Participating in discounts on marketplaces: what a seller needs to know about this

Today, most of the consumer market is betting on online shopping. It is fast, profitable, convenient. The modern market has instantly adapted to this trend and now you can buy almost any goods online, order services in any region. Along with classic online stores, specialized trading platforms - marketplaces - are also very popular. They lure buyers with various discounts, sales, special offers. But here the question is different: will such offers be profitable for the seller? Unfortunately, not always.

As part of today's review, we will dwell in detail on the terms of promotions offered today by the largest marketplaces Wildberries, Yandex Market, Ozon. We will tell you how a seller can correctly calculate such discounts so as not to work at a loss. We will talk about such a tool as auto promotions and how they can be canceled if necessary. We will also provide a number of practical recommendations, using which you, as a seller, can take part in marketplace sales in such a way as to make a profit from it.

What are discounts on marketplaces from the seller's point of view

Discounts are one of the most effective tools aimed at stimulating sales. They are widely used in practice simultaneously with loyalty programs, contests, sweepstakes and other activities. Such offers are periodically launched by all sellers. And it doesn't matter whether we are talking about a marketplace, an online store or a traditional supermarket. This is a global practice that is used by sellers to solve a number of key problems:

• ensuring high demand for new products that are just being launched on the market and are not yet known to a wide audience;
• standing out from competitors, attracting buyers' attention to your own products;
• increasing income due to increased sales volumes;
• selling products that have been lying around in the warehouse, those whose expiration date is about to expire;
• selling out past collections when new ones enter the market.

You, as a seller, can set a discount here both as a percentage of the original price and directly in monetary terms. But we would like to draw your attention to the fact that most buyers pay attention to those offers, the discount size of which starts from 15% and more.

Thus, fixed discounts are often provided to users when they buy goods for a certain amount. As an option, the store provides a discount of $10 when ordering goods for at least $100. In this case, the most profitable solution for the buyer would be to buy goods for these same $100. This way, he will receive the maximum possible discount - 10%. If the order amount increases, then the discount size will decrease accordingly. As an option, when buying goods for $150, the percentage discount will already be less than 7%. Fixed discounts are often an option to attract the attention of wholesale buyers. To further stimulate customer interest, they are often set in stages: $10 for a purchase of $100, $20 for a purchase of $150, etc.

Discounts, which are a percentage of the cost of the goods, will in any case be calculated based on a certain amount. So if you buy a product with an initial price of $20 with a 20% discount, then in the end your purchase will cost you $16, and you will save $4. In practice, such a solution often attracts the attention of retail buyers.

However, it is better for business representatives working on marketplaces to combine both options for calculating discounts, focusing on a wider consumer audience. It is also very important to consider which platform you plan to work with. There are many nuances and distinctive features that must be taken into account in order to get the maximum result at the output with minimal risks.

We will dwell on the nuances that exist on the most popular modern marketplaces in more detail.

What you need to know about discounts on Wildberries

Wildberries is one of the most popular marketplaces today. The platform itself is actively working to encourage sellers to launch sales. Here, the main reason for launching such actions is to ensure high traffic and increase the rating of stores, as well as increase sales figures. But, as practice shows, discounts here are not always the seller's decision. Quite often, the marketplace itself obliges sellers to set a discount on goods from time to time. Usually, such a situation is observed during seasonal sales on the eve of holidays or the same Black Friday. Often, such an urgent recommendation comes in the case of the presence of the seller's products in the marketplace warehouses that do not sell well, which is relevant for the FBO model when working with Wildberries.

The sales themselves can be of different types:

1. Discounts. According to the rules of the platform, you can set discounts on products in the amount of 3 to 95%. If you are just starting your work on the platform, then the maximum allowable discount in your case can be only 30%. They will be calculated based on the original price. Moreover, all this is carried out directly at the expense of the seller. The platform itself can select a specific product and offer the seller to set a discount on it. If the seller refuses to do this, the item may be removed from the platform's sales altogether.
2. Birthday discount. If the buyer specifies information about his/her birthday when registering on the platform, the marketplace provides the buyer with a 20% discount in honor of such a significant event. And the most remarkable thing here is that it can apply to any product that this person chooses.
3. Discounts on the lowest prices. The platform applies this solution to products that have already had a minimum price set for the past 3 weeks. Its size is 10%. That is, the platform's services independently analyze the prices of goods, choosing the lowest for the period under study, and then independently offer buyers to purchase this product with a 10% discount. Such a solution is completely uninteresting for the seller, since he initially set the minimum price from the possible. But most sellers agree to such offers from the platform, fearing that their products may be removed from sale. But in the end it often turns out that the product is sold at a price lower than the purchase price.
4. Regular promotions. They are mainly held before some important events, holidays, occasions. We have already said that this could be New Year, March 8, Black Friday, the beginning of the school year, etc.
5. Wildberries discounts. Absolutely all registered buyers of the platform can count on this type of reward. The size of the discount will depend on the whim of the platform itself. In most cases, it is up to 30%. But here the buyer, when choosing a suitable item for himself, cannot know exactly what size of the discount he will receive. That is, it is a kind of lottery, because in some cases the discount can be credited to me at all: 0 is also “up to 30%”, isn't it?

In order to minimize their own risks and not cause negative reactions from the platform, sellers have to be extremely flexible. But it is also very important to know how to properly participate in these promotions.

How should a seller approach promotions on Wildberries?

Wildberries is a marketplace where various special offers are constantly valid for different categories of products. If you, as a seller, want to participate in them, then you just need to look into your personal account, namely in the section “Promotions Calendar”. Here, the relevant information will be updated in real time. This means that you will see what days certain promotions are scheduled for, how long they will last. That is, you will be able to see all the features that are characteristic of them and decide for yourself whether it is advisable to participate.

If you want to participate in the promotion, you will need to click on the corresponding button, and then upload the product codes that will be included in the sale to the form that opens. After that, the marketplace algorithms will automatically register discounts for each of your product items. This will be the minimum possible discount that allows you to participate in this promotion. But you can change this figure at any time, but only upwards.

If you want to set your own discount, you will need to go to your personal account of the WB Partners service. Here, pay attention to the upper horizontal menu, in particular, you are interested in the "Prices and discounts" section. Then you just need to manually specify the appropriate link, upload the data via API or as an XLS file.

The discounts you set will be valid until you cancel them yourself. These actions can also be performed through your personal account. That is, if you decide to stop participating in the promotion, you will need to go back to the "Prices and discounts" section and select the "Actions with XLSX" option from the drop-down menu, and then select the "Update prices and discounts" tab. After that, a window will open with all the products participating in this promotion. Now you need to specify the product codes in the "Product Range" column that you would like to exclude from the promotion. As soon as you save the changes, the system will automatically change the displayed prices.

What are automatic promotions on Wildberries?

If in the previous paragraph we talked about the fact that you, as a seller, can voluntarily participate in certain promotions from the platform, then here we are talking about the fact that the platform can add certain items to its own sales without your consent. Yes, you will be notified about this 7 days before the start of the promotion via a message in your personal account. You can also see it in the "Discount Calendar" in your personal account. A special mark will be displayed next to all planned promotions, indicating that your product has been selected by the platform to participate in the corresponding promotion. In this case, you will be able to plan your own strategy in advance, taking into account such an automatic promotion.

After you click on the corresponding icon, all information about the corresponding offer will open in front of you, including the number of products that will participate in it. Below in the window you will also see how many products you will need to add to such an automatic promotion so that the platform promotes your store in the search and catalog. By the way, such promotion will apply to products participating in the sale.

If you are not satisfied with the Wildberries offer, if you do not want your products to participate in the automatic promotion, you can reject such a request. These tasks should be performed manually in the following sequence:

• Go to the “Discount Calendar” tab, and here select the automatic promotion you would like to refuse. In the window that opens, click on the “Configure product list” button.
• Now you will be redirected to the window where the automatic promotion should be configured. Here, first click on the “Generate file” button, and then select the “Download” option.
• After that, a new window will open on your screen, where information about all the products for which an application for participation in the promotion has been received will be indicated. Next to each item, information about the discount size that will be applied to a particular item on the day the promotion starts is also provided. Here, it is important for you to see all the numbers and understand for yourself the advisability of participating in such an offer. If you are losing money, then it would be more reasonable to refuse altogether.
• If you decide not to participate in such an offer from the site, simply delete from the file those lines that you would like to leave in the auto-promotion. You need to download the file with the remaining products back, and then click on the “Exclude products from the promotion” button.

It seems that there is nothing complicated here. But you should understand that removing a large number of products from the promotional list is fraught with the fact that the site will refuse the proposed promotion. In addition, if you refuse to participate in auto promotions very often, then Wildberries will completely reduce loyalty to you and even those products that you leave active in this promotion will be promoted much worse. So it is important to make a balanced and responsible decision here.

Information about seller discounts on Yandex Market

The Yandex Market rules state that the seller can set discounts on their products in the amount of up to 99%. At the same time, there are no requirements for the minimum discount percentage. But there is one caveat: if you reduce the price of your product by less than 5%, then the discount amount must be at least 500 rubles. You cannot set smaller indicators. If you decide to raise the price of a product directly during the promotion, these changes will not take effect. They will be active only after the promotion ends. This means that you need to initially think through your own participation in the marketplace discounts down to the last detail, otherwise if you miscalculate and the discount turns out to be unprofitable for you. You will still have to sell the product at this price until the end of the promotion.

Yandex Market also allows you to simultaneously add the same product to different special offers, in particular, these can be:

• Discounts. Set as a percentage of the original price of the product. In this case, the potential buyer will be shown both the new price and the discount amount.
• Promo codes. This can be a digital, alphabetic, but most often an alphanumeric code, the entry of which automatically applies the discount to the product added to the cart. In this case, it is optimal for the seller to create a small landing page and place on it all the products that will participate in the promotion. This way, buyers will be able to immediately evaluate their own benefits and choose the products they need.
• Flash promotions. This is a special offer valid for a very limited period of time, literally a few hours.
• Yandex Market bestsellers. Often presented in the form of classic discount promotions or flash promotions. Such items are often displayed on the main page of the marketplace or on a special page dedicated to sales, or on the shelves of products. A separate landing page called “Market Bestsellers” can also be created. Here, 2 categories of promotions can be launched in parallel: “Bestsellers”, which can include absolutely any products, even quite expensive ones, as well as “Super Bestsellers” with stricter restrictions. In particular, product prices should not be higher than those indicated by the marketplace. Accordingly, "Super Bestsellers" receive more effective promotion, as well as a special "Super Price" mark that attracts buyers' attention.

How can I get acquainted with current Yandex Market promotions?

Yandex Market will promote all those products that you add to the marketplace promotions absolutely free of charge. The platform will add them to thematic collections, highlight them in bright colors on the general showcase, and connect built-in promotional filters to them. That is, if you are thinking about promoting your products on Yandex Market, then you should definitely take part in such campaigns.

You can see what promotions are currently active on the site in your personal account, namely in the "Promotion" section. In it, select the "Promotions" option. Here you will find all the information about current offers, including their terms. In particular, the validity period of a particular promotion, the required discount amount, as well as a list of products that can take part in it are indicated. You just need to familiarize yourself with all the possible options and choose the most suitable one for yourself. After that, you click on the icon in the upper right corner, where it says "Add products" and choose from the proposed options the method of adding. We are talking about the fact that you can connect products from one of your stores or from all your accounts to one promotion.

After that, a special template file will open in front of you, where you will need to enter the necessary information on the products. Everything is written here and there should be no difficulties with filling it out. As soon as all the data is in the table, upload it back to the system. Immediately after that, the platform will automatically apply the appropriate discount to the added products.

Creating your own promotion on Yandex Market

Sellers on Yandex Market can not only use the offers that the marketplace posts, but also launch their own promotions. This can be done quite simply, in particular, follow these steps:

1. Go to your personal account and select the “Promotion” section in it. Here we find the “Promotions” tab, and in the drop-down menu, select the “Discounts” option. Here you will be asked to choose the most suitable special offer format: "Discount", "Promo code", "Flash promotion". Just mark the option that suits you.
2. Click the "Create promotion" button and choose the solution that suits you from the options offered: "The cheapest as a gift", "Promo code", "Cheaper in a set".
3. Now you need to set up the promotion itself, namely, set the date and duration of the promotion, the desired discount amount and connect the products that will participate in it. If you choose the option with a promo code, you must specify whether it will be a one-time use or the buyer will be able to use it throughout the entire period of your offer.

Along with manual assignment, you can also automatically add your own products to sales. If you give the platform such permission, it will independently select items that correspond to the current offer and add them to the sale itself. This option is available for discount promotions, flash promotions, “Bestsellers”, but you cannot apply it to promo codes.

If you decide to withdraw your products from the promotion you have chosen, you can do this through the seller's personal account. Go to the “Promotions” section and download the file containing all your promotional products. To do this, you should click on the “Change products” button, then click on “Upload file”, and then select “Upload list”. Make the appropriate changes to this document and upload it back to the platform. The promotion will be deactivated immediately after this. Similar actions can be taken if you want to change the terms of the promotion.

Discounts on Ozon: what a seller needs to know about this

Ozon is the marketplace that is quite actively encouraging sellers to launch various promotional offers today. Here, the discount on goods will be displayed by crossing out the old price and indicating the new one. The new cost of the product will be highlighted in green. The discount amount in percent will also be indicated in the product card. Today, the following types of promotional offers are actively used on this platform:

• Discounts. This means that the full cost of the product will be reduced by a certain percentage. The size of the discount will depend on the terms of the promotion in which your product is participating.
• Additional discounts. This is the so-called "discount on a discount". That is, this promotion includes products that are already covered by a special offer. But if the buyer fulfills additional conditions, for example, purchases 2 items or orders goods for a certain amount, then he can count on another discount.
• Discounts on stock. Launched during a period of grand sales, promotions, involves attracting additional potential customers through various channels of interaction, including television, social networks. In this case, the product item is decorated very brightly, a special balance counter is added to it. As soon as this limit is exhausted, the price of your product will return to the original, that is, to the full price. You, as a seller, will be able to vary the number of items covered by such a promotion.
• Discounts when buying goods for a certain amount. It is assumed that if the order amount in the buyer's basket exceeds the amount you specified, you will provide a discount. The seller specifies the size of such a discount independently.
• A special discount for Ozon Card holders. It can apply to absolutely all products in your store. For some buyers, the price will be full, and for those who decide to pay through the Ozon Card, an additional discount will be calculated. This promotion can be launched by the marketplace itself, and you will be compensated for the difference in price with points. But you, as a seller, can also take part in it or launch such an offer yourself.
• Coupons. These are special code words or promotional codes that can reduce the price of an order by a specific amount or percentage.

Ozon also offers sellers to launch personal discounts for their customers. This means that a buyer can contact you with a request to provide him with a discount on a product he likes. In this case, you can set a discount range from 3% to 35%. At the same time, if the cost of your product is more than 10,000 rubles, then the minimum discount should be 300 rubles. If the buyer adds your product to the cart, but does not place an order within 3 days, then the site itself, on behalf of the buyer, will send you a request for a discount of 5%. If you approve it, the platform will generate a corresponding notification to the potential buyer, thereby stimulating him to complete the order.

Ozon launches a lot of promotions and special offers on the eve of the holidays. Buyers know this well and often postpone their purchases until this period. Therefore, it is in your interests to stimulate them with additional promotions yourself in order to ensure at least partial uniformity of sales.

Getting to know the current Ozon promotions

Ozon launches quite a lot of different promotions throughout the year. As an option, so-called multi-category promotions are held here every month for 11-15 days, which involve direct discounts. Also, thematic offers are often launched here for certain events, be it the beginning of the school year, Black Friday, New Year. You can go to your personal account in the "Promotion" section, and select the "Promotions" tab. Against the background of all the offers, multi-category promotions will stand out with their name: "Marketplace promo - …". If any of the offers interests you, and you would like to take part in it, then you need to do the following:

1. Select the promotion that best suits your preferences. We recommend paying special attention to the categories of goods that fall under its terms, the range of discounts, and the timing.
2. Download the appropriate template from the platform and enter all the relevant information into it. These will be product codes, discount sizes, quantity restrictions, if applicable.
3. The finished file will need to be uploaded back to the marketplace. Immediately after that, the program will automatically apply all the changes made.

We recommend that you regularly monitor the events calendar to understand what promotions Ozon plans to launch and decide for yourself whether it is advisable to use them. We would also like to draw your attention to the fact that the marketplace actively promotes its offers, displays banners with discounted products on the main page, in product catalogs, on pages with promotions. It also sends out push notifications or email. This means that your offers will not go unnoticed.

You can also launch your own promotion on Ozon. To do this, simply set all the conditions through your personal account. Go to the "Products and Prices" catalog, and then to the "Product Prices" tab. Here you need to select the item that you plan to launch in the promotion, and then go to its card and edit the prices. You can also launch changes via an XLS file. To do this, in the same section “Products and Prices” you should select the “Update Prices” tab, download the existing template, make adjustments and perform a reverse upload.

If the site launches its own promotion and attracts your products to it, then the difference between your cost and the selling price will be paid by the marketplace. Such products are marked with a special label “Ozon Promotion”.

Features of auto promotions on Ozon

Along with other special offers, the Ozon marketplace also launches automatic promotions from time to time. Most of them apply to products that are in high demand and will give good results during the next sale. To identify such product categories, the platform regularly analyzes product cards and sales from them. If your products are selected by the platform, the system will send you a corresponding notification. It should come to you at least 3 days before the start of the promotion.

If such an offer is not relevant for you, you can refuse it by manually deleting your own products from the list. But if you miss this notification, the products will automatically go on sale. It is believed that if you ignored the warning, it means you agree with the terms. It is noteworthy that in some cases the marketplace, on the contrary, increases the price within the framework of automatic promotions. In addition, you will have the opportunity to specify a minimum threshold price below which you do not want to sell your own products. This is done to ensure that you do not suffer from such offers and do not sell products at a loss.

To refuse automatic promotions, you need to perform the following steps:

1. Go to your personal seller account and select the "Promotion" tab there. From the drop-down list, click on the "Promotions" option. A new page will open in front of you, where you need to find the "Participating" tab. Here you will find all the products that the site has selected to participate in this promotion.
2. Carefully study all the items that will be presented here. The products that will be highlighted in yellow were added by the site itself. Particular attention should be paid to the "Discount on promotion" column to understand how profitable such a sale will be for you. If you see that the figure is given with a “-” sign, then this indicates a price increase.
3. If the conditions offered by the marketplace do not suit you, then you simply select the corresponding item in the list, mark it with a tick in the square near the beginning of the line and click on the “Delete” button in the upper right corner of the table.

We would like to draw your attention to the fact that until recently, the sites required independent connection of auto promotions. But today, on the contrary, products are added automatically, but you need to check the conditions and delete those items where the sale parameters do not suit you.

How to properly launch discounts on marketplaces

To avoid finding yourself in a situation where the promotion you launched or an offer from a marketplace in which you agreed to participate did not negatively affect the development of your business, use the following recommendations:

1. If you specify a discount, you can also change the price. Most marketplaces control the discount size, but do not monitor the initial cost. Therefore, if at subsequent stages you increase the initial price of your products, then, accordingly, with the same discount size, your level of income from sales will be higher. But it is still advisable to initially calculate the discount size so that participation in sales is profitable for you.
2. First of all, think about yourself, about your own income. You should not refuse marketplace offers to participate in sales, as this will negatively affect the overall promotion of your products on the site. But you can make sure that this offer is profitable not only for buyers, but also for you. Alternatively, if you are offered a 20% discount on goods, then you can raise the price by 15%. As a result, buyers will save 5% on the purchase, and you will not be the loser. But here you need to be extremely careful, since a number of marketplaces, such as Wildberries, offer the option of tracking price dynamics. That is, buyers can see how the cost of your products has changed. If they see that you raised the price just before the start of the promotion, they may refuse to buy.
3. Launch a sale not on specific products, but on entire categories. This way, your customers will be able to choose the most suitable products for themselves within the framework of the special offer. A good option would be to offer discounts on products that have been lying around in your warehouse for a while. Most likely, the presence of a discount will attract the attention of customers.
4. Before launching any promotion, monitor your competitors' prices. This way, you can assess how profitable your product will be for a potential buyer. Don't copy the pricing policy of other sellers, as it doesn't take into account the specifics of your store's work, including logistics costs and original suppliers. Even if your products are more expensive than your competitors', find other ways to attract people. This could be a wider range of products, high-quality service, extended warranties, etc.
5. The permissible limits of discounts must be calculated separately for each product. This is the only way you can avoid working at a loss. Here, you need to take into account both the sales volume and the cost price of the product. You must calculate the maximum discount you can afford. This will be a figure where you simply won't receive income from the sale, but you won't go into the "minus" either.
6. Respond to all inquiries from potential buyers asking for discounts. This is what will allow you to show your loyalty to the audience and will help you get regular customers. But again, before satisfying the client's requests, it is important to calculate how profitable such an offer will be for you. Here you can bargain. Alternatively, if the buyer wants to buy your product with a 15% discount, you can make him a counter offer, such as 5%. If the person is really interested in your product, then with a high degree of probability, he will buy it even at such a price.
7. Do not rely entirely on the internal promotion tools that exist today on marketplaces. It is within your power and ability to also launch external advertising in order to attract the attention of the audience to promotional offers. This can be done through social networks, instant messengers, etc. This is what will also help attract the audience to your products on the online showcases of marketplaces.

All these recommendations are working and have proven their effectiveness in practice, so you should not neglect them.

Let's summarize

Marketplace promotions are an excellent opportunity for business representatives to attract the attention of the audience to their products, intensify sales, and make a good profit. But here it is important to approach the organization of this process as comprehensively and professionally as possible. The main thing is to find the optimal balance between meeting the requirements of the platforms, providing discounts to buyers, and your own profit. Moreover, each platform has its own conditions, which should be carefully studied. But if you plan to establish active work with marketplaces, you can't do without it.

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