The problem
Offers arrive all day and buyers move on if nobody answers. If a reseller gets 60 offers a month at 3 minutes each, and spends 20 minutes a week sending offers to watchers, that's 180 + 86 = 266 minutes, 4.4 hours a month, plus sales lost while offers sit unanswered.
What the AI does
eBay's Best Offer settings let you set an upper and lower limit on each listing. Offers at or above the upper limit are accepted and the buyer is told to pay; offers below the lower limit are declined; anything in between comes to you. Buyers don't see your limits, and the upper limit must be below the Buy It Now price. For people watching an item or with it in their basket, you can send an offer at least 5% below the Buy It Now price to the 30 most recent interested buyers, valid for 96 hours. Turn on 'Send automated offer' with start and end dates and eBay keeps sending it to new interested buyers; Shop subscribers can also set rules by price range or category for up to 150 days.
A worked example
A reseller in Sheffield, registered as a business seller, lists second-hand branded clothing and homeware and has about 300 live listings and gets about 60 Best Offers a month. The owner sets limits on every listing and turns on automated offers for items with watchers.
Before
60 offers at 3 minutes (180 minutes) plus 20 minutes a week sending offers (20 x 4.3 = 86 minutes): 266 minutes, 4.4 hours a month
After
About 20 offers a month fall between the limits and need a decision at 3 minutes (60 minutes), plus 10 minutes a month checking automated offers: 70 minutes, 1.2 hours a month
What it's worth
About 3.3 hours a month saved (196 minutes), worth around $86£65€77A$125C$122 if your time is worth $27£20€24A$38C$38 an hour. The settings are free; eBay's normal selling fees apply to every sale. Sales won from faster answers aren't counted.
How to set it up
- Work out a floor price for each item from what you paid, eBay's fees and postage.
- Set the lower limit at or above that floor and the upper limit at a price you would always accept, below Buy It Now.
- In Seller Hub, filter Active Listings by 'Send offers - eligible' and send offers to watchers on your slowest items.
- Turn on 'Send automated offer' with an end date for items you are happy to discount.
- Check your offers page every day or two; offers with extra terms still need you.
What goes wrong
- Automatic responses don't work with a Discounts Manager sale event, when a buyer adds terms to an offer, or in some categories, so not every offer is handled for you.
- A lower limit set without counting fees and postage can accept offers that lose money; recheck limits when you change a price.
- If the buyer clicked your Promoted Listings general ad in the last 30 days, the ad fee is charged on the accepted offer too.
- Discounting too readily teaches regular buyers to wait for an offer; keep automated offers to slow stock.