Automatically Send Offers - does it take markdown sales into account?

[wastingtime101]

Hoping somebody that uses "automatically send offers" can definitively answer this question. When a seller enables that setting on seller initiated offers, what happens if the seller puts the item on sale next week?

A - Will eBay auto-send offers during the sale that further discount the already marked down price?

B - Will eBay auto-send offers during the sale based on the non-sale price?

C - Will eBay wait until the sale ends before auto-sending offers?

I have a feeling the answer is scenario A, but would appreciate confirmation from those who use the feature before I answer the seller asking me about it.

I should add, I did read this on the policy page, but do not know if a sale event counts as changing the BIN price, or if only non-temporary changes count. I think it applies to sale events but do not want to make an incorrect assumption.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-buy-now/adding-best-offer-listing?id=4144

If you change your item's Buy It Now price, we will update your automatic offer amount. The discount that was set at the time of first sending the offer will be applied to the new Buy It Now price. If you adjust your Buy It Now price so that it's lower than your current automatic offer amount, we'll stop sending offers automatically.

[robbie31415]

Automatic offers continue even while markdown sale is active.

If you are using percentage if will be off the current markdown price.

So if it was $100 on markdown for 50% so current price is $50 and you have automatic offers of 5% then your offer will be $47.50.

[wastingtime101]

That's what I thought, but as I said - did not want to make an incorrect assumption. eBay policy page wording is not always clear. Thanks for the assist.

[robbie31415]

You have marked it correct too soon.

I forgot there are multiple ways to send offers.

What I said is true for automatic offers part of the marketing tab / buyer groups.

However the old way I believe snapshots the price at creation and Hardcodes that value.

So if you create it while on markdown 5% of $50. 47.50 when markdown ends and price goes up to $100 the automatic offers stay static value at $47.50.

I hope I didn't cost you any issues. I haven't used the old automatic offers due to the hassle of removing them since there is no bulk removal.

[wastingtime101]

Ah, ok. This is about regular old Seller Initiated Offers (SIO) that do not require a store subscription. A bit different from the "advanced offer automation for Store subscribers". I have not replied to the seller yet so issues there.

Adding a screenshot of the offer pop-up showing the specific setting I'm asking about.

[robbie31415]

I believe the way the % works in that one is it's simply aiding you on getting an offer value.

So if you changed it to 'offer amount' and put $47.50 is the same as putting 5% for a $50 dollar item.

I believe eBay completely removes the % when it's saved and the offer value is hardcoded. So it will remain that value no matter what the price changes in the future.

The last time I used it I remember it being quite annoying when I did price increases since the price was hardcoded I had to go to each listing and delete the automatic rule or my price increases would basically be meaningless.

That's why I like the new one since it's like a script that runs and it appears to use the recorded % based on current price everytime so much more dynamic.

[wastingtime101]

When you enter a percent off, then below that you check "automatically send offers to buyers".

If your item is $100 eBay will auto-send offers for 10% off (offer = $90).

The question is, if you run a markdown sale for 10% off a week later making the price temporarily $90 to all, will SIO auto-send at 10% off of $90 (offer = $81)?

I believe the answer is yes, but I do not want to assume wrongly.

[robbie31415]

If you set it when the price is at $100 for 10% off and use automatic offer I believe it records the offer value at $90.

I do not believe it records the %. I believe the % is only used to help create a static offer amount.

But you could test by setting it prior to markdown and then review your automatic offer settings.

I believe it will report that automatic offers are active for $90 regardless of your price.

[wastingtime101]

Thanks. I'll give it a couple days and maybe somebody else can confirm definitively. The seller that asked me is kinda new and I don't want to put them through any testing.

[brightlightbookseller]

I can attest that at the time we were letting that happen, it did not adjust the offers.  Which resulted in annoyed customers as they received offers over our listed price.

[wastingtime101]

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@brightlightbookseller wrote:

I can attest that at the time we were letting that happen, it did not adjust the offers.  Which resulted in annoyed customers as they received offers over our listed price.

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Let me know if I have this right @brightlightbookseller :

- You list an item for $50

- You send a SIO for 10% off ($45) and check "automatically send offers"

- Two weeks later you put the item on sale 15% off ($42.50)

- During the sale, buyers receive auto-offers for 10% off orig price $50 ($45) not 10% off sale price $42.50 ($38.25)

[brightlightbookseller]

That's what we experienced, yes.  I don't know if anything has changed because we've been very careful not to let any offers send automatically for over a year now (maybe even 2-3 years) because of that, but we got exactly that complaint from buyers who received offers that were, say in your scenario, $45 despite the current item price being at $42.50.

[wastingtime101]

Understood, thanks. Since both you and Robbie are saying this, it's probably the correct answer, but I'll give this a bit more time in case someone using the feature today has anything different to add. Thanks for the info.

[wastingtime101]

Was able to get some testing done on this @brightlightbookseller @robbie31415 and can confirm how it's working today.

Auto-send offers records a fixed offer amount even when that amount is determined by a percent off. It doesn't matter if the item gets marked down on a sale event later - if the original offer was for $45 then all auto-send offers will be for $45 regardless of the temporary sale price.

[robbie31415]

Yeah that's why I stopped using it.

Plus they are a pain to turn off. They need to add bulk edit removal.

The only one that stays a % is the one i mentioned before part of buyer groups.

The % is only to help you determine an offer amount easier but the value is static once saved.

Thanks for testing it to see it still works the same.