectiveness. Tools that have not performed well for our members are being removed.

There are a few Cross-Promotion options that sellers have had access to that we'll be retiring soon. These options simply haven't been as effective as eBay's default logic in driving bids and purchases.

Item Cross-Promotion Rules
Using our seller cross-promotion tool, sellers have been able to create rules for what types of their own items should appear in the cross-promotion display area on Bid/Buy It Now Confirmation pages, and at the bottom of Stores sellers' item pages. When a seller does not specify cross-promotion rules, eBay's default logic populates the space with relevant items, choosing additional items from the seller based on the buyer's search.

We'll be removing the item-level Cross-Promotion options in the next few weeks. These rules have had low adoption by our sellers, and have not had a positive track record in increasing bids/purchases among buyers. Please note that sellers will still be able to create Keyword to Keyword, Category to Category, and Store Category to Store Category rules.

Both sellers and buyers should experience better results by letting eBay's logic do the work.

Cross-Promotion Connections & Personalized Picks
Also, in June we'll be removing the Cross-Promotion Connections feature, which allowed sellers to promote other selected sellers' listings on their item pages, as well as the Personalized Picks page in My eBay that makes recommendations for future purchases based on your buying history. These features have also seen very low usage. By removing features like these that under-perform, we help simplify the site and free up available resources that can be better utilized elsewhere.