Any ideas anyone regarding Promotions Manager email ?

[mbselections00]

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 !

[digital*ghost]

If it's something a seller will use anyway, I don't see the harm in getting FVF credits along the way, as long as they do get them. It can be a great tool, you just have to use it the right way (so says I, in my limited experience using it 😄 ). The first two I ran were a buy one, get one free on some slow moving items, in an effort to try and clear them out. That was a bad choice of promo, really. I had one buyer take it up the whole time I was running it (4 weeks), and the reason was pretty obvious... slow moving items, no one's interested enough to be watching / buying frequently, promo not visible in search results, so no real additional 'lure'. If I try it on those items again, I will do a straight 50% off.

The second one I ran was much more successful, and it wasn't even as good a deal in terms of savings. I put 5% off for a $30+ spend on more than half my store items (most under $5 each). A lot of buyers purchase a variety of these items anyway, so people are already looking and browsing. A small discount for something they're going to do anyway (the minimum spend amount was based on a bit above average spend for multiple item orders), and there is an incentive / reward to get an extra item or two.

I toyed with the thought about using a promo on my handmade stuff, but I'm supposed to be increasing those prices rather than discounting them (they're a little undervalued at the moment, and it's not just me who thinks so 😄 ), plus I think for handcrafted items, sometimes devaluing them can work against you in the long run.

Re: the cart being required... I figured that was eBay's condition, not mine, so when someone makes an otherwise qualifying purchase, I honour the offer anyway, which I've done either by applying the discount to postage if I get to send an invoice, or adding in extra items if they pay before I can send one. 

[twyngwyn]

the fine print:

http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/promotions-manager-fvf-promotion

[mbselections00]

Perhaps I'm not looking at things in a very professional or business like way, but I have the view, if it helps increase my sales, and I'm not outlaying anything up front, receiving the fvf credits in 60 or 90 days will be like a little bonus - in the meanwhile I'm no worse off.   And I'm willing to give it a go in the hope it may improve currently poor sales. However, I would hate to have to waste time going through a lengthy process to claim the credits !!

I have noticed my number of Watchers has increased, so hopefully some of them will convert to sales and just maybe it might also serve to attract some new buyers.  I am probably kidding myself though, because as a small seller, promotional sale or not, I will no doubt still struggle to be found in searches.

[harley_babes_hoard]

what wrong with just having a normal sale through markdown manager.

[mbselections00]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:
what wrong with just having a normal sale through markdown manager.

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Aha harley, good question - probably a case of greed  .  I've never had a sale before, and so the opportunity to try one and save on FVFees seemed like a good idea   Figured if I could save a few $'s better off in my pocket than you know whose  . . . . . . .

[digital*ghost]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:
what wrong with just having a normal sale through markdown manager.

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Nothing, but it suits a different purpose than some of the promotions you can create, and (just IMHO) can create very different impressions. The banner at the top of listings showcases other items available in the promo, too, so if you have items with optional accessories, creating one like 'buy X and get 20% of Y' could be very useful. 

Sales (via markdown manager) are unconditional, promotions can be conditional. My aforementioned promo (5% off with $30+ spend) wouldn't have acheived the same thing if it was just 5% off all the items. 

[jfmgray]

So I have made a sale of 2 items through this promotion.  I provided 5% discount for combined purchases and this was deducted at chackout.  The FVF will be credited back to my account (according to CS) 60 days after the promotion closes.  So providing I get the FVF credit, I will end up ahead (cost reduced by 5% but FVF credit of 8%)

[mbselections00]

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@jfmgray wrote:

So I have made a sale of 2 items through this promotion.  I provided 5% discount for combined purchases and this was deducted at chackout.  The FVF will be credited back to my account (according to CS) 60 days after the promotion closes.  So providing I get the FVF credit, I will end up ahead (cost reduced by 5% but FVF credit of 8%)

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That's great news & possibly the sale of the second item may not have occurred if it weren't for the promo.   Hope you get some more sales from it.  I'm still waiting, but maybe I aimed too high trying to encourage multiple sales, we'll see, there's still a couple of days to go & I guess I could extend it