Variations listing on eBay.. 5 March 2022 at 8:57PM edited 5 March 2022 at 8:58PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 5 replies 173 views

se2020

Not sure if this is possible or if anybody knows how to do this?

I know how to make a normal variation listing with options for the buyer and I can see how to add the amount of stock I have into the variations for each item.

But, 
How can I add all items as coming from the same stock?

If I have a 100m coil of rope and I want to offer buyers a choice of 1m, 5m or 10m lengths how can I get it to allocate only 100m in total?

Is there some way I can put in a total quantity of 100?

What I do not want to do is list 10 lots of each for example and find somebody buys them all at once when I don't have enough stock to complete the order.

At the same time I do not want to list lower amounts and then have to keep checking/editing the listing when one size runs out.

Thanks!

soolin

You can’t put a cap on the total amount unfortunately, all you can do is put a sufficient number under each variation to attract interest but which only totals the full amount you have. You can continually adjust the amounts, so for instance if 1m turns out to be the most popular size you can reduce one of the larger amounts and manually relocate that stock to the 1m. 

theoretica

For rope, could you just list 1m and buy X number of them with 100 available and a note they will come as all one length?  So buy multiples, not variations.  May not work for everything, but should for your example.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sadly not OP, you'd to have enough rope to cover the QTY of all lengths listed. 

It is a draw back with eBay, on Etsy you could set QTY as 10 available for 1m, 5m, and 10m then have the QTY reduce for all options each time a purchase made but sadly eBay hasn't copied this idea yet. 

RFW

There are third parties that can do it for you but they're expensive ones.

What I'd do is balance the stocks out and see which ones sell, then delete the poorer sellers. Either that or you can offer discounts on multiple purchases, so instead of 1, 5 and 10 you can just do 1 metre lengths but offer automated discounts for the other lengths.

se2020

Thanks for the tips!
It's pretty much how I thought it was set up.

I am offering set lengths as it works best that way for the postage weight.
Ie, it is a fairly low value item in comparison to the postage cost so if a buyer takes 6x 1m lengths it will cost me the same to post as 1x10m length. Obviously I have adjusted the prices of the length options to reflect this bit that means that, on my listing, it is cheaper for a buyer to purchase the 10m than 8x1m.

I suppose I could just list 1m lengths with a discount for more than one but I can only (I think) discount up to 4 lengths.
I would also have to remove the free postage and add a fixed price plus a charge per additional item but again, I might loose out on the postage if somebody buys just enough to push the parcel into the next weight bracket!