Amazon has added a new column under the Manage Inventory list for Business Price. There is a sub-heading under the Business Price column, “Add Quantity Discounts”. This one intrigued me. There are several books/media items for which I have multiple copies. These items are slow-movers. Some of these books are frequently used in the classroom or as supplemental learning aids.
In an effect to boost sales and clear out excess inventory, I decided to take Amazon up on its offer to “Add Quantity Discounts.” It is too early to tell if this strategy will work but I will let you know the results
Has anyone offered quantity discounts on Amazon? Booksellers especially. Thanks.
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We have an Amazon Business Prime account and I can tell you these discounts DO entice me to buy items that offer the discount. Keep us posted on whether sales increase as I’m curious myself.
-Ana
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I don’t sell book, but I did set up some business prices for my handmade jewelry. Since Amazon’s suggestion on business price was only 1% off, so why not give it a try. I did notice the quantity discount there, and set that up at the same time. I started in May, just a couple, then adding a few every now and then, but so far there hasn’t been a single bite.
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I’m not a bookseller but I use Promotions (on the advertising drop down menu) to offer quantity discounts on some seller fulfilled offers and it does encourage larger orders. You can narrow inclusion by sku*, or multiple skus so they can combine different items for the discount. This way it is not limited to business buyers.
One drawback is an end date is required, so I have to recreate them when that is reached. I schedule them for 6 months so it’s not too much trouble.
- using sku to designate inclusion allows me to offer the promotion on only seller fulfilled offers for ASINs that I also have in FBA.
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I do not on Amazon but I do on eBay for everything (unless there are MAP issues).
Watch out for some jerk getting ‘creative’ and buying multiples to get the discount and then deciding they ‘no longer need’ the excess.
I had that with a couple people on eBay (probably Amazon buyers) and I had to explain that they would only get the refund at the lowest level since they no longer deserved the price break AND would pay for return shipping since that was their choice.
Shockingly the items never came back but on Amazon I’m guessing it would be a different story and more difficult to fix the pricing differences.
Of course, on eBay these guys were blocked immediately and that can’t happen on Amazon either.
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Thanks for mentioning this idea. I set up one for just one ASIN for a day to see what it looks like when it goes live. If all looks good, I’ll set up new one tomorrow with more ASINs.
One question, for this kind of Promotion, can the seller discontinue it before the set end day?
If so, if I set a promotion of several ASINs in one go, will I be able to discontinue one of the ASINs or do I have to discontinue the whole promotion?
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Yes
Whole Promotion
Edit … or you could set an ASIN to zero quantity if it is FBM and retain the rest
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I set up my promotions separate for each ASIN, but my products are replenished and get repeat orders; unlike books that may not be restocked.
Edit - you are welcome!
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This morning, just to get a feel of how this works, I set up a Buy 2, get 3% off Promotion, just one ASIN.
It was active at 2PM, I just checked it, and was surprised to find there was nothing about this promotion on the product page, but when I did a search, under thumbnail photo of the item, it did show it:
It was not very eye catching, but at least it’s there. But why there is nothing about this promotion is showing on the product detail page?
Is that normal?
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If there are more than one seller, it only appears on the one seller’s offer.
It takes time to propagate through the system and may require you to refresh your browser and/or clear cookies to show up.
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It’s a Handmade listing, so there is only one seller, me. Where does it usually show on the product detail page, right under the price?
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Below the product price. Unfortunately, it is a bit overshadowed by the Prime Visa promotion.
More space between them, different font colors, it would be nice if they’d do something to help that situation
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True, but THAT would take away from what is going to make them more money – the credit card they are promoting.
They might make a few cents LESS on the discounted items so the priority is always going to be what makes MORE for Amazon in the long (and short) term.
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They can still promote their credit card first, as it is, but the current presentation is misleading, it looks like they could get a discount if they sign up for the credit card. A physical line of separation or even an extra line or two of space would improve the layout.
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Does your promotion display show on the detail page now?
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No it still nothing on product detail page, but does on search result.
The promotion was active 2 PM yesterday, so maybe it hasn’t been long enough? Or maybe Handmade product detail page doesn’t work the same as the regular market side detail page?
I extended the promotion for a few days, and will keep checking the detail page to see if anything changes.
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It should have been long enough.
I’m suspicious this is the reason. If so, that’s poor.
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Well, at least the promotion is showing on search result, but hopefully when buyer see the promotion from search result and click through to the product page, they don’t get confused and decide to leave instead of making purchase.
This has been worth to try, no worst than before making the promotion.
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