How to Make MORE Money on eBay Running Sales in Your eBay Store

Recently, I was asked about running sales on eBay. The reseller wanted to know if I used eBay’s markdown manager, what types of sales I ran, and when I ran those sales (weekdays vs. weekends).

When it comes to running sales on eBay, I absolutely do run sales. I love it!

A lot of people say that they don’t run sales, but for me, I love to run sales. Take a look at any big box store. Look at Target and Walmart. They’ve always got everything on sale. Prices are discounted or slashed in half.

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People Love a Good Sale
It’s something about human psychology. When someone sees that something is on sale, it creates urgency. I’ll tell you right now, if you try to sell something without creating urgency, you’re going up a hill.

But if you create urgency, even if it isn’t necessarily true—such as a “discounted” price—you have that much better of a chance of selling the item. People buy when they are forced into doing so—when there’s urgency. By creating that urgency—the sale that is going to end in 48 hours—it prompts someone to act.

Now, if you do want to run a sale on eBay, I believe you need to have a store. I’ve heard rumors that you could run sales without a store, but I’ve never figured out how to do it. It’s one reason to upgrade to the basic store if you can. There are a lot of benefits to having a store. By having a store, you’re going to have the ability to access the markdown manager, which in turn allows you to run sales.

Also, I have a feeling—and this is kind of like bro science—that the eBay algorithm helps to rank sellers better that are running a sale. Why? I think eBay realizes that when a sale is being run, it creates that urgency and there’s a better chance of that item being sold. So, of course, eBay’s in the business of selling items because that creates more repeat customers if it’s a good experience. But also they get a cut on the fees and make a percentage and all that good stuff.

How Long Should a Sale Run?
The duration of a sale is really up to you. For me, I typically like to do it like a week at a time, maybe even 10 days. Typically, I like to do 10 or 15 percent off. But if I ever feel like I need cash or want to get things moving, sometimes I’ll move it up to 20 to 25 percent discount.

That’s really big right there, and that’s going to help your listing stand out. Granted, I do mostly Buy It Now with a Best Offer, so I don’t necessarily have to cut it 30 or 40 percent if it’s a really stale item. Typically with the Best Offer you’re going to get people low balling you or offering what they feel is a fair price.

I love to have sales running pretty much at all times. There are times where I drop the ball and for one reason or another forget to run a sale. But ideally I would like to have a sale running at all times. I like to create urgency, and I do believe it helps me in the search engine.

Should You Run a Sale on a Weekend or Weekday?
For me, it really doesn’t matter. Again, I like to run my sales for at least a week. I’d say ideally, Monday through Friday would probably be good. The weekends people are probably out and about or hanging out with their family. I’m just guessing they’re probably not going to be spending as much money. I’d say they’d probably be spending more money at retail stores.

So if you want to run five-day sales, maybe try Monday through Friday, although I’ve heard that people do really well on Sundays. But again, if you ask 10 sellers, you get 10 different responses.

The key is just to run the sale. Be sure to upgrade to the basic store. You’re going to get a lot more benefits as well, including discounts on fees, the ability to create a nice- looking store, use of the markdown manager, and a whole host of things.

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment with Sales
Just run your sale. Experiment. Try out all different types of sales and different durations. The cool thing about the markdown manager is you can actually choose individual listings to run a sale on. If you have 100 items, you can pick and choose which ones are going to be cut in price based on the sale.

Again, at the end of the day, just start running sales. It’s going to help you to boost sales, it’s going to help with cash flow, and it’s going to help items move out your store.

Half the battle is just staying motivated and inspired. The more items you get moving out your door, the more you can focus on your business and have those homeruns that sell—even without a sale.