Home › Forums › Buying and Selling › Selling on eBay › Promotions: Markdown sale not working
- This topic has 69 replies, 19 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 2 months ago by
Ryanne.
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06/28/2018 at 11:44 am #43835
anyone else having this issue? i put a chunk of my store on sale yesterday, but it only pulled in 10 items. tried again today, it pulled in 0. ebay seriously wtf with your backend!
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06/28/2018 at 12:28 pm #43841
at what point should i hang up after 40+ minutes on hold waiting for anchor support to ask about this? don’t think i’ve ever waited longer than 40 minutes. but maybe i’ll set a record today.
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06/28/2018 at 12:34 pm #43843
Hi Ryan,
The reason markdown manager is probably not working for you is because the new “Summer Seller Update” went into effect yesterday regarding no sales allowed until a listing has been at the same price for 14 days… everyone is having this issue. I am one of those “permasale” people – always putting my store on sale, and nothing will work – even my good til canceled listings that have been at a constant price for longer than 14 days! I think the counter just started! -
06/28/2018 at 12:39 pm #43845
Here’s the link:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/2018-Summer-Seller-Update/ba-p/28511766Starting June 25, 2018, you must list your item for 14 calendar days at the same price before you can create a markdown sale event.
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06/28/2018 at 12:45 pm #43847
Does “same price for 14 days” mean I have to wait 14 days after a sale ends before I can put it on sale again?
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06/28/2018 at 12:51 pm #43848
yeah that might be part of the issue, but most of my store has not been relisted in the last 14 days. so that’s weird.
i waited on hold for 48 minutes and the rep suggested i try a different way of making the sale, to choose “create rules by category” instead of the other option which i usually choose. so we’ll see what happens.
i also asked about the long wait times and they said they were currently understaffed and waiting for 22 new people to finish getting trained to come on board for customer support. so that’s good-ish.
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06/28/2018 at 12:51 pm #43849
I think so…
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06/28/2018 at 12:54 pm #43851
Ryanne, let us know if your sale “a different way” ends up working… I also noticed I was not able to “bulk edit” my items by lowering everything by .01 last night – and none of my view counters are working either – so everything seems super buggy right now.
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06/28/2018 at 1:40 pm #43856
Ryanne I just had the same thing happen.
ebaymom do you know if it is due to an item having to be same price for 14 days is there a way to see which items those are? It’s going to be impossible to remember what is what and annoying to go through creating a sale and 2/3 of it doesn’t take.
I thought an item just couldn’t go on sale until it had been listed at least 14 days. I guess I’d better go reread the rules.
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06/28/2018 at 1:50 pm #43860
Hi Nancy,
The rules are vague – I think it means that an item has to be at the “Same Price” for 14 days – meaning no prior sales and no price reductions or increases in the prior 14 days. Yes, I agree hard to remember and keep track. I think eBay has “caught on” to sellers who price higher just to discount and who run constant sales. (Because that definitely works well for me!) The urgency felt from the “Sale Ending in 3 hours” etc. always generated sales at the end as well as the beginning of the sale. I’m not sure how I am going to approach my sales strategy going forward – but I need to come up with a game plan. In the meantime, I put best offer on everything and interested to see how this is going to play out for everyone here who uses frequent sales. I don’t like the change, but … I guess just keep listing, right?-
06/28/2018 at 2:27 pm #43868
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06/28/2018 at 2:06 pm #43862
Oh that’s annoying. I had no idea about this new “same price for 14 days” rule. I’m normally like the Kohl’s of hat sellers…price them high and put them on 30% off sale immediately to generate traffic. Guess I can’t do that now. Grrrrr.
Does it seem like we’re being pushed towards promoted listings in lieu of sales? Ebay gets 20% more if you promote it at 20%, but they actually get less in FVF if you put it on sale for 20% off.
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06/28/2018 at 2:08 pm #43864
ah, that could be the answer. i had stuff on sale last weekend, so if it’s true that any price change will trigger the “no sale” clause, then yeah nothing in my store will be on sale. very interesting.
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06/28/2018 at 2:47 pm #43877
Same issue here. I am also a serial sale seller – I usually run a new sale every 2 days to create a sense of urgency to buy. This has been a successful strategy – there always seems to be a surge of sales in the final 10-12 hours or so.
So as Ryanne said above, now nothing in my store is on sale.
As a workaround, I created an “Order Discount” promotion (as opposed to “Sale Event and Markdown”. Let’s see how that works out.
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06/28/2018 at 3:22 pm #43886
can you explain “order discount” and how you do it? just curious
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06/28/2018 at 3:01 pm #43880
Hi.This started on the 26th. Have same prob,only 10 items sale 1st try 15 items sale 2nd try. Out of 2500 GTC neither choice works on sale or create new rules etc. Be tween this and photo glitch I,m dead in the water. Funny how all the pay them items are working fine. Don’t forget to give em free shipping returns regardless.
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06/28/2018 at 3:06 pm #43881
In the past I have tried every other type of promotion.. buy 1 get 1 … buy 1 take %20% off … take $10 off… etc. etc. codeless coupons and free shipping in certain categories.. and I have never even gotten one sale from these other promotions so I no longer use them – the time just has never payed off. The only effective marketing tools for me have been running constant sales via “Sale Event and Markdown” (even a low % amount helps) and promoted listings. Ebay is hoping to increase revenue by this change (isn’t it always about the money?) so I would bet they are aiming to increase promoted listings… or have us lower our listing prices from the get go to drive more sales and attract more customers. In any event the “SALE” is going to take on a new meaning now for the customer – it will be a lot rarer and infrequent. We will need to plan it out – perhaps rotating through different categories every day so we can cycle through each one every 14 days to still utilize the “sales psychology” marketing effect that creates the urgency to buy.
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06/28/2018 at 3:30 pm #43890
good lord, ebay, why why.
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06/28/2018 at 3:40 pm #43894
Sorry, editing this post to reply that the “Order Discount” IS working – you have to add the item to the cart and then the 5% off order is automatically applied. The promotion is hard to see – sometimes the banner is displayed on the storefront and sometimes it isn’t. These alternate promotions will only work if the user has clicked into your store and added the item to their cart to checkout. If someone goes to “Buy It Now” from a generic eBay search they may not know about the order discount and I don’t believe will receive any discount. I really dislike this alternative discount option because no “strikethrough” price appears – and the “hurry only 30 minutes left” call to action doesn’t apply – just a small banner inside your store that most people don’t see.
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06/28/2018 at 3:44 pm #43896
If you click on the link under the “Offer Name”, it brings you to your store. I have a banner there and all the items included in the offer are showing up. Now, the trick is to get people into the store.
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06/28/2018 at 3:53 pm #43897
Yes, many people on Ebay for Business live update comments were complaining bigtime about this change yesterday. I think most were under the impression that it applied to brand new and sell similar new listings only, not older ones with revisions or ones previously on sale.
Looks like they took the barrage of FB comments down. LOL. Supposedly reps were going to come in to comments and respond since the speaker was using prepared questions, but I think they must have been surprised by the reactions and no one did.
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06/28/2018 at 4:07 pm #43899
Yeah, I thought they were trying to punish the sellers who try to fake out the eBay algorithm by Sell Similar every 30 days, and then put items on sale immediately.
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06/28/2018 at 4:11 pm #43900
Maybe time For J&R to start the new SCAVENGER BAY Website. Sellers pay a small flat rate and each run it the way they want
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06/28/2018 at 4:14 pm #43903
we would only accept old soap and bags of green coffee beans as payment…
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06/28/2018 at 4:16 pm #43905
too bad I only have old soapy coffee beans
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06/28/2018 at 4:49 pm #43910
we’ll take those too
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06/28/2018 at 6:05 pm #43912
New day, new glitch or permanent change? I set up a sale today and never gave it another thought until I saw the comments here. I just checked mine and sure enough, only 2 items were marked down which makes NO sense because I have never put this store category on sale. I also vote for Scavenger Bay!!
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06/28/2018 at 7:04 pm #43914
We’ve sold five things for $230.95 so far today. All at full price. So people are still buying regardless of all the eBay glitches.
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07/02/2018 at 11:43 am #44193
Over the weekend, I watched a YouTube video from a seller who is supposedly an “eBay Influencer”. He said he had a conference call with eBay about the recent glitches and changes. While discussing the new 14-day markdown issue, he mentioned in passing that this had some legal implications.
This makes me wonder if the new policy relates to truth in advertising laws. I think retail stores are prohibited from offering perma-sales, so maybe eBay is now being held to the same standard. -
07/02/2018 at 12:42 pm #44204
Interesting… There is a rabbit hole to go down…
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07/02/2018 at 12:54 pm #44206
Looked into this a bit. That may be it…
Code of Federal Regulations:
§233.1 Former price comparisons.
(a) One of the most commonly used forms of bargain advertising is to offer a reduction from the advertiser’s own former price for an article. If the former price is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time, it provides a legitimate basis for the advertising of a price comparison. Where the former price is genuine, the bargain being advertised is a true one. If, on the other hand, the former price being advertised is not bona fide but fictitious—for example, where an artificial, inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction—the “bargain” being advertised is a false one; the purchaser is not receiving the unusual value he expects. In such a case, the “reduced” price is, in reality, probably just the seller’s regular price.(b) A former price is not necessarily fictitious merely because no sales at the advertised price were made. The advertiser should be especially careful, however, in such a case, that the price is one at which the product was openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time, in the recent, regular course of his business, honestly and in good faith—and, of course, not for the purpose of establishing a fictitious higher price on which a deceptive comparison might be based. And the advertiser should scrupulously avoid any implication that a former price is a selling, not an asking price (for example, by use of such language as, “Formerly sold at $___”), unless substantial sales at that price were actually made.
(c) The following is an example of a price comparison based on a fictitious former price. John Doe is a retailer of Brand X fountain pens, which cost him $5 each. His usual markup is 50 percent over cost; that is, his regular retail price is $7.50. In order subsequently to offer an unusual “bargain”, Doe begins offering Brand X at $10 per pen. He realizes that he will be able to sell no, or very few, pens at this inflated price. But he doesn’t care, for he maintains that price for only a few days. Then he “cuts” the price to its usual level—$7.50—and advertises: “Terrific Bargain: X Pens, Were $10, Now Only $7.50!” This is obviously a false claim. The advertised “bargain” is not genuine.
(d) Other illustrations of fictitious price comparisons could be given. An advertiser might use a price at which he never offered the article at all; he might feature a price which was not used in the regular course of business, or which was not used in the recent past but at some remote period in the past, without making disclosure of that fact; he might use a price that was not openly offered to the public, or that was not maintained for a reasonable length of time, but was immediately reduced.
(e) If the former price is set forth in the advertisement, whether accompanied or not by descriptive terminology such as “Regularly,” “Usually,” “Formerly,” etc., the advertiser should make certain that the former price is not a fictitious one. If the former price, or the amount or percentage of reduction, is not stated in the advertisement, as when the ad merely states, “Sale,” the advertiser must take care that the amount of reduction is not so insignificant as to be meaningless. It should be sufficiently large that the consumer, if he knew what it was, would believe that a genuine bargain or saving was being offered. An advertiser who claims that an item has been “Reduced to $9.99,” when the former price was $10, is misleading the consumer, who will understand the claim to mean that a much greater, and not merely nominal, reduction was being offered.
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07/02/2018 at 1:26 pm #44210
Does this apply to used goods though? If I list a used Nike Hoodie that was $70 originally and I create the listing as $70 and immediately put it on sale for $35 @ 50% off, I am in alignment with that law IMO.
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07/02/2018 at 2:23 pm #44225
Retro: I think that might be hard to prove. I think they would either compare your prices to your past prices, or at least to reasonable prices for used clothing.
I ain’t no lawyer, but I would think a judge or jury would not side with your argument. If that argument was true for your used items, then it would be true for used cars. And I don’t think that a used car that was listed for it’s original price but now “reduced” to 50% would hold water.
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07/02/2018 at 1:56 pm #44218
I doubt Fed law has anything to do with this. First of all, a Fed law such as what you describe would be too hard to monitor and enforce and no one is looking to add Govt employees unless someone can profit from it.
Just for fun I have to wonder if anyone at Ebay as ever shopped at Kohl’s dept store ? I actually refer to my pricing method on my ebay store as the “Kohl’s pricing method”
Here is a brief description of Kohl’s pricing.
Week one – everything at full price.
Week two – everything in the store on sale 5% – 40%. On occasions they run “Kohl’s” cash promotion too which is $10 in cash (really coupons) for every $50 you spend. But can’t use the “Kohl’s cash until next week. Which is when everything will be back at full price.
Week three – see week one
Week four – see week two
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07/02/2018 at 2:30 pm #44228
Gompers: Kohl’s pricing would match up with the CFR I cited.
As to enforcement..eBay is a big target. Yes, technically it is US who are doing the sales, but if there is government pressure, eBay would have to do things to ensure that it isn’t being done on their site.
Just like the VERO program. So that eBay doesn’t get sued, every VERO claim from the vendor is upheld until the seller can prove they have the right to sell. eBay has this policy to protect itself.
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07/02/2018 at 1:59 pm #44219
I also have to wonder if any one at Ebay has heard of “the four P’s of marketing” ? I would assume ebay has lots of employees who were business majors and the four P’s are taught in marketing 101.
The four P’s are Price, Product, Promotion, Place.
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07/02/2018 at 2:51 pm #44240
I agree with T-Satt – the cited CFR is likely the driver behind the rotating sales at Kohls and other retailers. Supermarkets follow similar patterns – items go on and off sale in regular cycles.
Also agree that eBay is a big target, and could be putting this policy into effect in order to protect itself and shareholders.
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07/03/2018 at 6:47 pm #44355
Rob linked to an eBay FAQ about the new rules with Markdown Manager:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/ebay-stores.html#m17-2-tb1If you read the FAQ, it clearly says that GTC listings wont be affected.
But we just tried to put a sale on all our GTC items and it showed no items allowed for a sale. For reference, we just had a sale end.
Anyone else with GTC items have an issue starting sale before waiting 14 days?
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07/03/2018 at 7:11 pm #44360
Just tried one as a test, and getting the same result as you. Says the sale is active, but the price shows original. Probably a glitch where the new rule is not omitting GTC. I’ll send Griff an email with my details, and he’s good about sending it to the proper channels.
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07/03/2018 at 7:13 pm #44361
Thanks for following up and linking to the FAQ. We just knew it wasn’t working for us.
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07/03/2018 at 7:45 pm #44363
Griff emailed back and asked if the item I was trying to put on sale had been part of a Markdown in the last 14 days, which mine was. The FAQs state:
After my listing expires, will I have to wait 14 days to mark it down again if I relist?
Yes. You will be required to list your item for 14 days before you can mark it down again.Was that the case with your items as well?
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07/03/2018 at 8:15 pm #44365
Yes, our GTC items were on sale, and then the sale ended. Now we cant put the items on sale. As you said, assume we must wait 14 days.
So what we said on the podcast was true for GTC items with the new rules.
I’m confused why the eBay FAQ says that GTC items arent included in tis rule:
https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2018-summer/ebay-stores.html#m22_tb_a2__12Does it make sense to you?
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07/03/2018 at 9:12 pm #44370
I can’t run a sale on any GTC items either because I just finished a sale end of last week. Bummer because of the holiday. It says the items can’t be found or some such thing. I hope they backtrack on this.
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07/03/2018 at 9:13 pm #44371
Yeah, that’s very misleading. They should state “Yes, if they have been on markdown in the previous 14 days.” I think eBay really missed the mark with this one. I can usually understand eBay’s changes, even if they’re not necessarily beneficial to me as a seller. But as you said on the podcast, a seller should be able to play the permasale game if they want to. Or run a sale every weekend. I don’t understand this one at all.
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07/03/2018 at 9:19 pm #44372
I thought eBay was trying to push people into GTC so sellers would stop trying to “fool” eBay by relisting items as new every 30 days (though sellers should have every right to do this).
But their 14-day no sale rules seems to be for any item in any format. Would love to hear their reasoning.
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07/03/2018 at 11:00 pm #44382
the GTC advantage is pretty limited. A MM sale can run 45 days, max. So, compare a 30 day non GTC listing and a GTC listing.
After 14 days have run, you can put the 30 day listing on a 45 day MM sale. However, after 16 days have gone by, the listing will end, and it must be relisted. The relisted item cannot be added back into the ongoing sale because it must sit for 14 days at its set price.
After 14 days have run, you can put the GTC listing on a 45 day MM sale. After 16 days have run, it automatically relists with the same item number, and STAYS in the sale (until the sale ends or it sells)
I haven’t fiddled around with other MM durations, but I would think for shorter duration MM sales, there is not a big advantage (if any) in using GTC.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
MyCottage.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
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07/04/2018 at 10:09 am #44400
Waited to some of the dust settled on Ebay over this. So I let a few days go by and instead of doing a store wide Sale starting last week, we started one today to run through Sunday night.
We went to Promotions, selected to do a Store Wide Sale and selected to include all of our inventory. we waited during the pending period while Ebay compiled everything and after about 10 minutes or so, 897 listings out of 969 went on Sale. We have a combination of GTC and also auto relist after 30 days that are included in the sale.
The 72 that were not included were all that are set up as auto end and relist every 30 days, and that process had taken place, thus these 72 were not 14 days old yet.
Of the 897 that did get picked up in the Sale, those are a good mixture of both the GTC and the Auto List every 30 days.
So as long as we keep the starting dates all spread out over any one month, then most items will be picked up in our perma-sale process that we use.
This is a hypotheticial example, but if a seller ended all of his listings at one time, then relisted them all at once, then a clear separation would take place, whereby all of his store could be included in a single Sale or several mini sales [based on length] during a two week period and then the whole store would not be able to be put on Sale for a two week period. But this scenario is highly unlikely. So as long as we lsit things daily, use the scheduler to make sure they are spread out over several days, then most of the items should be available at almost any time we want to run a Sale. We just can’t be picky about what we want to include. If we run a 3 day Sale every week, we will still select the “Include All Inventory” button and submit. Then after we wait a few minutes Ebay will report back how many items it included in the Sale.
This is what we did today and the 897 is what was reported back. That is fine with us. Now just a wild guess here, but if we add a zero to the end of these numbers, I guess we would have seen 8,970 out of 9,690 listing included in the Sale. That will be fine. We just can’t be as picky, as i said, after what will be included in any one particular weeks, mini-Sale.
As said above, will just have to wait and see if Ebay does any rethinking on this, but business as usual for us I guess.
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07/04/2018 at 11:18 am #44406
This just in LOL—-
Hi @etel, @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, @dhbookds, @coffeebean832, I’m happy to let all of you know that because of the feedback we heard from members of the Community, we no longer require 14 days after an item is removed from a markdown sale before it can be placed on sale again. Please go here for more information
And here’s the “announcement”…poorly worded as usual:
In the 2018 Summer Seller Update, we announced new changes to requirements for creating a markdown sale event that went into effect on June 25, 2018. We listened to your feedback and have made a change to these markdown sale requirements. Sellers can now add items to a markdown sale event even if the listing was previously in another sale event within the past 14 days as long as the listing price has not been changed.
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07/04/2018 at 11:38 am #44410
Wow, that is breaking news! Wonder when it takes effect. I tried a sale again, on the same item I tested yesterday, and it shows original price.
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07/04/2018 at 11:40 am #44411
For background, here’s the question I asked ebay back when the 14 day rule was first announced:
“Just trying to figure this out. How will this work ?
I list ten items, as 30 day FP listings.
I wait 14 days, never altering price or shipping, and on 15th day put them on a 3 day MM Sale. The original price is still shown to buyer, albeit with a strike through. Sale ends, 2 have sold. I wait a couple days, and then put the remaining 8 on another 3 day MM sale.
Can I do that? At no point did I actually edit the listing to change the price, I simply used MM. So, I can wait 2 days and use MM again, or , because the listings were part of a MM sale, must I wait 14 days?’This was the answer I got back then:
“Thank you for the inquiry. 14 days at the same price also includes 14 days since it was last on sale. So marking down and back up again constitutes a price change, therefore you’d have to wait 14 days to put the item on sale.”
So, AS OF TODAY, that answer is no longer true. eBay has listened to sellers, and the answer would now be: “Yes, you can put them on sale without having to wait 14 days (assuming you have not made any price changes.”
I need to think this through when I have more time, but at least at first glance that would seem to indicate that a GTC now has FAR more value than under yesterday’s rule.
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07/04/2018 at 11:41 am #44412
Oh, and because I know Jay will ask LOL, here’s the link to the announcement itself, tacked to the top of the ebay Selling Board:
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Markdown-Manager-Update/m-p/28694630
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07/04/2018 at 12:12 pm #44422
Thanks for the links. Helps everyone read from the same script.
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07/04/2018 at 11:57 am #44416
I asked about the value of GTC, and there’s the reply I got:
“Hi @my-cottage-books-and-antiques, that’s a good point! Good Til Cancelled listings is the best route to go if you want to place items on sale frequently. While these listings do renew every 30 days, it does not count as a new listing or relist, so items can be placed on sale anytime (as long as there wasn’t a recent price revision).”
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07/04/2018 at 12:15 pm #44423
As Team GTC, I’m glad we get some kind of benefit. Now sellers who are hoping to get higher search ranking by relisting as new every 30 days must decide which is the better strategy.
Will re-listing as new get better results, or will perma-sales get better results?
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07/04/2018 at 12:20 pm #44427
We are Team Relist.
I can always have a sale for items on the back half of their listing time…
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07/04/2018 at 12:48 pm #44433
We are team relist also. Especially since we use WonderLister and everything is done automatically. We only create and list an item once and everything else is handled just like it was a GTC listing only it is not, and gets refreshed every 30 days.
And why not since the Ebay Employee Engineer that was part of the development team of the Cassini Search stated at the Australia Open I believe, was the one who brought up stale listing, and 60 to 90 days as being stale in Cassini eyes and they built Cassini to look for phrases, titles and keywords that had been lingering around for a while and giving preference to newer listings. Or something along those lines. I believed him and still do.
So why not do 30 relist when it is handled by WonderLister just the same as a GTC in the sense that once we create the listing and upload it, all of the ending and relisting is done automatically by the software. We get the benfit of doing it, if there really is any and not having to do any more work. List it and forget it BUT get a benefit if it is true. With GTC, same amount of work but no chance at all if what the Engineer said was or is true.
I also think that SB and WL both may also do scheduled sales events where we can plan out Sales dates in advance and schedule them to run at those times automatically. Will have to check into that.
TTFN .. Mike at MDCG 🙂
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
MDC Galleries & Fine Art.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
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07/04/2018 at 1:05 pm #44439
I wrote to ebay business Facebook page to air my grievances about the new 14 day rule thinking it would fall on deaf ears. To my surprise and without me asking the cs rep refunded my store subscription feefor last month. And just now I have heard that they have reserved that rule. The announcement states that sellers can now add items to a markdown sale event even if the listing was previously in another sale event within the past 14 days as long as the listing price has not been changed.
Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
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07/04/2018 at 3:32 pm #44469
Here’s the link to the reversal announcement that @jamie mentioned above: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Markdown-Manager-Update/m-p/28694630#M1243130
In the 2018 Summer Seller Update, we announced new changes to requirements for creating a markdown sale event that went into effect on June 25, 2018. We listened to your feedback and have made a change to these markdown sale requirements. Sellers can now add items to a markdown sale event even if the listing was previously in another sale event within the past 14 days as long as the listing price has not been changed.
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07/04/2018 at 6:47 pm #44482
So tell me if this example would work under these new guidelines:
–I list an item for $10
–put it on 20% seven day sale, for $8
–Sale ends, so item is now $10 again
–I can now put it back on 20% sale immediately.Does this make sense? Sounds like it doesnt matter if an item is GTC or relist 30 days, right?
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07/04/2018 at 3:53 pm #44471
Simon (and others), Just to be clear, this is not a FULL policy reversal. Please read my posts above to be clear on what has changed and what has hasn’t.
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07/04/2018 at 7:48 pm #44484
Jay,
You list an item for $10 , it must sit at that price for 14 days. On Day 15, you can put it on 20% Off sale. You are running your sale for 7 days. Sale ends on Day 21. Whether it is a 30 day listing or GTC, you can put it back on sale on Day 22, for another 7 days. Sale ends on Day 28 of a 30 day listing. You could put it on sale on Day 29, for another 7 days, but listing will end on 30th day, before the sale ends. Now you relist, and…must wait 14 days because it is a new listing.
With the GTC, everything is the same, except that when you list it on Day 29, it will renew after the 30th day, and will remain on the sale because it has renewed with the same item number, it is not considered a new listing.
Hope that makes sense.
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07/04/2018 at 10:11 pm #44486
So as long as your items are GTC and you dont change the base price, its all systems go for permasales.
Has eBay given any hint as to why they’re making it so complicated? Or have you divined a motivation?
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07/04/2018 at 10:41 pm #44489
Oh, and I also suspect they backtracked because they finally figured out what I tried to tell them the day of the Seller Release, when they first dropped this on us. During the sale, my original price is there for all the world to see….there’s a strike- through through it, it’s discounted, but it’s there. So at no time during the sale have I actually altered the ORIGINAL price. When the sale is over, it automatically reverts to the price it was when the sale began.
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07/04/2018 at 10:42 pm #44490
Hmmm, I thought I posted two replies, one quite a bit longer…it’s vanished?
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07/04/2018 at 10:45 pm #44492
MyCottage wrote:
Jay,
A couple things come to mind. (And remember, scavenger sellers are basically just caught up in this, like dolphins in a tuna net). “Fictitious sale pricing” has prompted numerous lawsuits throughout the country within the last few years. Here’s a quick quote from an article about one such case:
Advertising items at a discounted price is a common and permissible strategy when done properly. Fashion retailers should be aware, however, that this is an unsettled area of the law and that their pricing strategies have become a popular target among the plaintiff bar. As noted in recent Arent Fox alerts, Macy’s and subsidiary Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom Rack, and many other retailers, including Saks and Burlington Coat Factory, have recently been involved in class action litigation over allegedly “phantom” sale prices.
Accordingly, retailers should be careful when offering items at “sale” prices and when listing comparisons to former or “valued at” prices, ensuring that the items were previously offered at the higher price for a reasonable period of time. Further, when possible, retailers should conduct regular reviews of “sale” and outlet store prices to better understand if they are compliant with applicable state law, as well as the guidance provided by the Federal Trade Commission and the Council for Better Business Bureaus
So, that’s one thing. And I suspect we may see some more on this. Did you look at my post about the new Pay Per Click promo in beta now on eBay? There’s a really interesting note hidden in there where ebay basically reminds sellers to be sure to comply with laws regarding sale pricing.
Also, I think eBay drives a lot of business to the site through its Daily (and other) Deals. ebay wants buyers to believe those are real deals, and if too many sales on ebay clearly are NOT real deals, it reduces the credibility of ebay’s Daily Deals and of eBay’s new price matching guarantees….
I don’t know just where ebay is headed with all this, but as always I try to keep a step ahead of the boulders ebay sends crashing down the mountainside, and in this case going forward I’ll probably be much more careful about running sales: no perma sales, and no highly inflated prices pre-sale.
BUT….again…I want to stress that we’re small potatoes. How we price our used stuff is still pretty much up to us…I think this is really aimed primarily at new merch, stuff where it’s not hard for a buyer to comparison shop and realize that the original price for a $20 shirt was never $150.00….
Most of us usually have far more leeway than the commodity sellers because our margins are often much higher. So I’ll just keep on doing what I’ve been doing for the most part, running the occasional sale, but not depending on sales.
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07/04/2018 at 10:47 pm #44495
I agree that many of eBay changes are aimed at the huge sellers. We’re just caught up in their war of rules.
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07/04/2018 at 10:43 pm #44491
Might have been my screw up…I might have put it into edit? Not sure?
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07/04/2018 at 10:46 pm #44494
I reposted the long explanation for you. If you write long posts and then immediately try to edit, posts seem to disappear. Not sure why. I guess we have our own bugs here 🙂 Havent been able to track it down yet.
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07/04/2018 at 10:55 pm #44496
As to perma- sales, here’s my guess. eBay is worried about possible lawsuits for fictitious sales. The 14 day rule does a fair job of showing ebay is making an effort to ensure compliance. Of course, as you note, a seller using GTC could run perma sales now that they’ve altered the rule. However, I think what we’re going to see in the near future is something similar to what we’re seeing in the beta I mentioned: eBay is essentially going to say each seller is responsible for compliance with the laws. This is from the beta’s FAQ:
“How do I choose my headline? What are the best practices?
Select the appropriate text from the dropdown. Complete the headline by either inserting the sub-category name or customizing your text to make it more relevant (total character limit for a headline is 40 characters).You are responsible for complying with all applicable laws, including truth-in-advertising laws. Please review guidelines and FAQs from the Federal Trade Commission.”
(If wording like that isn’t already in the User Agreement, I’m betting it will be….)
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07/05/2018 at 7:37 am #44505
i was able to put both stores on sale, but it’s only picking up 75% of my listings. at least it’s sorta working
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