eBay

go-bad-chicken · ‎07-03-2018

So I have been doing some thinking regarding eBay's new Markdown/Sales Event policy restrictions.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/ebay-stores.html

New markdown sale event requirement

Starting June 25, 2018, you must list your item for 14 calendar days at the same price before you can create a markdown sale event with Promotions Manager.

We recommend that you list your item at a competitive price before you create a markdown sale event. For many products, pricing recommendations are provided as you list and under the Growth tab in Seller Hub.

One possible work around that I have contemplated is for sellers to create "Codeless Coupons" in lieu of offering a sale.

For example, create a codeless coupon that offers a 20% discount and that applies to all of the seller's inventory. In this example I will call my codeless coupon "eBaysucks20"

So, I then bulk edit all of my listings and at the end of every item's tittle I add "20% off ebaysucks20"

Or something along these lines.

What do you think? Is this a reasonable work around?

This post is meant to spur a discussion regarding the various possible avenues and or alternatives that sellers are contemplating in an attempt to regain the ground that they will loosing due to eBay's new Markdown/Sale Event policy restrictions.

As far as I am concerned this is just a spit balling session and at this point and time NO IDEA IS TOO FAR OUT THERE FOR CONSIDERATION.

3...2..1.GO!.......................................

albionbooks · ‎07-03-2018

Just making sure I’m on the same page — the idea is to bulk edit just the item titles or the product prices as well to manually discount them? If just the titles are being changed, will the buyer have to be refunded the difference after they purchase in order to get the discount?

At least one issue with this is many sellers have no space in their titles to make mention of this without sacrificing keywords that better enable buyers to find their items.

nhfd4976 · ‎07-03-2018

You can do an order discount. Go to Manage promotions do a order discount and you can pick and choose the categories you want to do this to. It will show the discount when the customer checks out. It is like a coupon.

go-bad-chicken · ‎07-03-2018

@albionbooks wrote:
Just making sure I’m on the same page — the idea is to bulk edit just the item titles or the product prices as well to manually discount them? If just the titles are being changed, will the buyer have to be refunded the difference after they purchase in order to get the discount?

At least one issue with this is many sellers have no space in their titles to make mention of this without sacrificing keywords that better enable buyers to find their items.

The idea would be to simulate a sale as best as you can within the confines created by the new restrictions. So I was thinking that I could possibly use the codeless coupon feature available to every seller within the Promotions Tab in lieu of a sale.

But upon further investigation my original idea would not work. I was thinking that I could create a coupon code that buyers could then apply at checkout. But that is not the case. And there would be the very real limitation that you spoke of in the fact that sellers would be giving up valuable key word space to signal or advertise their sale. Back to the drawing board.

shop_giftworthy · ‎07-03-2018

eBay is acting in bad faith. Period.

We shouldn't have to come up with a "workaround" of any kind. Sellers spend more hours figuring out how to take care of their customers IN SPITE OF eBay's ridiculous policies, they should have to issue us a paycheck for those hours every month.

Why not just email the top brass at Ebay and complain? Send a professional email with your concerns about staying competitive in the market when you have to HALF A MONTH without marking down prices. We don't just compete on eBay, we compete with every other website that sells the same or same type of product.

I sell knitting supplies, so people compare my prices to JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, Michael's and any other yarn store out there when they Google the product. And because my overhead is much lower, I can usually save them on shipping (or sales tax, until the new law goes into effect). And guess what? Those stores have sales EVERY WEEK. Not every 14 days. Not every HALF A MONTH.

Google the top executives at eBay, and use their first name dot last name at eBay dot com. Send them an email and let them know what your opinion is on this issue. If they get enough flack, they may just roll it back. Especially since what they're doing is probably not legal. We act in good faith when we sign up and agree to pay a store subscription - it gives us some rights to run our businesses and take care of our customers as we see fit. They're acting in bad faith by denying us the opportunity to give the customer a better price. I could see a 48 hour type of rule, but HALF A MONTH???

In the meantime, you can probably end all your listings, relist them as a "sell similar" and put them back on sale. However, you lose all the folks that have them in their watched items.

emerald40 · ‎07-03-2018

Better yet respect ebay's pollicy and if you cannot comply with it, go elsewhere.

All this cr*p by sellers and their work arounds is why the rest of us are suffering by all these changes.

Yes a work around so you can do something that has been pointed out countless times by so many of us that is illegal and why ebay stopped it.

Now what change will they implement to make it even more difficlut for seller who play by the rules.

auntieanela · ‎07-15-2018

Creating a sale isn't "illegal" as you put it. And we do need to find a way to work around the 14 day fiasco eBay implemented. If there are 2 holidays in a month that fall too closely together, you now have to choose which one you want to run the sale for because you can't have one for each of them. That's just plain stupid.

auntieanela · ‎07-15-2018

That's the workaround I started using immediately upon the implementation of the 14-day rule. I couldn't create a 4th of July sale until July 2nd because of when my Father's Day sale ended.

Create a Facebook Business page, if you don't already have one, and link the "Shop Now" button to your eBay store. You can create codeless coupons (and they do overlap one another - I've done it - I have 2 running right now) and post the link on your Facebook page. In fact, (playing by the RULES - verified by customer service) you can mention your Facebook page in your listings and on your store page as long as it doesn't send buyers somewhere other than eBay. So, as long as your "shop now" directs to eBay, you're good.

I haven't gone so far as to put my FB biz page on my listings, but the link is on my business cards and I include one with every order. I tell people to follow me for new product announcements, sales, and coupons. Several of my customers have liked and followed me and ordered multiple times whenever I announce a discount.

the_fancy_fox · ‎07-15-2018

@emerald40 wrote:
Better yet respect ebay's pollicy and if you cannot comply with it, go elsewhere.

All this cr*p by sellers and their work arounds is why the rest of us are suffering by all these changes.

Yes a work around so you can do something that has been pointed out countless times by so many of us that is illegal and why ebay stopped it.

Now what change will they implement to make it even more difficlut for seller who play by the rules.

When eBay decides to level the playing field with Chinese sellers and the big box sellers then I might care about the fairness of it all, till then? Not so much.

The problem is those of us that have played by the rules for decades are getting hammered. We have reported tons of listings, buyers and sellers only to have those reports go into the circular virtual file.

Duplicate listings with no penalties, gaming the multi variation with a single cheap item, wrong item location in listing, counterfeit items, outright fake items, canceling an order with problem with buyers address when it’s really an out of stock issue......

The Race is over
The Rats won.

dhbookds · ‎07-16-2018

t when you have to HALF A MONTH without marking down prices.

It's my understanding that, after the initial 14 days, with GTC listings, the items can be put on sale any time..... so why not change to GTC?

emerald40 · ‎07-16-2018

@the_fancy_fox wrote:
@emerald40 wrote:
Better yet respect ebay's pollicy and if you cannot comply with it, go elsewhere.

All this cr*p by sellers and their work arounds is why the rest of us are suffering by all these changes.

Yes a work around so you can do something that has been pointed out countless times by so many of us that is illegal and why ebay stopped it.

Now what change will they implement to make it even more difficlut for seller who play by the rules.
When eBay decides to level the playing field with Chinese sellers and the big box sellers then I might care about the fairness of it all, till then? Not so much.

The problem is those of us that have played by the rules for decades are getting hammered. We have reported tons of listings, buyers and sellers only to have those reports go into the circular virtual file.

Duplicate listings with no penalties, gaming the multi variation with a single cheap item, wrong item location in listing, counterfeit items, outright fake items, canceling an order with problem with buyers address when it’s really an out of stock issue......

____________________________________________________________

What the Chinese do does not affect me.

It is the cr*p that sellers are doing here that is affecting the rrest of us.

So you justify your workarounds, and ebay will clamp down even harder on the rest of us.

frodobagginskennedy · ‎07-16-2018

I did the order discount the forst 14 days. The problem I had was that there was NO BANNER anywhere letting people know this. SO when they went to pay is when they realized HEY i am getting 20% off when they were going to pay full price.

This quest stands on the edge of a blade...stray but a little and you shall fail to the ruin of us all.
"The Lady Galadriel"

emerald40 · ‎07-16-2018

a

@auntieanela wrote:
Creating a sale isn't "illegal" as you put it. And we do need to find a way to work around the 14 day fiasco eBay implemented. If there are 2 holidays in a month that fall too closely together, you now have to choose which one you want to run the sale for because you can't have one for each of them. That's just plain stupid.

What is stupid is that even have countless explanations some are just not getting the difference between a sale and the kind of sale ebay is trtyng to prevent.

dcintennessee · ‎08-17-2018

@go-bad-chicken- I found this thread while looking to see if I can accomplish what I want do, while playing WITHIN the new rules. Lots of rules here that I don't agree with, but I try to abide by them...since we small-time USA sellers have no choice.

I simply want to offer a discount for those buying multiples within certain categories, such as dinnerware. I think I can use a codeless coupon to accomplish this, even with new listings, and I don't think it violates any eBay rules. It certainly doesn't violate what I think is the spirit of the 14-day rule. At this point, I have no idea where or whether buyers will see notification of this multi-purchase discount. I launched this discount on existing magazine listings (not new listings) about an hour ago, and it either hasn't indexed, or it appears only in the cart. If someone would be so kind as to check a couple of my magazine listings, I'd be grateful. If a shopper doesn't know the discount is available, there's NO incentive to consider buying more. A "surprise" in the shopping cart is useless for increasing sales. I probably need to add the discount information to the listing descriptions...

dhbookds · ‎08-17-2018

I put 3 magazines in the cart, all had about 13 days to go, so not newly listed. Saw no promo anywhere including the cart......

On the coupons, I believe they do only show in the cart.......and I believe I've heard/read they are going to do away with this one and introduce a "better" one...... because of lack of use...... Well, yes......if the only time a buyer finds out about the promo is in the cart, probably not a great incentive to use it...........