topic Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ? in Selling

Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:09:08 GMT

I must be my own worst enemy. I receive this invitation email and get all excited !

(Sorry, can't get it all in one screenshot, but this gives you the idea)

So off I go all excited and create a Promotion, then wonder, after waiting 24 hours why it doesn't appear to be showing on my selected items. In Manage my Store or wherever it is, the promotion is showing as 'Active".

Mmmm, off I go & check the fine print and find this :-

Why send an Invitation email with such an exciting offer to a Basic Store then ?? So deflating - but why was I allowed to activate the offer and why now is it showing as active, but I can't see it on any of my listings ? I feel like I've been cheated !!

Anyone else had the same bad experience ?

In re-reading the fine print, and before noticing it was Anchor Stores only, I did notice it only applies to BIN, so to put the record straight - I applied the promotion to a particular Store Category & had revised several items to BIN only as I also have Make Offer on 99% of my items. Initially I thought that may have been my problem. Thank goodness I didn't go through all the listings and change them !

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

digital*ghost — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:17:21 GMT

That's not right.... I have a featured store (so not anchored) and I've been using the promotions manage for over a month. o_O

Are you sure you haven't been whisked away to another site where the rules are different? It's happening more and more to me lately and half the time I don't even notice until I see something not quite right (like the weirdo icons they have in the US ).

I got that email too, and have been meaning to set one up, so will go take a look and see how I go - I'll report back soon.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

digital*ghost — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 13:32:20 GMT

I just read through your post properly.... sorry, I completely missed what the issue was.

I'm pretty sure everyone with a store can now use the promotions manager, and since you were able to create one it should be all good to go, so there's probably a different reason why it's not showing.

The first one I tried to create didn't seem to work at first (I applied it to eBay categories, but even though I had heaps of items in that category, the promotions didn't show up on any of them and in the store, where the banner is, it had "Sold Out" across the promo. o_O). Then I changed it to store categories and it suddenly showed up.

It might be that revising the items and changing the format did something... I'd try suspending the promo, then re-activating it and seeing if that works (or, in other words, the eBay equivalent of "have you tried turning it off and then back on again? 😄 ).

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 17:49:12 GMT

Thanks so much digi, and sorry, there were actually several issues in my post but your responses encouraged me to 'fiddle' a little more. As I had already nominated just one entire store category, I tried putting the promo on hold & the system acknowledged. So then I took off hold, still nothing. Tried the reverse of what you suggested & used eBay Categories, still nothing. In the end, I used Whole Store and filtered by price range & that appears to have worked but actually includes the wine glass charms as well as the charms, but that's fine - at least it now seems to be working ! Blow me down !

There I was thinking it was a pretty basic promo to run & being my first wanted to use it as a sort of trial & then depending how it goes, would like to run one on the more expensive items once I see how it goes - both operationally and results wise & with such a good offer would like to set it up to run for at least a week before 29th

Somewhere also I read the Promotions Manager is Free to use 'at present' suggesting it may not be in the future, but do you think I can find that again to post a screen shot, but it will be worth watching out for down the track. They'll probably get us all hooked on the idea & then start charging

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

digital*ghost — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 00:49:21 GMT

@mbselections00 wrote:

Somewhere also I read the Promotions Manager is Free to use 'at present' suggesting it may not be in the future, but do you think I can find that again to post a screen shot, but it will be worth watching out for down the track. They'll probably get us all hooked on the idea & then start charging

I'm pretty sure I've seen that too. That was one of the things I baulked at on another site (when I first looked into the "other" Australian site, I saw that they charged a fee to run a percentage-off sale but I couldn't really see how that was justified since nothing changed except the price of an item - as far as I could see, anyway).

eBay seem to be running promotion campaigns, though, leading people to marked down items, so it could eventually be just a new way sellers can pay to spam searches.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 01:34:23 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
@mbselections00 wrote:

Somewhere also I read the Promotions Manager is Free to use 'at present' suggesting it may not be in the future, but do you think I can find that again to post a screen shot, but it will be worth watching out for down the track. They'll probably get us all hooked on the idea & then start charging
I'm pretty sure I've seen that too. That was one of the things I baulked at on another site (when I first looked into the "other" Australian site, I saw that they charged a fee to run a percentage-off sale but I couldn't really see how that was justified since nothing changed except the price of an item - as far as I could see, anyway).

eBay seem to be running promotion campaigns, though, leading people to marked down items, so it could eventually be just a new way sellers can pay to spam searches. :smileyfrustrated:

I also found details of Promoted Listings when I went to one of the links in the Promo email (sounded way too complicated & risky to me) I like the KISS theory, lol :-

Also the way I see it, the problem with running too many promotion campaigns, they could almost become less effective as they appear to be the 'norm' and the big guys seem to 'up' their prices to cover the discounts - I would hate to think any of my buyers thought for one second that I would do that. I would think also that you would have to be careful if you ran them too often that buyers may hold off ordering waiting for a sale - just a thought, talking out loud you might say

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

davewil1964 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 02:03:08 GMT

I got the email last week, but can see no way to accept the offer. I assume it is because I don't have an anchored store. I'm certainly not going to do a promo without the FVF waiver.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 02:21:52 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
I got the email last week, but can see no way to accept the offer. I assume it is because I don't have an anchored store. I'm certainly not going to do a promo without the FVF waiver.

No digi and I aren't Anchored either dave, but it did work for both of us & I'm only a basic store. I'm pretty sure I just went to the 'See how easy it is to use' link in the email and it worked from that, well eventually ! I didn't get a message like you do with Free Listings though, I just created the Promotion and it should as Activated - so hopefully the sales will flood in and I can check there are no FVFees !!

Good luck with it. Heading out, but will check back later & see how you went

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

digital*ghost — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 02:43:06 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
I got the email last week, but can see no way to accept the offer. I assume it is because I don't have an anchored store. I'm certainly not going to do a promo without the FVF waiver.

My understanding of the T&Cs (which may or may not be incorrect), is that you don't need to accept like you do with bonus free listings, it's just active for sellers who received the email and create a qualifying promotion during the mentioned dates (some promos are excluded).

I haven't had anyone take up my current promo yet, so I can't guarantee it, but I'll come back and confirm (or deny :D) once I can verify, (unless someone else can do it before I get a qualifying sale).

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

jfmgray — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 03:24:57 GMT

Yes I am in the same boat. Featured store. Received the email and have a promotion running now. No sales so we will see if the waiving of the FVF works should I get a sale on the promotion.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 05:49:52 GMT

I know beggars can't be choosers since there were no fees involved, but it's a little disappointing the Sale items don't show as such until you actually click on them, so unless a buyer does so, they will not even realise the item is on sale

I wonder would it be worthwhile and/or allowed to add something in the store banner temporarily, that way at least if a buyer goes to the store there's a clue to the fact you have sale items . . . . . . . . . .

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

englishrosegardens — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 06:11:59 GMT

On your store home page there's usually a link for sale items, or there always used to be. I'm not sure about the new store format and haven't really looked for a while. Buyers have to know it's there though, and that it'll bring up all of a seller's items that are on sale.

@mbselections00 wrote:
I know beggars can't be choosers since there were no fees involved, but it's a little disappointing the Sale items don't show as such until you actually click on them, so unless a buyer does so, they will not even realise the item is on sale

I wonder would it be worthwhile and/or allowed to add something in the store banner temporarily, that way at least if a buyer goes to the store there's a clue to the fact you have sale items . . . . . . . . . .

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 06:36:57 GMT

@englishrosegardens wrote:
On your store home page there's usually a link for sale items, or there always used to be. I'm not sure about the new store format and haven't really looked for a while. Buyers have to know it's there though, and that it'll bring up all of a seller's items that are on sale.

Thanks englishrose. I have the old store format, but there doesn't appear to be a standard link anywhere - do you have to create the link yourself ?

Once you bring up one item that is on sale, then there is a link to go to all items on sale - but seems too airy fairy to me to be relying on buyers clicking on an item first to be aware of the sale

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

dylan11235813 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 07:30:34 GMT

I got the email and set up the promo but I am still being charged the FVF (and the discount is being applied to buyers). In the terms it does say it can take up to 60 or 90 days to get the credit though.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 07:34:12 GMT

@dylan11235813 wrote:
I got the email and set up the promo but I am still being charged the FVF (and the discount is being applied to buyers). In the terms it does say it can take up to 60 or 90 days to get the credit though.

Yay, glad to hear someone is getting results, that's great news.

Hahaha, yes I did read that & thought to myself, (assuming I get some results !) I must remember to look out for the credits !! Had a horrible feeling it could become one of those things that would up being overlooked

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

dylan11235813 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 07:44:23 GMT

I had one item I sold that qualified but the discount wasn't given to the buyer

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

dylan11235813 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:11:30 GMT

Buyers need to add the items to the cart for them to get the discount, which is why I think one of my customers didn;t get the discount

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

mbselections00 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:15:32 GMT

@dylan11235813 wrote:
I had one item I sold that qualified but the discount wasn't given to the buyer

Uh oh - and who will wear the feedback resulting from a 'bad buying experience' - eBay - never; more likely the Seller, thanks to a system error !?

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

dylan11235813 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 09:06:20 GMT

@mbselections00 wrote:
@dylan11235813 wrote:
I had one item I sold that qualified but the discount wasn't given to the buyer
Uh oh - and who will wear the feedback resulting from a 'bad buying experience' - eBay - never; more likely the Seller, thanks to a system error !?

Ebay told me (and I think I remember reading it in the terms) that the item/s need to be added to the cart first to qualify for the sellers promotion. It does say it in the lisings as well but I can definately see it ending badly.

Re: Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

toysandthings12 — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 09:08:23 GMT

With it running at 60 to 90 days for a FVF credit, I would not touch it.

Seems is a cash grab for instant sales fees increase after ebay n paypal split.

With ur sales values down overall pay wise and still paying the fees

and then waiting for the refund...no thanx. needs to be instant FVF waiver.

Not too mention they chasing 1 to 20% discounts n offering 5% FVF waiver

and seems similar to the duopoly reverse auction where they get the

suppliers to auction off compete with discounts for placement in searches.

This is after all the other forms of paying for placement in searches.

End result, everyone discounts down, sales revert to normal proportion

but everyone loses profits except the suppliers n sales landlord in this case ebay.

Didnt like the part about free at present either.

That and a lot of customers hunt through pages n pages n fiddle with the search

options, so they find all other listings anyway. They are now used to the

changes done recently to ebay search n listings placements.

But this recent promotions thing seems just the new way to divert customers

to those anchor stores, who temporarily will get some more sales but then

the proportion of sales will revert to normal again.

Also that FVF waiver is only temporary. So those anchor stores will revert to

normal pricing anyways.

And customers these days r more warry n pick n chose n hunt n are use

to playing on ebay to find things. So will navigate around the promotions

especially once they are only a promotion by name