New Selling option - reduce price by $x every x day / week/ month
I just noticed and used this, perhaps it is old news but:
Selling an item, sellers now have the option to have ebay reduce item price by (amount set by seller) every so many (also set by seller) days / weeks / months. I think this is great innovation and really helps sales (for me).
I just used it, had an item listed for $50 and it got views but no sales when I saw the option.
Decided to lower price by $2 every week until sold.
Just sold yesterday for $46.
I realize in some cases items would go lower, and lower, and lower...
But I still think this to be one of the most useful selling tools that, once implemented on an item, require no further interaction. And, can also set a bottom (so not lower than ....)
22 comments
john_wade
·11 months agoThat is what pro live auctioneers do. They start high and then keep lowering their offer until someone finally bites. But if it's a $200 item and I start with $50 and go down it's not so wonderful. I once bought a box lot for $17.50 at a live auction and resold the contents for over one thousand. The auctioneer started the bidding at $50. Just one item in the box I sold for $500 on eBay. Fortunately, I was the only person in the very large room of over 300 box lots that knew what the items were and their value.
onefootflipper
·11 months agoYep, there was a period of time where I went to every arcade and amusement auction within 150 miles and those auctioneers would sometimes even raise the opening bids before dropping back down below. It wasn't weird with those guys to see something go, $100, then $200, $200 then $300, now $300, now $300 only to then have the auctioneer magically drop it down to $25 or even $1.
tobaccocardyahoo
·11 months agoIt is a feature which suits some merchandise and sellers and not others.
If the item is "price elastic" which means it is more likely to sell if you lower the price, it could increase your sales.
If the item is "price inelastic" and the demand is low and it requires you wait for an interested buyer, you will leave money on the table when that interested buyer finally arrives.
The key is knowing the marketing characteristics of your offerings, buyer behavior and how to make a decision.
Often, items which are allowed to be sold at too low a price sell to another more patient seller who makes the profit you should have made.
bsymom_94
·11 months agoI like the new option. And of course, it's not good for all items but certainly helps with others. I've sold a few items using it. The options are pretty flexible. And you decide what the final price is going to be.
onefootflipper
·11 months agoThis needs to have the option to be a percent, not just fixed amounts of money. An automated system reducing by fixed amounts is a disaster waiting to happen. You see reducing the price by a fixed amount makes each reduction larger as a percent than the last was.
gurlcat
·11 months agoThat's what I was thinking, also with percent you could do it in bulk, even the floor part.
askmct
·11 months agoWARNING see my post on
Ebay coding error glitch with "Auto Price Reduction" feature
valueaddedresource
·11 months ago@askmct the toggle under Pricing Options just controls whether or not the fields for Auto Price Reduction are shown on your listing form, but even if that toggle is switched on, there are still multiple fields that would have to be filled in for the Auto Price Reduction to actually happen.
See my screenshots above or on your thread.
chris_wholesale_outlet
·11 months agoIs there a way to bulk add this to existing listings? Like the manual "lower by" with a floor threshold, but automatic?
goddess_venus_boutique
·11 months agoThere are only about "10,000" confusing "New Selling Options" and frequent harassment to do this and do that. They need to just go back to running an honest, straight-forward operation and stop manipulating and harassing sellers! Personally, I am sick of it!!! We all know what it's about: more $$$ for them, slavery for us. I really am tired of it. I have enough work to do without trying to interpret their obscure offers and promises. I just don't have time or the desire. Any that I have tried results in a loss for me and gain for them. And I am tired of being penalized for not falling into their traps. That's my take on it. I just wanted to put it out here. Maybe their AI will listen and get smarter.
stuff4divas
·11 months ago@broto_64
i wonder if this has anything to do with posts saying their items sold for less than what was posted and that they did not change the price
Merc does something similar to this, i receive messages from them about every week with a de minimis price reduction on some items i've liked
thanx for the info!
broto_64
OP11 months agoI'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure it's a seller-initiated event (as in the seller has to opt-in). Granted it wouldn't entirely surprise me if ebay didn't auto opt-in sellers at times but I think in most cases (as has been in the past) the error is seller initiated and they just don't remember doing that.
valueaddedresource
·11 months ago@jonathanbrightlight when I first started seeing it being tested a few months ago, there were different versions that appeared to depend on which version of the listing form you use and/or what kind of account you might have.
Casual/occasional personal account sellers seemed to be given a more limited version which only allows for setting a dollar increment and a minimum price floor, with eBay automatically reducing it every 7 days.
Business sellers seemed to be given this version which allowed for a timeframe choice of every 3, 5, 7, 14 or 30 days in addition to the dollar amount increment and minimum price floor.
There may have been some changes in the format as it's slowly rolling out to more sellers, but that should at least give you an idea.
Also, you may need to turn it on under Pricing Options to have those fields show - though as you said, not all sellers have it under Pricing Options at this time.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months ago@valueaddedresource
That's amazing, thank you for the detailed overview!
tealt
·11 months agoAlthough I am a microseller with a personal account, when I go to revise or list I see the same full range of options that Valueadded has shown for a business account.
No idea why.
valueaddedresource
·11 months ago@tealt thanks for that info! It could be that back in July (when those screenshots were taken) eBay might have been testing showing different versions to different sellers and that may have now changed.
I was never able to confirm exactly why there were different versions, the very occasional seller/personal account vs consistently active business account were just the most obvious differences between the two sellers who sent me those screenshots at that time, so it seemed like one likely explanation was maybe they were showing a "simplified" version to less experienced sellers and a more advanced version to more experienced sellers.
jonathanbrightlight
·11 months agoIt definitely is a nice option to have, but it's not available to everyone. I'm curious how much customization you were able to give it, I haven't yet seen screenshots of the setup I don't think.
We do something similar but do it essentially manually. We run sale events that I add items to based on the number of days they've been listed, so if they're around 6 months old they get a 10% discount, then at 7 months that goes up, and so on. I have to just renew those sale events every month and put the items that fit the date range into them, which is a fair amount of work.
toomuchstuffagain35
·11 months agoIsn't this just a rehash of the "Easy Pricing" thing they had going a few years ago (just for newbies)?
I prefer to decide for myself if I'm willing to lower a price or not. (plus I don't put much trust in ebay's technical abilities to actually do anything 'automatically' and have it work properly).
meme6253
·11 months agoI agree I think it's just a rehash of Easy Pricing, & I also agree that I would rather do things My Own way. There is actually way to much discounting going on when profits are harder to make as it is, Some sellers tend to forget that in order to stay in business your business needs to turn a profit!
redlinear
·11 months ago@broto_64
I didn't know you could do that. I think it's very interesting that you can, and at some point? I might just try it.
However, for what I sell.... Just normal competition is already creating a Race to the Bottom.
For me, this would seem to just speed things up.
Then again, that may not be a bad thing..... Just can't decide....Yet.
As of right now, I continue to think just being seen is a bigger issue than lowest price.
broto_64
OP11 months agoI think of it as kind of a reverse auction (price starts high, then comes down, buy it when it reaches your price point - but it also creates that FOMO because what if someone else buys it first). I do agree it won't work for every item, may not even work for most but I find it really useful when the niche presents itself.
redlinear
·11 months agoIt sure seem interesting!
You do your price research and see 20 others at $105 to $200.
So, you list yours at $100.
Couple days later somebody lists one at $95
Then a week later three other sellers dropped their prices down to $65
Ends up being a race to the bottom.
This auto thing keeps you in the mix without having to check on items every few days.
SO, I do like that.
HOWEVER, If you check SOLD items? You'll see some that have sold for $65 and some that have sold for $200. And everywhere in between. With the only logical explanation being: Buyers never saw the cheaper ones.
I've been tinkering with both theories for a while now. I've decided that simply being seen, when others are not....trumps lowest price.
Of course you have to be seen in order to sell. That stands to reason. With eBay manipulating the search results though? "When" items are seen is sort of hit and miss.
BUT, if a buyer is looking over a trailer full of watermellons (priced per weight), they are only seeing the top layer. MOST buyers are not going to "dig". And if they do, they still aren't going to inspect every single one. I want my watermellon to be the closest one to EVERY buyer that's looking. THAT is more important than mine being the cheapest watermellon.
So, I'm now doing what I can to be seen as much as possible.
So far, that seems to be working better than price cutting.
Older inventory might be a candidate for BOTH though. And that's where the auto thing would really shine