Ebay 'Best Offer' - do buyers find it difficult to use?

bxboards

Hi

I use Ebay 'best offer' with BIN.

I find a lot of people seem to reach for e-mail and ask 'what is your best price?' rather than use the 'make offer' button. I think about 70% of my seller questions are asking what is my best price, or what is the lowest I'll accept!

I use 'Best Offer' as it's automated and I don't want to get into pricing discussions by e-mail, but due to the volume of questions I get about this, I can assume the process isn't clear, and buyers seem to need to e-mail.

When I ask them to make the offer via the best offer button on the listing, they never do, yet the only way they can buy is to make an accepted offer via that process.

So..is 'best offer' unclear to buyers and can I make it easier for my buyers to use it without feeling the need to e-mail me first?

TIA

sequence

Yes, yes, and yes. Wait until they actually get round to making the offer and don't realise they're offering per item and not in total! The number of offers I have to fix because they don't understand the process... It should be simple, but this is ebay!

rossireps

It's easy to do

mrcol1000

Do not bother with Best Offer anymore. Very rare anyone made an offer, they usually just pay full price. The rare offers I did get were normally quite silly and automatically get rejected.

Rev

It's easy enough to use but as a buyer I find it pointless.

Why do buyers email and ask? Because the majority of sellers (in my experience) ignore best offers, leaving me hanging for 48 hours unable to buy elsewhere on the off chance they accept. I would understand if I made stupid offers but I usually knock £2-£10 off depending on what the item is and its price.


I make an offer. Seller ignores it. I'm left hanging. If I email they can reply or not as they choose but I'm still free to buy elsewhere and not sat waiting for some seller to deem me worthy of a reply.


I don't email sellers myself but can see why some do. I don't make best offers any more. Simply use buy it now.

flashg67

Good points made above.

Also, buyers are restricted to three(?) offers on an item so are maybe sounding you out so as not to waste offers, but still get a lower price

bxboards

Thanks for the feedback.

I use 'auto reject' so buyers are never left hanging, they get an instant response if too low and a very quick response if accepted, but I'm I finding buyers contact me first before making any sort of offer. The system is mostly automated, so and its much easier for a buyer to just type 3 or 4 numbers into a box and hit submit, rather than e-mail me, and then wait for a response. And honestly speaking, I never have a 'best price' anyway, as lot depends on where the buyer is located, and how much it will cost me to ship.

Baffling to me, but as I said, buyers either refuse to use the offer process, and seem to be want to be told what to type in the box, which really defeats the whole point. It's quicker for them to use, but 70% of my questions are asking how much I want for it, when the BIN price is a bit of a clue!

Frustrating - seems generally buyers don't like it for some reason, even though it gives them a chance of a saving if only they'd use it!

RFW

bxboards wrote: »

Frustrating - seems generally buyers don't like it for some reason, even though it gives them a chance of a saving if only they'd use it!

I agree, buyers just don't like it.
Several years ago, before best offer, I was at some Ebay event and asked a representative if there was ever going to be a way to reduce prices on multiple purchases. My reply was that best offer was on its way. That was essentially what I tried to use it for, so for some items I would have on the listing that if they purchase two or more lots they would get a discount, if they used it. It rarely happened, even though there were multiple purchases.

Now, for shop sellers, Ebay has a system to reduce for multiple purchases, so best offer is no longer necessary for that.

I'd argue that it was now something Ebay could live without, it makes them look cheap and devalues some auctions.

Rev

bxboards wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback.

I use 'auto reject' so buyers are never left hanging, they get an instant response if too low and a very quick response if accepted, but I'm I finding buyers contact me first before making any sort of offer. The system is mostly automated, so and its much easier for a buyer to just type 3 or 4 numbers into a box and hit submit, rather than e-mail me, and then wait for a response. And honestly speaking, I never have a 'best price' anyway, as lot depends on where the buyer is located, and how much it will cost me to ship.

Baffling to me, but as I said, buyers either refuse to use the offer process, and seem to be want to be told what to type in the box, which really defeats the whole point. It's quicker for them to use, but 70% of my questions are asking how much I want for it, when the BIN price is a bit of a clue!

Frustrating - seems generally buyers don't like it for some reason, even though it gives them a chance of a saving if only they'd use it!

From my experience you're in the minority responding promptly to best offers.


Most sellers just ignore the offer. The only time I have had a response is I assume when they have it set to auto decline Because the reply has been near instant. And if you're auto declining offers which are £2 less than the buy it now why have it enabled in the first place since you're obviously not flexible at all with the price.


And I don't mean £2 less on a £3/£4/£5 I would only offer £2 less if the item was £15-£20.


I personally now just ignore items with a best offer and will pay a little extra and just use the buy it now.

bxboards

Rev wrote: »

The only time I have had a response is I assume when they have it set to auto decline Because the reply has been near instant.

Yes, this is auto-decline.

It's much quicker for a buyer to, for example offer 80 on 100 pound item, and have it instantly declined, rather than send an e-mail and wait for a response.

For example at 2:35am I got a 'will you accept xxx?' question - by the time I'd got up this morning, had my coffee, someone else had used BIN. If the person at 2:35am had just made the offer, theyd've got the item. But they never did, and choose to write an e-mail at 2:35am when only owls are wide awake, and in the meantime someone had used BIN.

Very odd - I can see from this thread buyers hate it, but I just don't understand why, when it's much quicker to use the process than compose an e-mail!!!:mad:

It's better for me as a seller if I'm selling at full price, but buyers seem to be happy to go outside the process, and miss out.

RFW

bxboards wrote: »

Very odd - I can see from this thread buyers hate it, but I just don't understand why, when it's much quicker to use the process than compose an e-mail!!!:mad:

Oddly enough I had a different view on that. I had a few buyers who would put in silly low offers (5-10% of list price) that were rejected but would have been happy to pay 80-90% which could have been acceptable. I had in the listings to email me, but people rarely did.

Customers will do exactly the opposite of what you want them to anyway.

I'd guess best offer works better in some categories than others but I've no knowledge of that. Buyers and sellers seem to have a range of views of how to use it. I've seen some sellers accept 10% of list price so can understand buyers chancing it. I've also seen sellers who wouldn't accept 99% of list price.