Sending bulk offers to eBay buyers is a valuable tool in the tool shed. Being able to send out offers to multiple folks at once is incredibly useful, and with a basic knowledge of how it works will become a great tool for you. It is also not available on mobile, so to get access to it you need to be working from the desktop site. There is potential with this to make some pretty big mistakes, so follow along carefully.
Choose Who Gets Offers
You can simply select all of the available offers and send them all at once. However, there may be some items that you don’t want to discount, like things that are brand new listings or are priced below market value. When a potential buyer clicks on the heart to “watch” the item they become available to receive an offer from you.
Side note: It is possible to have 0 views and more than 0 watchers. From mobile you can click the heart without opening the listing.
After clicking “listings eligible to send offers” use the check boxes to select who is getting an offer. Go to the big blue Send Offers button to advance to the main screen.
Let’s Make A Deal
Now that you’re in the offer screen you have some options. You aren’t able to set a price to send out to buyers, instead you have a flat percentage discount. If you want to send a specific dollar amount you have to do it individually.
The amount you want to discount is up to you, and should have already been factored in to your base price and shipping costs. I believe it won’t let you discount less than 5%, and most people will simply ignore an offer less than 10%. Conversions will increase the higher you discount, so making some money quickly is an option if you’re willing to offer greater savings.
Using The Offer Message
A very useful, but often overlooked function here is the message box. This is one of many spots for a “call to action” that eBay puts into the system for us that I think most people simply overlook. It’s populated with a generic message about a good deal, but you can put in whatever you want.
- Get your order in before the holiday rush.
- Orders placed today/tonight will ship first thing in the morning.
- Let’s go (whatever team’s stuff you’re selling).
- Orders in today will ship before the weekend.
I’ve done no record keeping or testing on whether or not this converts the sale more often. However, I know that any personalized touch that can be put on the transaction along the way will convert more over the long term. One of the biggest benefits of eBay is dealing with an actual human as the seller, so any way to emphasize that fact will help greatly.
Once your discount percentage and message are entered hit the Send button. Everyone who was a watcher of your items just had their phone go off in their pocket with a notification from you with your offer.
Watch The Money Pour In
I’m kidding for sure, but your conversion rate will jump with an aggressive offer strategy. For the period of 4/21 to 5/21/22 my conversions from “Seller Initiated Offers” is 21.7% of my total sales. Would that inventory have sold anyway? Maybe, but maybe doesn’t buy more inventory. I’ll take a confirmed sale over a hypothetical one any day.
I’ve veered a bit off topic, but using eBay bulk offers this way will help you increase conversions and improve buyer relations. Helping both to increase sales and your feedback rating.
