Who Benefits from eBay Holiday Flash Sales?

by: smallstuff

I have saved money by buying expensive items otherwise deferred.  As a seller, how would I know if a sale resulted from a flash sale?  It is hard to miss a sale as it is pushed out to my phone via the eBay app.

by: ebayout

"how would I know if a sale resulted from a flash sale?"

You don't. But you do know how many sales did NOT result...the ones that went unsold.
For me, that was 71...sold ONE out of 72.

Sidenote: has anyone ever seen an ad OUTSIDE of ebay touting the flash sales?

by: DeathFromAbove

As a buyer, I am now trained to wait for 15% off day before I buy anything.  There is no urgency.  I almost bought some stuff on 10% day, and just didn't care enough, so I didn't. Glad I waited a week.  if eBay "slashed" their ever-rising fee take, shoved "promoted listings" up their %$#, and actually worked with the freight carriers to get us "amazon-only" USPS, UPS, or FedEx rates - the prices on ebay would lower on their own - and more things would sell.  Everyone makes more money.  But that just makes too much sense.

As a full time seller, I have experienced literally a SINGLE sale on ebay for a "15% off day" since they started them months ago, and it was a sub-$100 item.  My goods are obviously being hidden in one form or another on these days, because I guess my business is not deemed worthy of a subsidized sale for some reason.  "site wide"?  no.

by: Chicago48

Those coupons and discounts & Deals are confusing as heck.  It seems nobody - seller or buyer - knows how to claim a coupon, use it, get the coupon, be apart of the coupon craze.  I don't recall AMZ having coupon days.  I don't recall any other sites having coupon days.  Maybe EB should just have a list of authorized sellers who partake in the coupons, make it a separate tab.  * confusing as heck *

by: bb6

As a seller I never know about these sales. As a buyer I only knew of a sale one day because I went to the main page of ebay. The one day I did see like 15% off, it may have even been in November, I stocked up on shipping supplies that I needed. They definitely did not pull me to the site with the sale. I went to the site because I needed something and I used the coupon.  

by: sasikat9

Just hang on folks. I see 20 percent and maybe even 25 per cent off flash sales before christmas. Ebay is desperate and there is nothing that they can do now but pay people to buy from their site. Just hand on people the best is yet to come.

BUT unfortunately after Dec 25 sales will die. If you think sales are bad now, just wait as they are going to disappear permanently. All to the great leadership of the clowns in the Ivory Tower.

by: WhatsUp2656

I knew NOTHING about any sales. I have had invoice issues going back to May, 2018. With it being $40-$50 each month, you can’t just say well I will just pay it. I called the reps, told they would take care of it, nothing happened, had to call them again and again. Because of this, my products for the most part are very hidden. I guess it’s punishment for demanding my invoices being corrected. I have barely sold anything. For this past weekend, asking about sales, I sold EIGHT items, AND 6 of those were movies on auction. I do the movie thing just to bring traffic to my store. I sell brand new items, have excellent scores, very happy buyers, and nearly begging buyers to shop at my store. U.S. wide family and friends searching for my products, they do not exist.

by: Philo

.... and this is how I found out there was a sale this month there.

by: NoMoreEbay

Here's ebay's notification email list for the sales:

一个@阿育王。印度
马尼什@阿育王。印�
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普里@阿育王。印度
尼廷@阿育王。印度

by: spooky

as a seller past 21 years of unique collectibles and antiques often only one listed on eBay or anywhere, these type promos have ZERO effect. Useless and confusing. I wish eBay would split site to classic eBay & Amazon-lite eBay

by: Barbbie

I didn't get any sale notification. Last 2 weeks dead except for yesterday I suddenly got some sales so maybe that was from the coupon but 3 of those people cancelled. One said a lower price elsewhere and one mentioned needing for Thursday and the delivery date changed on them.

by: eastwestphoto

As a seller I sell specialized USED Collectible camera equipment and a Flash sale is of NO interest to me. My marketplace is a very knowledgeable Collector; who are ONLY interested in acquiring very rare model lenses and cameras.  

by: CanBrit

Saturday's 15% promo didn't results in a single sale. I even emailed recent customers to let them know. How would anyone know that you have to go to eBay to even see the promotion. Why can't they advertise like other normal company's.

I'm in the total dead zone again. One anchor store theorized that there was an issue with the performance calculations. I followed all his suggestions and my figures finally came into the screen. Well that didn't work either. I'm thinking they've ticked off so many people, people aren't bothering where they might have last year.

In addition, the technological mess of the platform, they don't even know what's broken so how can they fix it?

by: DingDong

First time I ever used this, but I did make a purchase with 10% off.

I did notice that I sold 6 items that used the coupons. (The emails had little scissors (coupon) in the title)

It was nice to pay 10% off the item or I would wait until eBucks and try to get 8-10% rewards.

by: BargainzBabylon

I've had good results with those coupons, despite being a small seller of mostly pre-owned items. It's there right on the splash page as soon as one opens the site and it pops up on my  phone.

Agree - there needs to be better advertisement for them to bring people in.  

by: pace306

Oy ........

Because eBay needs to make sales DAILY - ie show Wall Street and the BOD - Flash sales can NEVER be announced "in advance" .............. OR no one would buy anything any other day.

Sure its fleecing your buyers - but thats not whats important here.

If you knew it was %15 on electronics on Tuesday - you would wait till then and not buy anything any other day.

But if you bought your item the Friday (with you not knowing a sale was comming) then ... 1) MAYBE you'de find another item to buy that Tuesday cause of that sale and 2) theres always "plan b" and buying it again on Tuesday would trigger another sale PLUS you could return the first item (if you wanted) and thus eBay now has 2 sales to show Wall Street (since eBay counts returns as sales.)

Never rely on eBay for anything (like logic) - you will only get a migraine!

by: ebayout

15% coupons are a double-edged sword for ebay.
Resulting sales boost their bogus GMV numbers, but they lose 5% on every sale.
Maybe that's why they're not widely advertised.

by: cholechipper

Hi I like the flash coupon, I'll email everyone that hasnt paid yet & give them a heads up, seams lately most of my regulars that buy alot  are waiting to  pay to see if a ebay coupon  pops up, thats a down fall sometimes.  not much I like anymore with ebay, going on my 18th year seliing used clothes & has been my full time income for most of that time, but this is the first year that Iam actually thinking of giving it up,  the managed payments is the last straw.  and I will hold out till the end to sign up for that, only when Iam forced too.  all ebay changes make it harder to be a seller on ebay,  and shipping prices for the usps are going up almost 10-20% January. more to look forward  too. . Im hoping they somehow go back to basics like the good old days.

by: RKTOYS

I can vouch for buyers waiting for flash sales to purchase anything.  Unfortunately, those purchases are more often than not from Chinese vendors with subsidized shipping.  So they do little to benefit small US sellers at least in that case.

I don't really use them either.  Shopping on eBay is already unappealing and I just don't feel like spending enough to make 10%-15% worthwhile.  Usually I just go off site and purchase without the hassle.

by: Lightning

LOVE the flash sales.  On the 14th, a buyer wanted me to sell him a $300 item for $250.  I couldn't, and responded that way.  Next day, the 15% code came out so I contacted him and told him to use the coupon to get approximately the same price he was looking to pay.  So he bought it.  I got my full price, he got his desired buy price.  Ebay took a 5% hit, but I think they can afford it.

I found $500 worth of stuff that just slightly over what I wanted to pay, and with the 15% off, those items became affordable to me.  Saved $71.  Bring on the sales!!!