Store newbie with questions about putting something on sale.

[inhawaii]

I was looking at some other people's stores and listings. I saw how you can put something on sale. 

Before getting my store, if i had something i was overstocked on, not selling well, or food items that were getting close to expiring, i would simply lower the price. Now that i have a store, i would rather put it on sale.  

My question is this.  If i know what i want to sell the item at on sale, lets say $10. Can i set up a 50% off sale for that item, then revise the item price to $20 so that the sale  price would now be $10?

[valueaddedresource]

@inhawaii  - you would want to adjust the price first. So in your example set the price to $20, then in Seller Hub go to Marketing > Promotions and do a Sale Event + Markdown at 50% off for that item.  Just go through the various parts of the process, it's pretty self explanatory but here are some screenshots if that helps. 

There can be a few hours of a delay in starting and ending these kinds of promotions as eBay has to reindex the listing with the new price.  For just one or two items it shouldn't be too bad, but just wanted to warn you so you don't think it's not working if that happens to you. 🙂

[inhawaii]

Thanks! I was just playing around with it.  If i put it on sale first then adjust the price, it's takes it off sale. 

It would be nice if you could set the sale up by FINAL PRICE instead of just by percentage off.  

[bigdeals.etc]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: aaaaaaah... If you end up doing it, welcome to the “WONDERFUL” world of the Promotions section. Glitches and all. Honestly I haven’t had as much a tough time as some others I’ve heard here thru the years. And yes, I’ve had sales take up to 12+ hours to implement after the stated start time. And also sometimes it takes that many hours to remove the sale price too. So be aware of that. Also, for markdown sales, you aren’t allowed to make one continuous. I believe the maximum duration is 45 days. Also watch out with the behavior when you revise the price of an item that has a current markdown. Depending on how you do it, it will impact the current price differently. Good luck and have fun with it.

[fern*wood]

Maybe that's how many sellers do their sales, but I just set up a certain percentage off my current price and go with that.  If someone has your item on their watch list, and see 50% off, it won't take them long to see what you did in order to make it appear to be a big mark down.

[valueaddedresource]

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@inhawaii wrote:

Thanks! I was just playing around with it.  If i put it on sale first then adjust the price, it's takes it off sale. 

It would be nice if you could set the sale up by FINAL PRICE instead of just by percentage off.  

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@inhawaii  - there is another way to do it as well which is strike through pricing.  So rather than a sale event, you basically set up an MSRP (or whatever your regular retail price would be) and then there is a line through that and it shows your final price as well as what percentage off that would be.

Strike through pricing requires using a spreadsheet and File Exchange though, so there is a bit of a learning curve.  I'm not sure if it is something that eBay has to enable as an option for you or not, but if you are interested in trying it that way, I can send you screenshots of how to set up the file and upload it to File Exchange too.

It ends up looking like this

There are pros and cons to doing strike through vs a markdown promotion, so you would want to do some research to see which method best fits your business.

[valueaddedresource]

I forgot to mention that in a Markdown promotion you can select dollar amount instead of percentage, but it is limited to whole dollar amounts and I believe the lowest you can do is $5 off.

If the preset options don't work for you and you wanted to be able to set your own exact amount off, the only way I know of to really do that would be the strike through pricing.

You might also want to check out some of the options under Order Discount instead of Sale Event + Markdown.  Order Discount gives you options for sales like  Buy x amount, get one free or get x amount off, which may work well if the products you sell are the kind of thing people are inclined to buy multiples of to get a better deal.

[myboardid]

In the Markdown Manager, the least amount you can discount is 5%, or you can lower it by a set dollar amount, but that has to be equivalent to at least 5%.  I find it a very handy tool. 

[upgradedendmills]

That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. 

[richard1rst]

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. 

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Glad to see I am not the only one who finds that highly unethical. I was bothered that all the other respondents where showing him how to perpetuate the fraud instead of cautioning him against it.

If you want to sell it for $10.00 then just offer it for $10.00. Don't monkey around with a PHONY sale.

[fern*wood]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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I was bothered that all the other respondents where showing him how to perpetuate the fraud instead of cautioning him against it.

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I didn't.

[inhawaii]

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. 

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Glad to see I am not the only one who finds that highly unethical. I was bothered that all the other respondents where showing him how to perpetuate the fraud instead of cautioning him against it.

If you want to sell it for $10.00 then just offer it for $10.00. Don't monkey around with a PHONY sale.

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How i do it now: Lower the price of a $20 item to $10.

How i would like to do it: Have a sale on that $20 item. Mark it down 50% to $10.

How is that a phoney sale?

[fern*wood]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. 

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Glad to see I am not the only one who finds that highly unethical. I was bothered that all the other respondents where showing him how to perpetuate the fraud instead of cautioning him against it.

If you want to sell it for $10.00 then just offer it for $10.00. Don't monkey around with a PHONY sale.

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How i do it now: Lower the price of a $20 item to $10.

How i would like to do it: Have a sale on that $20 item. Mark it down 50% to $10.

How is that a phoney sale?

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You said you wanted to REVISE the listing to $20. and then run a 50% off sale.  What was your original price?   If it was less than twenty, then doing that seems deceitful to me.  I know many in retail do this, but I just personally think it's shady to artificially create the illusion of a fifty percent discount.  Maybe it was just the way you worded it.

[richard1rst]

@fern*wood 

First an apology. You are correct that I should not have included you in the "all" of the respondents. Just hurried typing.

@inhawaii

asks "How is that a phoney sale?"

Ditto what fern*wood said

You said you wanted to REVISE the listing to $20. and then run a 50% off sale. What was your original price? If it was less than twenty, then doing that seems deceitful to me. I know many in retail do this, but I just personally think it's shady to artificially create the illusion of a fifty percent discount.

There is a B&M store in town that has a perpetual sale going on. Yet if you walk in and appear to be leaving without buying anything the salesman buttonholes you and (nudge nudge wink wink) the sale ends tomorrow so if you want to save - etc. But it us all a scam because it will still be on sale tomorrow. As a result I NEVER ever consider buying from that store. EVER. Brings us back to what @upgradedendmills said: "That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. "

If it is worth $10 then advertise it for $10 and be done with it. If you are discounting because it is getting old then be sure to include that information. Especially what you describe as "food items that were getting close to expiring".

[inhawaii]

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@inhawaii wrote:

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@richard1rst wrote:

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@upgradedendmills wrote:

That sort of business practice will absolutely ruin you. 

---

Glad to see I am not the only one who finds that highly unethical. I was bothered that all the other respondents where showing him how to perpetuate the fraud instead of cautioning him against it.

If you want to sell it for $10.00 then just offer it for $10.00. Don't monkey around with a PHONY sale.

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How i do it now: Lower the price of a $20 item to $10.

How i would like to do it: Have a sale on that $20 item. Mark it down 50% to $10.

How is that a phoney sale?

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You said you wanted to REVISE the listing to $20. and then run a 50% off sale.  What was your original price?   If it was less than twenty, then doing that seems deceitful to me.  I know many in retail do this, but I just personally think it's shady to artificially create the illusion of a fifty percent discount.

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Ok i see you guys point.  I guess i can see some people calling it "deceitful".  I don't.   I'm just looking at the bottom line.  Retail sotres do this all the time. 

I have a item that i want to sell and my rock bottom price which is $100.

What does it matter if the price is $400 with 75% off, $300 with 66.6% off, $200 with 50% off or just $100?

Is $100 a good price?  If so,  buy it.  If not, don't buy it. 

But yes, i can see you guys point.