Client discounts?

[bbqhqnet]

Hi all - does anyone have a successful method for offering client discounts on bulk orders? The only way that I'm aware of, seems to be to do a PayPal refund - but eBay still charge their full percentage fees?

Steve

[clubesquire]

Watching. I have an interest too 🙂

Melina.

[digital*ghost]

Since you have a store, promotions manager would be the best way. https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/SR17-2/Markdown-Manager-Enhancements

You can tailor your promotional discounts to be something like spend $x and get x% discount, or buy x items and get $x (or mix and match the qualifier with the type of discount). You can also limit the exposure of a promotion by creating a coupon code for it, meaning that you can provide that to people in certain circumstances (it will need to be applied by the buyer at checkout stage, though, as it doesn't automatically apply, so there needs top be some form of communication between you and the buyer prior to their purchase, though just have it in your store heading or listings if you wanted, as it requires the buyer to use a special URL)). 

The only one I found I couldn't get to work was buy X item and get X off a specific other item, which I tried to use on items that were sold seperately but frequently sold together. I set the promotion up perfectly (as far as I know), but it just never worked. Apparently some older stores (mine's not really that old, but it was opened in 2011), can have difficulty with promotions. 

I don't use promotions manager very much, though, as I provide bulk order discounts via a very low flat rate postage charge, based on the lowest cost to send a large letter. I also often do special listings, though, because I can't apply the same discount rates to all items as standard, so will set up a custom listing for people who contact me and ask things like how much for X quantity. Because eBay is eBay, you can't really advertise in listings that you can set up personlised options for bulk orders, as words like 'contact me' and 'custom orders' and big red flags to the eBay bots looking for sellers trying to sell off eBay, so you pretty much just have to wait for a buyer to contact you about it. 

[bbqhqnet]

Thanks - it all sounds rather complicated - especially when there is an area on an Invoice, where you can supposedly add a charge, or give a discount. You simply CANNOT - no matter what the Helpdesk says!

[wide-world-of-stamps]

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@bbqhqnet wrote:
Thanks - it all sounds rather complicated - especially when there is an area on an Invoice, where you can supposedly add a charge, or give a discount. You simply CANNOT - no matter what the Helpdesk says!

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Yes, we tried to use that too. 

It will let you add any amount you want, which we do at times when a buyer asks for more of a particular item.

You can also give a discount, as long as it's no more than the postage cost - which is pretty useless as we just adjust the postage cost box itself!

Never tried promotions manager as it seems way too complicated for us.

[digital*ghost]

The discount on an invoice can only be equal to or lower than the postage cost, unfortunately. It's partly because the FVF on items sold is charged as soon as the purchase is confirmed (this is more systematic, by which I mean eBay never thought of discounts being applied to prices post-sale, so they never implemented a system to do it). 

Because postage can be discounted post-sale but pre-payment, when they introduced the FVF on postage, they made it so that it's charged when payment is made instead, but either can't or won't introduce a similar system for item prices.  

[digital*ghost]

Promotions manager can look a bit intimidating, but if you explore all of the options and so forth, it won't take long to get a feel for how it all works. The biggest thing I have a problem with is that because of what I mentioned above (pre-sale discounts are possible, post-sale discounts are not), the promotions discount will only ever work if the buyer uses the add to cart function, meaning if they use "buy it now" on multiple qualifying items (which many long-term eBay members are used to, and old habits die hard), they won't get the discount. (I named the promotions I used "use add to cart to qualify", so the instruction was front and centre). 

When I've used it in the past, I provided a percentage discount after a minimum spend was reached, and applied the promotion to all items in specific store categories (I sell two different types of items - one type buyers really only buy one at a time, and they are niche handcrafted items that don't afford a discount, really. The other type, people buy multiples frequently, so it was easier to provide a discount for multiples. Different promotions will suit different sellers and items, IMHO, you just have to have a bit of an understanding of how your buyers shop, and what will encourage them to take advantage of a promotion that you implement. 

Where it would get complicated is if you wanted to apply different promotions to different items, because it's much harder to inform buyers which items qualify for which discounts. 

[bbqhqnet]

>>>You can also give a discount, as long as it's no more than the postage cost

Yeah, but unfortunately this doesn't work for Free Post 😞 And - when I asked for eBay to look at this process, I was just told it couldn't be done - and then my email address "magically" got blacklisted!

Steve

[purplemon18 · Accepted solution]

I have semi-permanent promotion that gives 10% off for 2 items and 15% off for 3+.  The store banner, promotion description, and listing header all say to use the cart to purchase and get your discount. I think it does help with sales, for example I often get sales for 2-3 items but rarely for more than 3.

Unfortunately, I often get sales for 2-3 items that get no discount. Usually they come through as separate transactions, so the buyer must have used 'buy it now'. Sometimes they are all in the same transaction, so I can only assume that they used the phone app or mobile web store. Apparently those do not apply the discounts either.

I still sometimes get messages from people asking about discounts, and I just politely explain how to use the cart to get these discounts, and it seems to make them happy.

From my perspective since I offer 'free' postage, the end result is that my customers get a combined postage discount, and I don't lose much off my bottom line (sometimes the postage I save is even more than the discount the customer got, so I come out ahead).

This is a screenshot of my promo results. the dark blue is sales dollars after a discount (bought more than one), and the light blue is sales dollars that had no discount (bought only one). As you can see, I get a fair number of multiple item sales. However, it should be noted that I generally only get those on items that it's not hard to convince people to buy more than 1. For example, CDs, or discontinued makeup. It's debatable whether I would have gotten the extra sales or not, but I did get a lift when I implemented the system.

Anyway, the promotions manager is the easiest way to give your customers a bulk discount, and it has the advantage of being transparent, available to all your customers, and something you can highlight. It's also automatic, so no extra work for you.

Here are some quick setup screenshots to help get you started:

choose order discount

use a minimum quantity option, it's the second section.

chose create rules to select a particular category, or all inventory

make your rules, for me I just selected all inventory.

You should be able to manage the rest, give it a title and description, set some dates, etc.

To give a bigger discount for more items purchased, just make a second promotion that runs at the same time (ie 15% off for 3+). The system automatically chooses the better discount (and does not combine them).

The cool thing is that if my customer adds 2 items then goes to their cart, the cart will suggest buying a third item to get a bigger discount.

good luck

[bbqhqnet]

Thanks purplemon - that was the most helpful info that I have received to date - with the exception of one PM that I received. I was able to get all the way into Promotions Manager - but simply couldn't get the "Buy 2+" and get 10% off? That didn't come up as an option for me?

I really like the sound of it (sales are tight these days) and would appreciate understanding what I did wrong? I could have just pressed on - but would have ended up just giving 10% off everything? 【•】_【•】

Steve