eBay Send Offer Change Removes Option To Add Coupons, Curtailing Repeat Buyer Activity
UX design changes for eBay's Send Offer functionality appear to have removed the option to add a coupon to be used for a future order when sending seller initiated offers, curtailing an important tool sellers used to help drive repeat buying traffic.
The pop-up for sending offers changed and I no longer see the option to include a coupon code with the offers to be sent. Is anyone else noticing this? Or is the option still there and I am just not finding it?
Here's what the previous version of this pop up looked like:
And here's what it looks like now for those who are seeing the new design:
eBay has made no announcements about this change and some users report still seeing the old design, so it's not clear if this is a glitch/unintentional omission or if eBay is running yet another unannounced test like recent ones involving removing seller names from search results or allowing buyers to make post-sale price matching demands with cancellation requests.
The ability to send coupons along with Seller Initiated Offers was introduced in 2021, with the major selling point being that this tool could help gain repeat buyer momentum and drive additional future sales from returning customers.
Liz Morton
Some sellers were concerned at the time it might cause confusion and frustration for buyers since the coupons cannot be stacked on top of the offer and can only be applied to other items.
But one seller in that community thread said in their experience, buyers seemed to understand how the coupon worked, they had never received any questions or complaints from buyers about it and the coupon code shows an average order size of 8 items, indicating buyers were very happy to use the coupon for an additional purchase - a win/win/win all around for buyers, sellers, and eBay.
It is hard to tell if buyers were getting confused or frustrated with the coupon. In my experience, I would have to say buyers understood. No messages with questions about it and the coupon code shows an average order size of 8 items.
It's hard to believe eBay would want to intentionally hurt repeat buyer business, given the pressure they are under to meet GMV growth forecasts by Q3 or Q4 of this year, but it certainly wouldn't be the first time eBay tested something that made little sense to regular site users or outside observers.
What do you think of eBay removing the ability to send coupons with Seller Initiated Offers? Let us know in the comments below!
