How to Set Up Discounts for Multiple Purchases?

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Good Evening e-brainiacs

I have previously used Markdown Manager to reduce some of my items by X percent.

I have seen other sellers use discounts for multiple purchases, e.g.

Purchase X items and get X percent discount; or

Purchase 2 items and get X percent off second item.

Does anyone know how this is done?  Does ebay have an application, similar to Markdown Manager, or do you have to calculate it manually for each sale?  If so, how?

I would greatly appreciate any assistance.

Many Thanks.

[davewil1964]

Promotions Manager, through SMP. Or seller hub?

There have been reports it doesn't work, but that Markdown manager is working again.

I use PM, but it is a longstanding volume discount.

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Thank you for your response.

Previously I set up the discounts through Markdown Manager in Seller Hub.  However, this appears to only allow me to discount selected listings by a specific amount or percentage.

I would now like to offer discounts either as a percentage off the total if more than one item is purchased or buy one item and receive second item at a discount.

I have seen other sellers offering these types of discounts but I don't know how they are set up.  I'm not sure whether these types of discounts are dependent on the type of store you have.  I have the lowest level store.

[digital*ghost]

Apologies, as I can't remember for certain the path to get there, but under your store options (probably Manage My Store), should be a link to Promotions Manager, where there are options to set up a variety of discount promotions (eg buy one get one free, spend $50 get 10% off, generate a discount code and so on). 

It's been a while since I used it, and last time I had a look at setting one up, the interface and how to do it seemed very different, so I can't provide any insight on that, but I might explore it over the long weekend and see if I can work out how to use it.

I do remember that not all of the promotions I tried to set up actually worked. I did everything the way I was supposed to, but some just weren't implemented on my listings for whatever reason. I was able to get the spend $X and get X% off one to work but only if I selected specific store categories, as it wouldn't work any other way, and a buy one get one free promo to work, but all the others failed (I tried one that was a Buy this specific item, get 20% off this other specific item, as they could be used together, but no matter what I did it just wouldn't work  so I suspect there's often a bit of trial and error involved in setting them up and getting them to function well).

From the buyer's side, these promos will only apply if they add the items to the cart (they won't work if they BIN promo items and then go to checkout). Adding to cart is mentioned in the promo banners, but it doesn't make it as clear as I'd like that you have to add them to the cart, so for the promos I set up, I always gave them a visible title stating "Use the cart to qualify for discounts" or similar. 

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Again, I apologise for the delay,

Thank you so much, digital*ghost.

I printed out your response and eventually found the link you referred too although I have not tried it yet so don't know whether it will work.

One thing I want to know before I try the promotion is if I offer "buy one, get one half price or X percent discount", does it work like the shops with the cheapest item discounted or does it depend which item is purchased first?

Your response seems to suggest I can select the items I want in the promotion [as I can with Markdown Manager] which would be OK but I don't have the courage to experiment in case it applies to everything.  I have a few listings I would not want to reduce particularly if the "first item" were a cheap item so if the promotion applies to everything I would temporarily end the listings I want to exclude from the promotion.

Again, thank you so much.  I would never have discovered the link on my own.

[davewil1964]

I'm pretty sure you can select the applicable listings.

Try it. You can go all the way through and it won't go live until you commit.

[digital*ghost]

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@the_dutchess_of_dork wrote:

One thing I want to know before I try the promotion is if I offer "buy one, get one half price or X percent discount", does it work like the shops with the cheapest item discounted or does it depend which item is purchased first?

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eBay applies the discount to the lowest-price item in an order, and then cost-weights it against all items in an order, meaning that whatever percentage of the total an original price is, the equivalent percentage of the discount is applied to that price (i.e. in the example below, $15 is roughly 42% of the original $35 total, so 42% of the $15 discount is applied to the $15 item). 

For example, in a buy one, get one free scenario, where a buyer adds one $20 item to their cart, then a $15 item. The free item is the $15 one, so the order discount is $15. To the buyer, the cart will look like this:

Item one - $15

Item two - $20

Discount - $15

--------------------------

Total - $20

But the actual breakdown and costing will look more like this

Item one - $8.66

Item two - $11.34

--------------------------

Total - $20

This is done so that if a buyer decides to return the $20 item, they don't get to keep the 'free' item, having paid nothing for it at all, and the same applies for all types of order discounts, whether it's a percentage off one item, or the order total. 

You can also definitely select individual items to be in a promotion (either by SKU, if you use them, or by searching through your store items). I did that for my buy one get one free promo, as I only wanted it on a very limited number of items, and for the buy $X amount of items, get X% off the total, I selected the items by store categories as I only wanted it to apply to supplies, not jewellery.