Scary invitation?

[uk.yourgiftsdelivered]

I received the following email and am a bit baffled so does anyone have any experience? As far as I can tell, if I hit the register button then I could be hit with a promotion I don't know about (but previously hit the button and agrreed) for say 50% and won't find out about the amount I owe for up to 3 months?!?! With 35% fees currently I would be bankrupt if this happened 🤔 have I missed something here? Is anyone clued up on it? The 56% more sales sounds great but can I decide a maximum percentage, or if I want to skip one I feel is too high??

You have been invited to participate in coupon promotions with eBay. Coupon promotions are a powerful tool for sellers to enhance exposure of your listings to more buyers and boost your sales.

Benefits of participating: 

Sales uplift: On average, sellers who participated in coupons saw a sales uplift of 56%*.  

Complimentary marketing support: Eligible listings benefit from enhanced on-site visibility afforded by bold text placements on search results and listing pages to stand out from the crowd, with potential for further visibility via homepage banners, push notifications and marketing emails. 

Discount fully funded up front: When buyers pay for your items at the discounted price, you receive the full price. We'll invoice the appropriate amount to your account within 90 days from the coupon end date.  

Accept your contract and let eBay take care of the rest: Coupon promotions are activated by eBay and your entire inventory is enrolled with the discount applied automatically. You are not required to set up a coded coupon or any other form of discount in Seller Hub. 

If you are interested in participating in coupon promotions, register in the Seller Portal today by simply clicking the ‘Register now’ button below and signing in with your eBay credentials

[eyewear247]

@uk.yourgiftsdelivered 

The 50% you refer too I think is your share of the discount, not 50% of the sale price. I think by registering you are not committing at that stage as later you get a contract with the Ts&Cs that you have to agree to before you are included.

I have recently been invited to take part in the eBay co-funded coupon promotions and am currently on my 2nd coupon promotion and I have seen a reasonable uplift in sales.

You do get a link to log in and veiw the sales made on the promotion so you can work out what you will be invoiced for in around 90 days

Most of the recent and up coming coupon promotions are between 10% and 25% , the current promotion is BLOOM10 which is 10%.

Usually eBay fund 40% of the coupon and the seller funds 60% of the coupon, you initally receive the full price and in 90 days eBay invoice the seller for their  60% share of the discount . 

I am however a little unclear of the VAT implications involved and have been trying to get a straightforward answer from eBay about this but am yet to get a responce that makes sence.

When I make the sale eBay pay out the full (undiscounted) price less the usual fees and invoice me in 90 days for my 60% contribution of the discount, the invoice/ packing sheet I print off shows the inclusive VAT for the full price which I have to account for. However if the full item price was £100 (inclusive of VAT)  and the buyer used a 20% off coupon they would of only paid £80 (inclusive of VAT) , that seems to me that I am accounting for VAT on £20 that the buyer did not pay.

[the-nutwood-collection]

You need to do the maths, otherwise this promotion will cost you a greater percentage than you'd bargained for.  The devil is in the detail.

As I understand it, eBay charge the normal fees on the undiscounted sale price.  This means that they have recovered part of their share of the discount.  If the discount is 10% and the offer is that eBay funds 40%, you're not recovering £4 of the £10 discount - you're recovering £4 less the fee difference between £90 and £100.

Put the numbers in a spreadsheet (don't forget the transaction charge) and see how much margin you lose.  When I had this offer, because my sales on eBay are typically of low value compared to other sites, it just didn't make sense to accept it.  Also, I'm a little suspicious about the lag between giving the discount and eBay's reimbursement - after 90 days, are sellers going to calculate the actual discount they've given?

Maybe I've misunderstood the offer - I'm sure another seller will put me right if I have.

[toby0711]

Don't do it. I have figured out why EBay have offered such a convoluted discount scheme. The reason why they pay you the full Listing price (and then charge you the discount rate later on) is because you will pay full EBay fees on the full Listing price and not the discounted price. Thereby making EBay lots more money.  So my advice is don't bother.