Creative Compulsion

I think a lot of people have been waiting for something like this for a long time. eBay’s new Markdown Manager will allow store owners to hold virtual sales on their items. I haven’t delved too far into it, but it appears you can mark down a single item, sub-category, whole category or even your entire store. But, as we’ve come to expect, the name GlitchBay has been earned yet again.

From Ina Steiner’s Auctionbytes today:

Sellers welcomed eBay’s new Markdown Manager feature that allows them to put items on sale, but technical glitches are putting a damper on their enthusiasm. eBay notified developers of the problems, though it did not put an announcement on the Systems Announcement Board.

There are a number of ongoing issues with the “Markdown Manager” feature on the eBay.com site. Sales created through the API (which affects listings submitted via seller tools) are not becoming active at the scheduled time. Sellers also reported the opposite problem. A thread on the eBay Stores board relates sellers who put items for sale for a limited time, only to have the sale never end. “I had a one-day fashion jewelry sale on February 1st which never ended,” wrote one seller.

Nice try eBay. I attempted to use it to put a category on sale for the month of February. No go. No sale. Guess I better watch it carefully or my whole store may be on sale for the remainder of the year. Honestly, I think this will be a very useful tool for sellers once they get it working correctly. If you haven’t used Markdown Manager yet, you can get to it by viewing your Selling Manager main page and clicking the link under Manage My Store. Alternatively, go to Manage My Subscriptions -> Manage My Store -> Item Promotion -> Markdown Manager. Have fun!