NEW Markdown Manager Changes EXPLAINED...

[honestabe411]

Did you used to run 4, maybe 5 or 10 sales a month? Now, you can only run ONE SALE, per item, a month....how, ill explain.

You must have an item listed for 14 days prior to it going on sale...great, so on day 15 i can run a sale from day 15-17 and then 18-25, etc, etc, etc, so on? NO! If your sale ends after one day, or 2 or even a week, ANY ITEM that didn't sell can not be put on another sale for an entire 14 more days...aka your listing will end by that time, and by the time you relist/sell similar, you're going to have to wait 14 days again.

So in theory, you can ONLY run 1 sale per month for EACH item..

Keeping track of the 14 days, when you have hundreds or thousands of items is going to be nearly impossible...I relist/sell similar listings every single day...meaning every day another 5-10, 10-20 or however many items you relist a day, will be elidgable every 14 days...If you relist items every day or even once a week, then you will ALWAYS have items that aren't on sale. That means 'entire inventory' selection on markdown manager will NEVER actually be your full store..

Get ready for a big mess and a huge hassle for those who use markdown manager religiously...

I have came to realize that this might make ebay a lot more money, while hurting almost ALL SELLERS....Your items, half the time, won't be on sale...meaning a HUGE, HUGEEEE amount of people will most definitely start using Promoted Listings to make up for the 50% of the time they can't run a sale on THEIR OWN items. So instead of running a 30% off sale days 1-14, many will run promoted listings to make up for lack of exposure with their higher prices...But figuring out when and how with so many newly listed items a day, will be near impossible...you'd have to wait for your listings to relist in bulk so they all start and end on the same day. or relist 1/2 on 'x' day and they other half on day 'y'... no listings any day you feel at random if you use markdown manager, because it would be an extremly confusing mess.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, SHOULD BE A TON OF FUN 

[indyglassman]

eBay is ran by people who have no idea what selling on eBay is even like. Might as well be politicians.

[honestabe411]

Seems like it. But in the end they are in it to make money.

[irinahat]

I'm with you on this.

I have nearly 1,200 items in my store.

I can't keep up with when I re-list / sell similar. 

Markdown manager helped me sell a lot of things that have been in my store for a long while without selling.

No, I never raised prices before running a sale. It was just a great way to sell some of my harder to sell stuff that was more obscure, rare, one of a kind, hard to sell, etc. 

Many things that I sell are obscure and hard to price. MM helped me find the "sweet spot" for certain items. Had some folk art sit in my store for a year. Couldn't find anything like it. Priced high initially and then ran MM sales on it until someone bought it at 20% off. 

I'll really miss this feature. I have 1,200 items up and I just can't keep obsessing about when an item is eligible to go on sale.

[beckenviro]

I am very concerned, I just wrote a letter to eBay President. I have a store with 3300 items. I just bulked edited 3300 items and lowered my items 25%. I went from a $400 day yesterday to $45. They are crazy if we don't create revenue their is no money to purchase promotions. I am afraid this is going to destroy my vintage jewelry business.

[huntingfourtreasures]

Why can't we just list items GTC?

[frodobagginskennedy]

GTC still RELIST every 30 days

[apogee-perigee]

This is just plain insane. I think this is Ebay's worst idea yet..well. at least to them. My sales have dropped 80% as well as a friend of mine whom used to make $700-900 a day now makes $100 a day. Sad day for ebay

[goodwillgreaternebraska]

I suspect this change has more to do with integrating the eBay catalog. Having set prices probably helps them on the back end. 

This change is a huge pain for us with managing +30 day old inventory. Previously I'd use sales events to mark down inventory by an extra 20% every 30 days until sold. If eBay had some sort of repricer that could be set to drop X% according to inventory age it would solve the issue for us. Now, I guess I'll have to manually bulk edit prices at the start of each month...

[pjcdn2005]

@irinahat

I could be wrong as I haven't tried this first hand but it's my understanding that if you check off 'include skipped items when they qualify' that those listings will automatically go on sale once the time limit is up.

[frodobagginskennedy]

That is the way it  is supposed to work.

I set up something in promotions.  Had a few sales today.

Betsy is rocking.

[busyfam317]

I just had to call eBay to determine why none of my items showed my sale price..............so frustrating. Makes me want to quit selling on eBay. Not worth the hassle. 😞

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I don’t understand why eBay can put best offer on a seller’s item after a few days (supposedly helping it sell) yet sellers cannot put their own items on sale?

[ebbyisme]

A few points, issues and questions:

1. This may be eBay taking more control of visibility and search placement. This was one of the few tools small sellers had that could affect search placement and visibility thus improve sales. I had very good luck with markdown manager. I try to list odd items and things no one else is listing, and price is rarely the issue, being seen was..... visibility and search placement was very important. Markdown manager was a huge boost. During sales, transactions often improved by two, three or more times normal.

2. When did this offcially take affect? I have been reading many "small" sellers haven't been able to use the new version.... so I haven't even tried, but I have seen large sellers using the mark down manager almost immediately after listing an item..... one item, a ring (other examples easily found) was listed in the last hour (July 2nd) and is already on sale. At least 5 rings all listed within the last couple of hours and on the first page when sorted by newest listed BIN are on sale already. Like many features, does this one not apply to everyone? 

[go-bad-chicken]

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@honestabe411 wrote:

Did you used to run 4, maybe 5 or 10 sales a month? Now, you can only run ONE SALE, per item, a month....how, ill explain.

You must have an item listed for 14 days prior to it going on sale...great, so on day 15 i can run a sale from day 15-17 and then 18-25, etc, etc, etc, so on? NO! If your sale ends after one day, or 2 or even a week, ANY ITEM that didn't sell can not be put on another sale for an entire 14 more days...aka your listing will end by that time, and by the time you relist/sell similar, you're going to have to wait 14 days again.

So in theory, you can ONLY run 1 sale per month for EACH item..

Keeping track of the 14 days, when you have hundreds or thousands of items is going to be nearly impossible...I relist/sell similar listings every single day...meaning every day another 5-10, 10-20 or however many items you relist a day, will be elidgable every 14 days...If you relist items every day or even once a week, then you will ALWAYS have items that aren't on sale. That means 'entire inventory' selection on markdown manager will NEVER actually be your full store..

Get ready for a big mess and a huge hassle for those who use markdown manager religiously...

I have came to realize that this might make ebay a lot more money, while hurting almost ALL SELLERS....Your items, half the time, won't be on sale...meaning a HUGE, HUGEEEE amount of people will most definitely start using Promoted Listings to make up for the 50% of the time they can't run a sale on THEIR OWN items. So instead of running a 30% off sale days 1-14, many will run promoted listings to make up for lack of exposure with their higher prices...But figuring out when and how with so many newly listed items a day, will be near impossible...you'd have to wait for your listings to relist in bulk so they all start and end on the same day. or relist 1/2 on 'x' day and they other half on day 'y'... no listings any day you feel at random if you use markdown manager, because it would be an extremly confusing mess.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, SHOULD BE A TON OF FUN 

---

Keeping track of the 14 days, when you have hundreds or thousands of items is going to be nearly impossible...

This is why I IMO view Bob Cuben's statements made so far regarding this new unannounced change disingenuous. If the abuse by sellers in the past of the mark down tool was in fact an issue, then eBay would have should have created a new tool to go along with this new un announced update that accurately show sellers which listing is eligible to be marked down and those that are not.

What Bob and his team have done with regards to a sellers ability to create sales and promotions is just lazy with no disregard for the subtle nuances that exist within each specific category as well as the marketplace as a whole.

Your items, half the time, won't be on sale...meaning a HUGE, HUGEEEE amount of people will most definitely start using Promoted Listings to make up for the 50% of the time they can't run a sale on THEIR OWN items. So instead of running a 30% off sale days 1-14, many will run promoted listings to make up for lack of exposure with their higher prices...

IMO you have hit the mark; possibly more than you originaly intended or realized.

By cutting off the sellers ability to create new sales events for the period of 14 days, I am pretty sure (my opinion) that eBay is expecting (forcing/coercing) sellers to shift some of that intended percentage of a discounted sale towards the "Promoted Listings" program ($$$$$$$$). Tricky Bob. Tricky Devin. Tricky Dick........... see you in Vegas!