Anyone Played with Promotions Manager?

[digital*ghost]

It appeared yesterday in Manage My Store, had a bunch of T&Cs to accept, but there seems to be a relatively diverse range of options for offering discounts, eg $ or % discounts for a certain spend, or number of items in order, and while no customer-exclusive coupon code generator type thing (which I would have loved), you can create a semi-exclusive offer, via a link that activates the promo (eg if you have a website, or send out an email to select people, the offer is activated for them if they click on the unique link). 

The T&Cs mentioned immediate payment is required for items to be eligible which puts a bit of a spanner in the works for me if that remains - theoretically, immediate payment should be fine on my items.... If eBay, the cart and the app worked like it should. But alas, since they often don't, I can see it increasing the number of times people checkout multiple items individually, and that already happens almost daily (promos might help increase people using the cart, but).

Anyway, thus far I've just had a quick squiz at the kind of promos you can create, just thought I'd put it out there plus see if anyone has any other experience with it, hints, tips, found glitches, etc. 🙂

[motherbear2003]

Seeing as how you have nothing listed I can't check out your craft supplies:(:(

[digital*ghost]

Don't worry, you're not missing out on much 😄 That is, I applied a very conservative 5% discount for $30+ (low item prices, low margins, and I already offer low flat rate postage, so it's more of a little cherry on top than an attempt to get people to buy the sundae.  ).

I can send you the link if you're into jewellery making, though ^_^ 

[janetabroad]

I just posted a question about this in the answer centre...

I made some offers on Sunday, buy one, get one free etc. When I browsed my listings on a pc, all good, I see the offers. On the mobile app - no mention at all. Other than including something in the description, I can't see how app users know there is an offer?

I'm worried now because I just removed all my other incentives for multiple purchases from all the listings (i.e. combined postage deals) because I had added free postage. Now I'm not sure I've done the right thing... 😞 . Not that I sold that many bulk purchases of books, but it does happen 🙂

I'm mainly just trying to clear all my bulky stock to focus on other things.

Cheers

[digital*ghost]

Unfortunately I can't take a look as I don't have a mobile device or access to the app version of eBay. It may (hopefully) be app-specific rather than across all mobile versions, as some of them are not very cart / multiple purchase friendly  😞 , and the banners mention using the cart to access the promo deals. 

[digital*ghost]

Just thought I'd mention a couple of things I've noticed in the last couple of days.

Obviously, there's a range of different promos that may each have their own unique issues, so this just relates to the one I chose, which was a percentage discount after a minimum spend.

If you send a buyer an offer via the 'reply with offer' function, the discount won't apply, even if the purchase otherwise meets the promo conditions (fair enough, I s'pose, no further discounts etc). 

I also had another sale that was well over the minimum spend, and no discount was applied - I'm not 100% sure why. One of the listings was newly created just for the buyer, so I thought it might be something to do with that (like how you can't put items on sale until they have been listed for 7 days), though I would think promos work differently, with ones available like buy 1 get 1 free etc, as that would be a good way to introduce a new product. Obviously I honoured the advertised discount and refunded the extra paid, but kind of annoying I had to (FVF difference was negligible, but would have been nicer not to be charged for it). 

[jensmanchester-australia]

I also had another sale that was well over the minimum spend, and no discount was applied - I'm not 100% sure why. One of the listings was newly created just for the buyer, so I thought it might be something to do with that (like how you can't put items on sale until they have been listed for 7 days), though I would think promos work differently, with ones available like buy 1 get 1 free etc, as that would be a good way to introduce a new product. Obviously I honoured the advertised discount and refunded the extra paid, but kind of annoying I had to (FVF difference was negligible, but would have been nicer not to be charged for it). 

Items don't need to be listed for 7 days for promotions manager however new items listed after a promotion has started will not be included in a promotion which is already running.

I also had another sale that was well over the minimum spend, and no discount was applied - I'm not 100% sure why

My understanding is if they don't use the cart feature the discount is not applied.

[digital*ghost]

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@jensmanchester-australia wrote:

Items don't need to be listed for 7 days for promotions manager however new items listed after a promotion has started will not be included in a promotion which is already running.

I also had another sale that was well over the minimum spend, and no discount was applied - I'm not 100% sure why

My understanding is if they don't use the cart feature the discount is not applied.

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Aaah ok, thanks 🙂 makes sense, as not everyone wants to apply promotions to new products (I just assumed it would as I applied it fairly broadly to a bunch of my store categories - probably asking too much to hope for that to be optional, i.e. apply to new listings or not, as some people will be running store-wide promotions intended to be for all items and it could be quite a pain to update the promos each time new listings are added). 

Also a pity if it only works by using the cart (i.e. adding items to it prior to purchase / payment), as that has the potential to create problems and misunderstandings, despite eBay mentioning it on the listing pages. The buyer I sent the offer to was the same buyer who purchased the other order over my minimum spend, and they mentioned they weren't able to add additional items to the initial purchase so paid for that separately, then bought the rest. I'm presuming they wanted the first confirmed purchase to be included in the cart and only go through once, but that wasn't possible. I think they use a mobile though, so I'm not sure if it's just to do with the app or not. 

[jfmgray]

With Promotions Manager, does anyone know if it is possible to send a promotion to my store followers without having to list their IDs individually (ie you get an option to invite store followers??)

Thanks

[digital*ghost]

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@jfmgray wrote:

With Promotions Manager, does anyone know if it is possible to send a promotion to my store followers without having to list their IDs individually (ie you get an option to invite store followers??)

Thanks

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I'm mostly assuming, but I would think the answer is no - primary reason being there is a difference between a follower and a subscriber. Followers basically have quick access to your store, see new listings on the home page and the like. Subscribers have actually confirmed they want to receive email marketing, and while subscribers are likely to be followers, followers aren't necessarily subscribers.

The easiest thing would be to create a promo and generate a customised store email for subscribers (that way, you won't tick anyone off by what it technically spamming people who haven't signed up for it), and maybe make an announcement somewhere that email subscribers get exclusive offers? (which you can do via the codeless voucher promo). 

[jfmgray]

Makes sense - thanks