David is an eBay seller but, unlike many eBay sellers, his company sells their own branded goods. As a brand owner David is used to offering price promotions so when he read about Strike Through Pricing in the eSellerPro – Selling On eBay booklet he was keen to use it. However he found out it wasn’t available to him and now asks why won’t eBay allow him to use all of the tools available? Here’s what he had to say:
Does eBay have a ‘Business Prevention Department’?
In the modern retail landscape we are ever more reliant on promotions and offers to attract and inspire customers to purchase from us. I have been trying to work out the most effective way of doing this with my eBay shop and discover why the most obvious tool is not available to all sellers.
It used to be that you had to have your item at the higher comparison price for twenty eight days prior to making a reduction. This stipulation was changed a few years ago giving retailers greater freedom to promote their items.
For example we now have the ability to launch an item to the market with an introductory offer.
Markdown Manager
Anyone who has used the eBay Markdown Manager will have discovered that it still requires that the item has been listed and not changed for 28 days prior to the sale being launched. And assuming you can wait this long you only get a 2 week selling window! In my opinion this tool is completely out of touch with the needs of today’s retailer.
Promotion Manager
So then we move onto the new Promotion Manager Tool. Having looked at this there is much to be praised. It offers a great level of control over order building promotions, voucher style activity and cross sell. Ironically you can set up reductions on newly listed products using this tool but it does not show the price comparison.
Strike through Pricing
Then you come to my bugbear and the reason for submitting these thoughts. There is another tool made available to some retailers and not others. Code name STP (Strike through pricing) it allows the seller to show an RRP, a saving and the resultant retail price. This is prominently displayed next to the Buy It Now button and clearly illustrates the saving and entices purchasing. The tool that all retailers need to communicate their offers effectively.
According to the eSellerPro – Selling On eBay booklet “Price is one of the most important aspects of the buying decision. Make sure you use the eBay strike-through pricing to stand out, entice your users and show value. eBay sellers report a 30% uplift in sales since using strike-through pricing”.
So, if it can improve sales by up to 30%, why do eBay limit this tool to a selected number of sellers and not offer it to all growing business sellers to help them communicate their offers to the benefit of their customers, in turn growing their sales and eBay’s profits?
Business prevention, I think so.
11 Responses
Also you cannot offer more than 50% discount in a markdown sale yet the high street B&M store regularly offer 60-70% clearance sales.
By the way, why is Tamebay quiet this weekend? is it geographical exposure?, is it data theft issue? password fiasco? broken search? customers on strike? or just too hot and everyone out, about and off internet?? Must be the latter as TB clearly not Ebay
I can understand why it may be restricted for some sellers. An offer isn’t attractive and doesn’t increase sales if everyone else is using the same promotional tool.
At the moment it can increase sales by 30% for those that have access to it. If everyone had access too it, the tool wouldn’t increase sales by that much because it’s not unusual to see a deal as every other seller could use the tool.
From what i understand it’s only available to eBay sellers with an account manager, this means they can monitor the tool and prevent it from being abused. For example making it look like you’re offering a good deal but you’re actually making up an over-inflated RRP.
Tried to get this activated on our account about 6 months ago only to be told you have to have an account manager to get it enabled (we used to have one, annoyingly).
I was also told it was a beta test and would eventually be available to all. Still waiting! It’s a very unfair advantage to those that can use it.
This seems to be only open to outlets. Amazon also have removed the RRP feature to new listings.
Yet another tool for the big box retailers, not for the little guys.
Even more concerning is Promotion Manager offers do not come up on search’s. However it does for outlets.
We were assured in a open chat session that it would be enabled in search’s. (https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-News-Spring-2014/Fri-21st-eBay-Promotions-Manager/m-p/2832433#U2832433)
Promo manager is totally useless as it does not come up in a search. We were assured away back in march that it would be enabled.
Again it is search/sales manipulation.
according to link bellow RRP strike through is available to anchor stores only…
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Technical-Issues/How-do-I-enable-strikethrough-and-MAP-pricing-ie-141014834568/qaq-p/16779517
i think the 28 days prior thing is a consumer law issue. in re to the markdown manager.
i remember asda etc getting into trouble for advertising something at say £1 for 2 days and then saying it was on sale for 50p. eg they have to have a decent time at a higher price before you can shout about it being a “sale”