eBay announced today it has expanded its coupon feature for Stores. Sellers who pay extra for a Store subscription can now send coded coupons to “buyer groups.”
If you haven’t sold on eBay for a while, coupons may sound more advanced than what you’re used to on the platform, but the coded coupon feature launched last year, announced in the April Spring Seller Update. Since launch, sellers have been able to show coupon codes publicly on eBay.com or share them privately – and they can send a printed coupon codes inside orders to encourage repeat purchases.
Months later, eBay announced a new buyer-groups coded coupon capability in the Fall Seller Update, but wasn’t officially announced until today when it explained: “Now with buyer groups, you can send your coded coupons in bulk to specific groups of buyers.”
eBay provided information today on why Store owners might wish to share coded coupons with buyer groups:
- Encourage loyalty: Share your coded coupons with a group of buyers who’ve previously purchased from you.
- Flexibility: Buyer groups give you more control and flexibility to offer discounts without lowering the item’s price.
- Open up new opportunities: Define category-specific buyer groups to use when your seasonal inventory has the most potential to sell.
However, sellers have reported that the latter capability is not yet available.
The eBay page on coded coupons for buyer groups describes a challenge worth noting: “Please be aware that the same buyer can’t receive more than one coded coupon from you within a 14-day period, so make sure you choose the most relevant buyers to receive your codes.”
eBay also pointed out last fall a positive, stating sellers would be able to measure the success of coded coupon campaigns: “Within the new segmentation section in the Seller Hub Marketing tab, you’ll have access to data to monitor your campaign activity. In the future, you’ll see additional reporting capabilities that you’ll be able to use to measure the success of your campaigns.”
The following YouTube video explains how coded coupons work on eBay.
