Strategic Use Of Mark Down Sales - What is your take?

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

What is the best way to use sale to drive business? What are your experiences with sales? What has worked for you, and what hasn't?

Are running genuine sales too often a bad idea? Genuine meaning, your items are actually priced lower than you'd usually be comfortable selling them for. Not, your items are marked up by 30 percent, and you do a 30 percent sale to have the illusion of a deal. Keep in mind, I'm not suggesting a sale where you're setting yourself up to lose money on a hotter item, jus one where you are giving someone a better deal via a sale than you might give in a typical best offer scenario. So...an actual genuine sale. 

I don't have much to offer to this conversation myself since I am relatively new to running a full fledged eBay store. I'm just looking for any anecdotes about experiences that other sellers have had running sales.

Thanks in advance!

[ricarmic]

My experience is that sales do not work, they cost more than they bring.

Promoted listings work most awesomely. I run only 1% and they've outperformed almost everything I've ever tried here since 1999.

Note though that I think part of the reason the 1% works so well for me is that I am visible in a LOT of sub/categories so at any time, I'm probably one of if not the only person using promoted listings in many cases.

Experimentation is probably the most important thing to do. You're going to get a lot of different opinions of what works and everyone has to find their own way. Even two people like me and femme who sell in the same "world" sell different stuff, so what works for me might not work for her and vice versa.

Certainly experimenting with various suggestions is a good way to approach it.

[travis7s]

I usually just run a weekend sale once and a while for like 5-10% off all my items, its usually good for a few extra orders but nothing crazy. I usually wait until I have a lot of new watchers as this will alert them all at once.

[hlmacdon]

Unless you have a very popular volume item that you are competiting for the lowest price, I don't find markdowns to be particularly effective other than specific scenarios. Unlike Amazon sellers are not (yet, it's coming) fighting for a buy box position. Instead we are fighting for visibility in best match where the majority of sales on the platform come from. Discounts tend to get lost in the mix as fewer buyers price sort, and even fewer activate the deals and savings filter.

Even in a busier category with sellers using promoted listings, campaigns at 1% can be worth trying as you'll get more impressions by virtue of the better positioning, along with cross promotion against other seller listing pages. My best month on those was around $2k, and generated more profit than it cost as a large portion of my PL sales tend to start with one item found by promotion, then others added from store browsing. It's one of those things where if it slow you are losing nothing by trying.

I've found that a combination of that plus promotional shipping offers (particularly if customers are likely to buy multiple items from you) are a more effective use of funds than discounting is. That said there is value in discounting items that have a lot of watchers as a sufficient discount generates targeted email blasts by ebay to those buyers. Alternatively it can be equally effective to reduce quantities if those watched items are multi-quantity listings. 

[reallynicestamps]

Based on decades in both mail order and B&M sales, I agree that markdowns don't work.

The buyer who has purposely come to your Store, is already a qualified buyer.

All that happens is that he pays less for something he planned to buy anyway.

I will allow one possible exception, some women* do shop as a hobby and may also buy on impulse, but unless you are selling women's in season clothing, don't count on that small tranche.

your items are actually priced lower than you'd usually be comfortable selling them for.

Never price anything lower than your comfort zone. You will remember the pain too long.

I'm not thrilled by Best Offer either, but I do use it on very slow moving stock.  If you go for this be sure to activate the Accept Above and Decline Below options. Again, cut the pain.

And like the others I like Promoted Listings.

It's been my observation that the actual Listing does not necessarily sell, but I do get many more Views and the viewing members seem to buy other stuff in my Stores as a result.

My numbers are skewed because while I started PL in November and had good success ( at ONE percent, higher does not seem to give any better result) and increased sales, with March and " pandemic panic" most sellers have had very strong sales no matter what they are doing, PL , Best Offer, nothing, new listings daily, whatever.

When July came, sales dropped down to summer normal.

Anecdote is not data.

But Promoted Listings are cheap, since you pay nothing unless the Listing sells and they do seem to give slightly better Search results. 

If you want to move stock out for new stuff, you could also try advertising lower (or even Free) shipping on multiple purchases, something we usually do anyway without pushing it. (first purchase $20 shipping / second purchase $5 shipping for example)

*Full disclosure- I am a woman. I rarely shop for fun. Well bookstores but....

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Thanks for all the info.

I do use promoted listings. For the category I am in, I think it is helpful, even at a low percentage. Promoted listings pushes your items to advertising outside of eBay, right? I find that I get a lot of guest/newly registered buyers. I assume part of this is because of using promoted listings.

My suspicions about markdowns were similar to what has been advised in this thread, but then I had a 3 day sale that was very successful in moving some extra stale items in an otherwise slow July. It gave me reason to consider whether I was wrong about markdowns. I will need to try to have another similar sale once or twice again, to see if the boost in sales was only a coincidence. Meaning, I would have had a strong weekend of sales (volume) with or without the mark downs.

I think I might use sales in the future as a strategy to clear out lower priced items. It seems like it is a good way to open up stock space, and I usually only stock these lower priced items as a consequence of getting them in large lots where I'm really after the better stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some solid advice. I appreciate it.

[reallynicestamps]

Promoted listings pushes your items to advertising outside of eBay, right?

I don't think so. 

EBay was telling us that the move to GTC would make it easier for Google to pick up our listings,however.

Just pushing the PL higher in Search would help with newbies who would be defaulted into Best Match, I would think.

getting them in large lots where I'm really after the better stuff.

Yeah, when we had a shop back in Ottawa, we moved those out by putting them on a designated table as Big Box o'Fun lots, priced from $10 to $200.

They were popular and moved fast.

DH is going to try those at the Stamp Show (!! YES!! a show!!) on August 16 at the Sandman Hotel in Victoria.
Even with the auction (Sparks) we usually have BBoF from consignment odds and sods and those sell well too, although only locally because they cost so much to ship (bidders have learned).

[hlmacdon]

---

@ilikehockeyjerseys wrote:
Thanks for all the info.

I do use promoted listings. For the category I am in, I think it is helpful, even at a low percentage. Promoted listings pushes your items to advertising outside of eBay, right? I find that I get a lot of guest/newly registered buyers. I assume part of this is because of using promoted listings.

I haven't seen any connection between promoted listings and google shopping feeds, which is what ebay leverages for external advertising. If you want to ensure your listings are included in the feeds, review Google's requirements for images and product identifiers. You'll notice ebay has aligned their requirements around those specified by Google. 

[musicyouneed]

I have tried it all.  Sales, promotions, ending all listings and relisting, switching from .com to .ca and reverse.  June was my best month is year.  I have all my listings promoted and I relisted all my listings in July so that they would be fresh.  I will probably do another sale over the weekend 10%, depending on how well it goes whether I will extend it. 

For me 99% of my US sales are what is listed on .com and 99% of my Cdn sales are on .ca.  

I can't say what works the best, sometimes I will have a sale 15% and not make any sales, leave it full price and I make sales.   The best sales for me are over the weekend, mostly Sundays.  

You just have to have the thing that someone is looking for at the right price.  

I find the more you list the more you sell.  I will list 4 items and I will sell 5.