eBay couponing update...

As mentioned in Q3 by eBay amanagement and what you'll hear on today's eBay webinar, eBay is allocating the bulk of their Q4 holiday budget to coupons.  There's lots of comscore data coming out that shows online consumers are really embracing coupons (coupon site traffic is up 30% y/y for example), so I think this actually makes sense.  

eBay is saying there will be '10s of millions of coupons' and they are shortly going to roll out some changes to the site that will make coupons more embedded than they already are.

Here's one example.  You'll see that starting mid/late November, there will be coupons added to the new deals section (click to enlarge)

Next, when a consumer has a valid coupon in their 'coupon bank', they will have a persistent little reminder at the top of all pages and really pulled out on the item page as shown here:

Finally, I believe there will be some treatment (like a little coupon icon) in the search engine results pages for those items that are 'coupon eligible', if the consumer has a coupon in their little coupon bank.

Note to ChannelAdvisor customers:

When eBay first came out with these there were issues and we have resolved those.  On top of that we are taking actions today to make sure ALL of the above site-integration 100% works with ChannelAdvisor customers. You can read more about it on this SSC post (login required -for CA customers only).

A final note to the Wall St. folks.  While you guys disdain coupons because they are contra-revenue, I do think this is a good move for sellers and thus transaction volume on eBay this holiday so therefore it should be good for eBay as well -even contra revenue.  We'll only know how it turns out when eBay reports Q4 results in Q1, so until then, use some darn coupons (at ChannelAdvisor merchants please)!!

SeekingAlpha disclosure: I am long google and amazon.

Comments

[Mechelle]

Well the coupons would be fabulous if they worked consistently. The glitchy coupons are P***ing buyers off especially when they expect the seller to honor eBay's freaking coupon. Thanks again eBay you really know how to get the job done.