Communication Preferences > Buying Activity > Competing Offers
"Competing Offers" is a recent addition. It's separate from "Offers to buyers" and "second chance offers" Can you tell us what that setting controls devon@ebay kyle@ebay ?
I've asked a few experienced buyers and sellers, but none of them had an answer. The best guess I've seen so far is maybe eBay is now alerting buyers when another buyer makes an offer on an item from their watch list?
@wastingtime101 wrote:
Communication Preferences > Buying Activity > Competing Offers
"Competing Offers" is a recent addition. It's separate from "Offers to buyers" and "second chance offers" Can you tell us what that setting controls devon@ebay kyle@ebay ?
I've asked a few experienced buyers and sellers, but none of them had an answer. The best guess I've seen so far is maybe eBay is now alerting buyers when another buyer makes an offer on an item from their watch list?
Hey @wastingtime101! We are still waiting to hear back with more insight on this and once we do we will let you know!
Devon,
@wastingtime101 wrote:
Looking forward to an answer on this one. Thanks devon@ebay .
Hey @wastingtime101! We are still waiting to get 100% confirmation but based off of the various people I have spoken to, this feature is designed to allow buyers the chance to still send offers and purchase an item even if the seller has another offer from another potential buyer.
Devon,
@valueaddedresource wrote:I can't find any examples right now, but similar to your watch list idea, I seem to recall seeing posts here in the past where eBay was sending out messages to buyers trying to create a sense of urgency by alerting them that other buyers had received offers from the seller for the item
That's on regular seller initiated offers (aka "offers to buyers" on the communication settings displayed in the OP). Not something I'd link to this new "competing offers" setting.
@valueaddedresource wrote:or that their offer had been accepted but the sale isn't final until checkout is completed so they should "act now" to make sure they get the item....or something along those lines.
But that's just an accepted offer, no? I get the item is still available and someone else could purchase it, but I don't think that would be considered a "competing offer".
I did have an "out there" idea which probably has zero basis in reality @valueaddedresource :
Say a buyer is interested in a catalog item like an iPhone - what if competing offers means they express interest in one item (add to watchlist or cart or just view multiple times) so they get offers from that seller, but then they also get offers from other sellers with the same exact item in the same condition? Like I said, just a theory with zero to back it up. Add some iPhones to your watchlist, Liz, maybe you'll get some competing offers from different sellers. 😂 (Man, if that "out there" guess turns out to be right I think I deserve a prize.)
I could sit here and make guesses all afternoon, but I'll wait and hopefully Devon will come back with a definitive answer. It's a communication setting in the buyer's control; eBay should be able to tell us what communications that setting will turn on or off. It's crazy Devon has to work through a maze of people to find the one that knows about the setting. I didn't think it would be such a challenging question. Sorry, Devon. But I still hope you can find the answer.
