Smaller “Sale” Makes Bigger “Sales” When Selling on eBay!
ByThe crowd thinks that the BIGGER your “sale” is when selling on eBay – the more “sales” you make. But what the crowd doesn’t know is….. they’re wrong!
Here’s PROOF!
Continuing on with our year long case study – we tested having “various percentages off” during a “sale” equally, across two of our eBay test businesses.
Here’s the inside scoop of how it went down……
I took two of our eBay businesses and tested them side by side for 12 months.
Both businesses….
- Are in the exact same market
- Sell the exact same product
- Have the exact same manufacture
- Are well established 4 year old businesses
- Have similar feedback scores and DSR ratings
- Have nearly the same amount of *annual traffic (1,823,425 to 1,824,914) *based on a 4 year average
- Have nearly the same amount of *annual sales volume (1263 units to 1287 units) *based on a 4 year average
- Have nearly the same amount of *annual gross sales ($658,023 to $670,527) *based on a 4 year average
I took both A and B businesses each day and put their items on sale using the exact same amount of “percentage off” to double verify our testing results.
The “sale” would only last 24 hours and then I would change the “percentage off” each day on both businesses to a different amount.
I tested 7 different “percentage off variations”. One for each day of the week and then I repeated the same process again for the next 52 weeks to make sure that all factors would be considered while selling on eBay.
Here are the results:
As you can see, the amount of sales increased across both businesses until we reached the 17% mark and then it started sky diving from there – especially at the 29% and 33% off mark.
So why did the sales drop off when the discounts went higher?
It’s simple – shoppers have become numb to bigger discounts.
And the reason why is because so many people offer unrealistic discounts to try and “lure” shoppers in to buy there stuff.
They think that if they offer a “big FAKE discount” (50-75% off) then buyers will just beat the doors down to buy their products so they can save money.
But what they don’t realize is that today’s shoppers are smarter than ever before. And they’re sick and tired of being lied to with hyped up, over-inflated discounts that aren’t realistic.
CONCLUSION:
If you’re selling a Sharp TV that consumers can buy all day long at a regular price for $1000.00 – don’t offer it for sale at 997.00 and say that it’s 75% off. Consumers see right past that crap and leave.
And the reason why is because they know you’re “lying” to them which just KILLED their trust in you (not to mention the fact that you just insulted their intelligence)!
If you’re going to truly put your items on sale like we do – then make sure that your sale is congruent with the realistic “value” of your offer.
When I tested past the 17% off mark – I knew that I wasn’t being realistic with my market but I wanted to push the envelop so I could prove a point to the crowd.
The bottom line here is that the smaller the “sale” – the BIGGER your “sales” will be in any market (unless you’re in the wrong market).
And remember, when you’re selling on eBay, don’t follow the crowd – the crowd doesn’t know!
I hope this helps 
Have a super great week selling on eBay!
Blessings,
Duane Hope
I was actually hoping to see this sort of study since I was wondering which percentages gave the best results. I’ll apply this to my sales from now on.
I have another slightly unrelated question though, I’m starting to strongly doubt my business/product has potential to grow, you might remember I sell an eBay auction sniper software. In a personal email you had told me my sales could be well over 10 times what they currently are, yet I’m the #1 seller of my type of product on eBay and sell the most of the most expensive product of it’s type.
This means unless I’m wrong I’m already getting almost all eBay sales of this type of product (plus additional products that now sell much better) yet my income doesn’t even make ends meet. I’m curious to know how you got the the number of sales you said I could be having because I don’t see how it’s possible from eBay alone (or were you including my website sales in that estimate?)
Should I find another business/product or is there hope to make more money from my auction sniper sales? I just don’t want to keep working on that product if it has no potential to sell better.
Thank you
Hi Sacha,
I’m going to have to keep this reply short, sweet and to the point because of time limitations.
And due to that factor alone – it may seem like I’m coming across mean, rude or ugly – but I’m not…..
Yes, I remember your email and the hour that I spent reviewing your product, business and market. And I remember the time that I took to write you a “detailed” email explaining all of the things that you need to do right now to make more money in your eBay business.
The reason that you can’t see the “potential” of your market is because you’re ONLY factoring in your sales, your competitions sales and your traffic.
But what you’re not factoring in is all that “traffic” that you’re NOT getting because of your “titles” and “sub titles” along with all of those “sales” that you (and your competition) are missing out on every day because of your “auction pages” (also because of all the other reasons that I listed in the email that I sent you).
Nor are you seeing the “overall size” of your market because of the tree’s in your life that are blocking you from the forrest.
The best advice that I can give anyone is this…..
“Whatever your perception is – that’s what it will be”
On another note…..
The #1 one reason why eBay sellers fail (besides being in the wrong market) is because they won’t let go of their pride and joy.
They’re like a captain of a ship who believes they must “sink with the ship”.
In other words, if your business isn’t making you enough money after slaving for years – then go find another market that will. Don’t go down with the ship – It’s that simple!
But if your business is making you some money right now – then use that time wisely to find another market.
I never enter a market unless it will absolutely create me wealth. And I’ve never missed a market in the last 6 years (and neither has any of my clients) because I follow a proven blueprint for finding outrageously profitable markets with pathetically weak competition.
It’s called the Auction Market Blueprint and it will teach you how to do this step-by-step.
I hope this has helped.
Blessings,
Duane
P.S. I haven’t had time to respond to your other email but here’s the bottom line….
“We are not where we are in life because of people, situations, circumstances or conditions. We are there because of our choices”
Duane
Thanks for taking the losses to show us the results of this case study.
It’s amazing (AMAZING) of you to let us peak into this.
I truly hope people see the value of what you are giving us.
Two comments/questions if I may.
Although I’ve been selling on eBay for several years, I took your course because for the cost of a college textbook, I get to learn from a true master at the top of his game.
However, I couldn’t help but notice that although you made more sales at the 17% discount rate, you actually made more money for that day at the 13% discount mark. Which in itself made my skin crawl once I realized the power of this.
I also would like to add as additional reason as to why I think sales drop once the % discount increases.
The main reason is the one you stated. i.e. Their BS detector goes up and know that huge discounts are usually a big fat lie. But I have observed that at any given time/day/week on eBay, there is a finite # of buyers ready to buy a specific widget. So as a sale starts the buyers jump in and deplete as a sale continues and in your case the % increases.
One last note which came to me while reading and re-reading this blog post.
This is the perfect method of finding the sweet spot for a sale and slowly increasing the % off while watching sales% increase and immediately scaling back when seeing diminishing increases.
WOW. I’m blown away by this case study.
Thanks a million
Ed
I just have to comment on Ed’s astute observation that “However, I couldn’t help but notice that although you made more sales at the 17% discount rate, you actually made more money for that day at the 13% discount mark.”
I also ran those numbers and then applied them to my business. At first blush it looks like a sale at 5%, which gives a sales increase of only 3.3% is not a good deal returning a 1.67% net loss. You’re trading 5% in discounts and getting back only 3.33% more sales.
And at 9% discount you only gain 5.61% more in sales for an even greater net loss of 3.39%. Still doesn’t look like a very good deal.
At 13% discount you finally break a little better than even with 14.86% more in sales, but really? After all that you get only a net increase of 1.86%?
Then at a 17% discount you get 18.24% sales increase, the top increase before it all starts going South, but even at that you only get a 1.24% net gain.
So, what’s the point?
One thing I’ve learned from my coaching calls with Duane is that almost everything he says is the tip of the iceberg. There is always much more behind what he’s telling you. I’ve challenged him on several points and am always rocked back on my heels at the depth of his responses. Duane extensively tests EVERYTHING! And he has the numbers to back up everything he says.
Believe me, he would make more money at the 17% discount simply because it would be built in to his pricing formula – which is exhaustive in accounting for every sales cost. When I set my pricing formula up in Excel it extended way past the width of my monitor. You treat a discount as just one of your sales costs so that any sales increase results in making more money.
Hi Jim
Thanks for the clarification on the pricing formula.
I was assuming a constant price point and only adjusting the discount matrix. But throttling the price point is the way to go.
Now it makes perfect sense.
Thanks for helping me understand this.
Ed
Hi Ed!
Hey Buddy I think you are probably right to assume he was using a fixed price point. I would guess that too simply because he was testing one thing: the effect a discount percentage has on sales volume.
To inject into that a fluctuating price point would contaminate the results. I should have made that distinction in my post, Ed. When you test, you test one thing at a time . . . otherwise you really can’t tell what is causing what.
But when it comes to running your business as opposed to testing, the discount offered is built into your pricing formula as a cost.
I am so grateful he does this kind of stuff! How many of us mere mortals can afford the luxury of testing a concept like that for a year(!) in our business?
Duane has taught me that successful selling is a function of small increases. Small increases can really pile up! Just 1 or 2 percent gains when piled one atop another will cause your competitors to wonder what happened when your profits blast right past them.
Everybody is looking for that one big thing when in fact it’s a hundred little things. Finding what those little things are and then knowing what action to take with them is something most sellers have no idea how to do . . . which is why they will never catch you. And that is called Market Domination!