'Include skipped items when they qualify': Markdown Manager. What does it mean?

[momcqueen]

I speak fluent Markdown Manager but this one threw me today. 'Include skipped items when they qualify'. Is it new? What does it mean? What's a 'skipped' item and 'qualify' for what? Do you think this means Promotions Manager is getting closer to release? 

'Include skipped items when they qualify' means....? I truly don't know.

Can anyone hazard a guess or, better yet, provide me an explanation? Thanks. 

[momcqueen]

Anyone? 

[momcqueen]

I guess I’ll ask again tomorrow....

[momcqueen]

Can you help me to understand what this selection means in Markdown Manager? It was auto-selected for me on the most recent Markdown I created and now I'm concerned that I might have let it go live on previous ones without knowing what it meant or understanding its implications.

Please and thank you.

@happy_pigeon or tyler@ebay

[happy_pigeon]

Let me find out for you... I think I know what it's getting at, but I want to check with someone who is more of a Markdown Manager expert than I am so I can make sure I'm not talking out of you-know-where!

[happy_pigeon · Accepted solution]

OK! I think I have it.

If I'm making the correct assumption, you're creating a rule in the screenshot. Rules are different from sales in that you have to manually add items to a sale, and if a certain item (or items) don't qualify for the sale, you simply won't be able to add them, even if they qualify while the sale is still going on.

A rule, however, is different, and those items that are disqualified for one reason or another (e.g. they are already on sale; not enough time has elapsed since the last time they were on sale, etc.) can be automatically added to the action specified in the rule once they qualify, if you check that box. If you don't, they'll just be ignored, even if something changes so that they meet the terms of the rule.

Does that make sense? Let me know if you have more questions or if anything can be more clear.

[momcqueen]

A rule? That’s interesting. As far as I was aware, I was creating a regular Markdown. I didn’t think sellers were given the option of creating rules within Markdowns but I’ll look more closely at it the next time I create a new Markdown.

Thanks!

[happy_pigeon]

You should be able to do either/or. Have a poke around MM, and if I have ended up making things even more confusing, @ me and I will clarify with the MM product manager!

[happy_pigeon · Accepted solution]

I have an update from the product manager!

Some changes were made very recently to MM, based on feedback from members. This is why it wasn't part of your fluency yet 

I can confirm that the interpretation posted above is mostly correct, aside from the fact that this is a new feature for Sale events + markdowns--you no longer need to be creating a rule to see it as an option. As you correctly pointed out!

In summary, you can check or uncheck that box to include skipped items when they qualify on the Review and Launch page to start or stop newly qualifying items in your list being added to the Sale after it has started.

Hope that helps! I'm going to coordinate with the project manager to make a wider announcement about this.

[momcqueen]

THANK YOU!

[momcqueen]

I seriously had never noticed this option before today when I looked for it. Maybe it's been there all along! 

[everything-emporium48]

This explanation of "Include skipped items when they quality" is useless. What is the specific definition or meaning of "skipped"? To what is the word "qualify" referring"? Qualify for what? When eBay inserts a confusing statement like that, a SPECIFIC, DETAILED articulate explanation is needed!

[hlmacdon]

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@everything-emporium48 wrote:

This explanation of "Include skipped items when they quality" is useless. What is the specific definition or meaning of "skipped"? To what is the word "qualify" referring"? Qualify for what? When eBay inserts a confusing statement like that, a SPECIFIC, DETAILED articulate explanation is needed!

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This is the problem with ebay launching or testing new features. Documentation is woeful and it isn't hard to check code to ensure it actually returns a message that would mean something  to the average seller. More tool tips would be nice. The target audience for these features is the end user, not developers. At least @happy_pigeon and some of the other staff (and we are grateful for that) are doing some prodding to get some documentation out there, but what are these product managers doing all day? There is a bit of a disconnect between tool/program changes and the policies that are driving them. Implement, document, then launch. These are basic tenants of anyone wanting to call themselves a "technology" company.

[lady.stark]

Personally, I thought it meant to include all the items I didn't choose to include. That's why I always take it off. It might explain why some sellers had items on sale when they didn't put them on sale. But I might be wrong.

[momcqueen]

I now understand it to mean that items older than 14 days can be automatically included. 

[hlmacdon]

I would assume the intent was to cover cases where a seller adds items to their promotion that can't be discounted due to that 14 day gating. When the applicable amount of time has passed to lift that restriction the promotional price for that item, the promotional discount would activate automatically assuming it was still within the promotional window. So essentially you can schedule out your promotions without having to sort what ebay says you can or can't put on sale.

[themedicinebuddhasmarket]

Why does eBay keep making changes anyway?  This whole thing is ridiculous.  First of all, why does eBay care what we do (or do not) put on sale ~ 14 days, price changes, who cares?  It's our stuff.  We should be able to sell stuff, for whatever price we want, whenever we want.  Why all the rules & restrictions?  They're so afraid, that if they don't keep changing things they'll become obsolete or irrelevant or something.  But imagine all of the money eBay's losing, because the unnecessary changes they make don't work properly.  eBay's a multi-million (possibly multi-billion) dollar company, but they can't manage to hire programmers who know what they're doing?  Every time they make changes/"upgrades" they cause a whole new set of problems.  It's ridiculous! (~);}

[momcqueen]

Ebay rescinded the 14-day prohibition on new items being invalid for markdown; it never applied to mine.

[rose-dee]

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@hlmacdon wrote:

I would assume the intent was to cover cases where a seller adds items to their promotion that can't be discounted due to that 14 day gating. When the applicable amount of time has passed to lift that restriction the promotional price for that item, the promotional discount would activate automatically assuming it was still within the promotional window. So essentially you can schedule out your promotions without having to sort what ebay says you can or can't put on sale.

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I've been trying to make sense of why eBay would bother with all this nonsense in the first place.  Why, in fact, should they control what we can and can't put on sale?  It's beyond me.  Honestly, just let us decide what we want to place on sell, when, and for how much.   This entire new markdown feature just seems completely and unnecessarily complicated. 

I tried out the Markdown Manager a couple of weeks ago, thought I had everything set up properly (listings had been there for well over 14 days), it looked good at first on a spot-check inspection of my store.  Then a few days later a whole group of items was no longer on sale that should have continued to be on sale with the rest.  What the heck!!??  I just gave up in disgust.  

[pjcdn2005]

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@momcqueen wrote:
Ebay rescinded the 14-day prohibition on new items being invalid for markdown; it never applied to mine.

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They rescinded it for gtc listings. But the prices on new listings are still not allowed to be marked down for 14 days.