Do you have any success with sending offers?

[mn467462]

How often do you send out offers to potential buyers, if ever? And what is your success rate? How much of a discount do you give normally? The bare minimum, or a nice rounded number discount? 

I had to stop, because my success rate non-existent, and the one taker I had, surprise surprise, was a deadbeat non-payer. So I had to wait 4 days to close it, and now I have almost 100 eligible items to send offers for.

I wish automatic payment was a thing for this. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

A listing must be watched in order to be eligible for you to send offers.

Many seller's listings are not watched by only potential buyers, but also by competitors.

Depending on what you sell the number of potential buyers among your watchers will vary greatly.

I takes experience to know whether it is worth sending offers, and on which items you should send offers.

How much competition there is and how much interest there is makes a difference in what your offer should be, as does where you price. I price for retail buyers who are collectors and price at what I consider the high end of the pricing scale. My reductions are relatively small - typically 10%, the same amount as when I promote.

I have greater success with offers than promotions.

Since you have shared nothing about what you sell, it is impossible to make relevant recommendations/

[coolections]

Just my opinion but if you are wiling to send offers it is best to just lower the price so "everyone" gets a chance at that price.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

For my kind of items, I usually send at a minimum of 10% and usually 20% or more. I sometimes add the counter offer ability, depends on the item. I also sometimes send a coded coupon , again, depending on the item. 

I have no idea what the "average" success rate is, but I would say mine is low. Part of that I attribute to the type of items I sell---with my kind of stuff, I think a lot of my watchers have no interest in buying, they are just other sellers researching items they want to list. 

I have only recently begun, so far without success, to add a note with certain items, advising the buyer that I will provide a combined shipping discount (and sometimes an item price discount) if they want similar items from me. I'll continue trying this where it makes sense.

Because it takes little time and effort, I put this in the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" category. I also approach it with very low expectations, so that any sale I make I greet as a welcome surprise, and any non-sale doesn't bother me. I think that attitude helps LOL

[yourantiqueguy]

I do send offers on some items.  Usually when I have a few watchers on an item, or when I get a new watcher on something that has been listed for a few months.  I haven't tracked exact numbers, but I doubt I get more than 1 sale out of every 20 offers.  I'm guessing that a large percentage of watchers are other sellers looking to see what things are selling for.  Buyers buy, watchers watch.  It seems they rarely cross over.  

[reallynicestamps]

In my opinion, a Viewer is someone who has looked at and rejected your offering.

A Watcher is a Viewer who wants to compare your offering to others  (including their own).

Neither are likely Buyers.

I have had no success with Offers.

Whether or not Promoted Listings work is still up in the air. I promote about a third of my listings* but sales of PL items are lower than unpromoted items.

PL does seem to have the effect of bringing eyes to my listings, so PL items do get more Views than the others.

But it seems to be the others that sell.

A Canadian seller has been experimenting with PL vs discounts. Annoyingly, he finds the PL works better, at a lower cost, than customer discounts.
https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/experiment-with-almost-give-away-listing-pondering-probl...
#6 of 13

There have not been any recent updates on his experiment.

*Fixed Price and in a specific category with niche appeal and at 2%.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Oh, I should add....I haven't really kept track of this, but I think most of my accepted offers are offers I send soon after I see that I have a watcher (or new watcher). I think this might help, because the watcher's interest is relatively new, whereas sending an offer months later, the watcher's interest might have declined over time. "Strike while the iron is hot" as they say. Whoever they are.

[selsa84]

About 1 in 20 is a sale if that.  Last year and the beginning of this year it was about 1 in 5. 

[reallynicestamps]

What does work for me is Best Offer.

I am not annoyed by lowball offers because BO allows the seller to set acceptable and not acceptable parameters.

I notice that some BO winners have made two or three unaccepted Offers before hitting the sweet spot at which point they pay and I am notified.

It's sort of like an auction.

BO also allows the seller to consider the buyer before accepting the offer,  but only if the bid is between the acceptable and not acceptable prices.

[gloryglorygifts]

I use that tool all the time and do generate sales from it but I don't send offers for everything that is watched. Some items are too heavy to ship so I can't give a break in price, some are new listings, but for the items that I can I do. I actually have regular customers that know that they can get a discount and follow items. I don't mind because I value their business. I'll give a discount of 5-10%, depending on the item.  I usually get 2-3 sales from 20 offers. I guess it depends on what you sell how your return will be. 

[brightlightbookseller]

We send offers regularly, nearly every day, and get sales from those most days. We also get counteroffers sometimes on those, some of which are reasonable and some that aren’t.

[ms.rodriguez*]

I would say that about 30% of buyers accept my offers.  I sell mainly lower priced diecast cars so I can knock 1-5 dollars off.  Sometmes, it's a round number and sometimes its a weird number like 9.51.    The problem now is that people watch hoping to get a best offer. I do the same thing as a buyer if I see multiples of the same item.  You have nothing to lose with 100 items eligible for best offers.

As for lowering the price, the problem is that some still will watch want the item cheaper.   I also get lots of people that will make a best offer so you need to start your ad a bit more to account for sending best offers and accepting best offers.

Most of my sales this year are a result of accepting a best offer or sending a best offer.  

[brightlightbookseller]

I forgot to mention, I’ve moved to simply sending 10% off offers on everything but our most expensive items (which usually then get 5% off offers), and it’s getting us about the same sell through rate as when I was judging each offer amount manually. I spend way less time sending offers too!

[redlinear]

Yes.  Every weekend. 
Might should send offers every day?  But, right now just on weekends.
Usually have at least 10% of the offers I send get accepted. 

I will search items and stack up several that I'm interested in, in my watch list.
I'll then go to my watch list and compare those.  Choose what I want and buy it.
If not in a hurry, I'll wait a few days and see if an offer comes through. Then I'll buy that one.

I also save items in my watch list that purchase regularly.  That way I can go back to the same seller and buy the items again.
So, for those of you that hate watchers?   I use that function to buy.  Almost every purchase.

[chapeau-noir]

I have good success with sending offers - I do it on items that I really want to move and send 20% at least (because I really want to move them). It's in place of me having a mark-down sale, which I now do at season end instead of as I roll along. I've had buyers thank me for sending them an offer.

ETA: And hey, if no one takes it up, no big deal as it doesn't take long to send them out. Non-payers are a problem but I've had most people be great about paying.