Overview
In this article you will learn how to manage your eBay store, first by choosing the best business policy for each product listing, and then by using both the eBay Deals program and eBay Markdown Manager to increase sales.
eBay Business Policies
eBay Business Policies are account-level policies for shipping, payment, and return details. You can have multiple policies for each policy type, with the option to select a preferred policy for each listing.
By creating a standardized set of business policies, sellers don’t have to manually add them to each new listing they create. This makes it easy to concentrate on the content of each listing. It also automates the process of revising or relisting items.
- Go to Settings > Manage Companies > Select a company.
- In Toolbox, select eBay Settings > Business Profiles.
- Click Select Action > Download Policies from eBay > Go.
- You can also select a default policy on the eBay Attribute Defaults page. From the company page, go to Toolbox > eBay Attribute Defaults. From the Default Return Policy Profile dropdown list, select the policy > Save Settings.
Download eBay Store Categories into Sellercloud
Your Store Categories can be set up within your eBay account and then imported into Sellercloud to be applied to individual products.
To import your Store Categories:
- Go to Settings > Manage Companies > Select a company.
- In Toolbox, select eBay Settings > Store Categories. Here you can view them or click Re-download All Store Categories to import an updated list.
To update Store Categories on individual products:
- Go to Catalog > Manage Catalog > Select a product.
- In Toolbox, select eBay Properties > Edit.
- In the Listing Details panel, use the column headers Store Category 1 and Store Category 2. You can enter either the numeric ID of the category or the text name exactly as they are set in your eBay account.
- Click Save.
Use eBay Daily Deals/Subsidies
eBay Deals is a program in which eBay will credit a merchant for selling specific items to encourage those items to sell at a lower price. For example, if eBay wants a certain cell phone for sale on their site, they will make a deal for the merchant to sell the phone at $50 off the regular price, and eBay will credit the merchant $50 per sale. At the end of the month, eBay will PayPal the total amount to the merchant.
Sellercloud can manage eBay Daily Deals by including the subsidy into the order’s P&L. The actual subsidy amount can be exported to QuickBooks as a paid invoice for accurate accounting.
- Go to Client Settings > Check Enable eBay Subsidy.
- Go to Catalog > Manage Catalog > Select a product.
- In Toolbox, select eBay Properties > Edit.
- In the Pricing panel, check Enable Subsidy. Populate the Subsidy From and Subsidy To fields > enter a Subsidy Amount > Save.
- Revise the eBay price to the negotiated sale price. See the eBay Subsidy Client Settings section below.Note: eBay orders with an order date within the subsidy date range will have the subsidy credited to the P&L. The credit will display in the P&L Adjustments field, and it will be documented in the order note. When the client setting Display Shadow Parent SKU in Manage Orders or Always deduct inventory from Shadow Parent has been enabled, subsidies for a shadow SKU will be applied to the order even if the parent SKU displays in the order.
eBay Subsidy Client Settings
- When Validate Selling Price is greater than < 110 % > of SiteCost is enabled, the revised price can be set at a lower price than the percentage set, provided the following:
- When adding the subsidy amount, the sum is greater than the set percentage (eBay Price + subsidy amount > 110% of Site cost)
- If the subsidy from/to date is within the current date
- Likewise, Put Order on Hold if Selling Price is less than < > % of SiteCost will factor in the eBay subsidy amount to determine if the order should be placed on hold
Manage eBay Promotions
Sellercloud connects to eBay’s Markdown Manager tool to allow sellers to generate a sales promotion for a group of items from within Sellercloud. The promotion can be a price discount, an offer for free shipping, or a combination of a discount and free shipping.
- Sellers must be qualified to post discounted items. Please contact eBay to enable sales promotions on your account
- Please be aware of the eBay Markdown Manager rules in the instructions below. Click here for a complete list of rules and more info about eBay promotions
Manage eBay Promotions in Sellercloud
The Windows Service eBayPromotionServices must be configured on your server for eBay Promotions. Please check with Sellercloud Support before you post promotions.
Automatic Pricing Updates will interfere with the promotion. To maintain a promotion, the eBay Pricing control must be turned off:
- Go to Settings > Manage Companies > Company > eBay General Settings.
- Select Enable eBay Prices Control.
Note: eBay promotions are applied to a selected product group. Read more about Product Groups here.
Create eBay Promotions
- Go to Settings > Manage Companies > Select a company.
- In Toolbox, select eBay Settings > Promotions.
- Click Add New Promotion.
- Complete the promotion profile:
- Promotion Name
- eBay Site – US or eBay Motors
- Promotion Date range – This is the minimum and the maximum duration for a given discount, or fixed price sale. A fixed price sale can last between 1 and 45 days.
- Sale Type – Price discount, free shipping, or discount and free shipping. Free shipping sales on auction-style listings have no end dates. Sales on auction-style listings are valid until the listing ends.
- Discount – Percent of BIN price of Fixed Price markdown (i.e. “5” will reduce all products in promotion by $5.) Items can be discounted 5% to 75%.
- Product Group – Select the product group
- Click Save.
- Select Action > Revise Promotion on eBay > Go. Each product in the group’s price will be revised and updated as the BIN price for the duration of the promotion.
- Click Select Action > View Activity Log > Go to see success and failure notifications as well as uploaded promotion documents.
eBay Business Policies overview
eBay Business Policies are account-level policies for shipping, payment, and return details. You can have multiple policies for each policy type, with the option to select the preferred policy for each listing. The policies inform customers about how sellers manage payment options, shipping services, and returns. By creating a standardized set of business policies, sellers don’t have to manually add them to each new listing they create. This makes it easy to concentrate on the content of each listing and automates the process of revising or relisting items.
Downloading eBay Business Policies
- Open a Company > Toolbox > eBay Settings > General Settings > Manage eBay Business Policies.
- Click Select Action > Download Policies from eBay > Go.
- On the eBay Properties page, there will be dropdowns for each policy type. Select the policy and save. The business policy will override the shipping template and listing defaults. You can also select a default policy in the eBay Attribute Defaults page. To access it, open a Company > Toolbox > eBay Settings > eBay Attribute Defaults.
When updating any policy type with a file import, use the following column headers. Enter the policy’s numerical ID, found on the Manage Business Policies page. See above.
- eBaySellerProfileID_Payment
- eBaySellerProfileID_Returns
- eBaySellerProfileID_Shipping
Downloading eBay Store Categories into Sellercloud
Your Store Categories can be set up within your eBay account, and then imported into Sellercloud to be applied per product.
- To import your Store Categories, open a Company > Toolbox > eBay > Store Categories. Here you can view them or click Re-download All Store Categories to import an updated list.
- To update them on your products, use column headers StoreCategory1 and StoreCategory2. You can enter either the numeric ID of the category or the text name exactly as set in your eBay account.
Using eBay Daily Deals/Subsidies
eBay Deals is a program in which eBay will credit a merchant for selling specific items to encourage them to sell at a lower price. For example, if eBay wants a certain cell phone for sale on their site, they will make a deal for the merchant to sell the phone at $50 off the regular price, and eBay will credit the merchant $50 per sale. At the end of the month, they Paypal the total subsidy to the merchant.
Sellercloud can manage eBay Daily Deals by including the subsidy into the order’s P&L. The actual subsidy amount can be exported to QuickBooks as a paid invoice for accurate accounting (learn more).
Enabling eBay Daily Deals
- Open a product > Toolbox > eBay Properties. The following fields will appear:
- Select Enable Subsidy > Populate the Subsidy From and Subsidy To fields > Enter a Subsidy Amount > Save.
- Revise the eBay price to the negotiated sale price. See Understanding eBay Subsidy Client Settings.
- eBay orders with an order date within the subsidy date range will have the subsidy credited to the P&L. The credit will display in the P&L Adjustments field, and it will be documented in the order note. Subsidies for a shadow SKU will be applied to the order even if the parent SKU displays in the order (when client setting Display Shadow Parent SKU in Manage Orders or Always deduct inventory from Shadow Parent has been enabled).
Understanding eBay Subsidy Client Settings
- When Validate Selling Price is greater than < 110 % > of SiteCost is enabled, the revised price can be set at a lower price than the percentage set, provided the following:
- When adding the subsidy amount, the sum is greater than the set percentage (eBay Price + subsidy amount > 110% of Site cost)
- If the subsidy from/to date is within current date
- Likewise, Put Order on Hold if Selling Price is less than < >% of SiteCost will factor in the eBay subsidy amount to determine if the order should be placed on hold
Managing eBay Promotions
To manage eBay Promotions in Sellercloud:
- The Windows Service eBayPromotionServices must be configured on your server for eBay Promotions. Please check with Sellercloud Support before you post promotions
- Automatic Pricing Updates will interfere with the promotion. To maintain a promotion, the eBay Pricing control must be turned off
- eBay Pricing Control is located under Company > eBay General Settings > Enable eBay Prices Control for both interfaces
- Sellers must be qualified to post discounted items. Please contact eBay to enable sales promotions on your account
- Please be aware of the eBay Markdown Manager rules in the instructions below. Click here for a complete list of rules and more info about eBay promotions
eBay promotions are applied to a selected product group. Read more about Product Groups here.
Creating eBay promotions
- Open a Company > eBay Settings > eBay Promotions.
- Click Add New Promotion.
- Complete the promotion profile.
- Promotion Name
- eBay Site – US or eBay Motors
- Promotion Date range. There are minimum and maximum duration’s for price sales. A fixed price sale can be 1 to 45 days
- Sale Type – Price discount, free shipping, or discount and free shipping. Free shipping sales on auction-style listings have no end dates. Sales on auction-style listings are valid until the listing ends.
- Discount – Percent of BIN price of Fixed Price markdown (i.e. “5” will reduce all product in promotion by $5.) Items can be discounted 5% to 75%
- Product Group – Select the product group
- Select Action > Revise Promotion on eBay > GO. Each product in the group’s price will be revised and updated as the BIN price for the duration of the promotion.
- Click Select Action > View Activity Log > GO to see success and failure notifications as well as uploaded promotion documents.
eBay promotions can be added to a single or multiple groups in bulk with a file import. Use the sample template on the eBay Promotions page. Populate the column as explained above and import.