eBay: how to set up strikethrough pricing

About this article

This article describes how to configure strikethrough pricing on eBay.

Table of contents

Introduction

Limitations

Requirements

Setup

• Settings and content mappings
• Verify your price rules
• Set up your discounted price
• Example

FAQs

Introduction

Strikethrough pricing (STP) on eBay allows you to display an "original" price in a crossed-out font alongside your current discounted price. Use STP to highlight discounts and increase conversion rates on your eBay listings.

To learn more about strikethrough pricing on eBay, check out their developer documentation.

Limitations

• eBay restricts strikethrough pricing to a limited number of approved, existing merchants. It is no longer available to new merchants. If your eBay account does not already have explicit permission from eBay to use STP, you cannot configure this feature on ChannelEngine.
• Strikethrough pricing is available for eBay marketplaces in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States.

Requirements

Ensure that your eBay account has been allowlisted by eBay for strikethrough pricing.

Setup

If you qualify for strikethrough pricing on eBay, follow these configuration steps.

Settings and content mappings

1. Go to the Setup step on your eBay channel.
2. In Advanced settings, toggle on the STP enabled setting.
3. Go to Mappings, Content mappings.
4. Map the Original retail price attribute to your catalog price or recommended retail price. Make sure this value is higher than your Price.
5. Map the Originally sold for retail price attribute based on where the price applies:
   • On and off eBay - if the retail price is used both on eBay and other marketplaces.
   • On eBay - if the retail price is exclusive to your eBay listings.
   • Off eBay - if the retail price is only used outside of eBay.
6. Click Save.

Verify your price rules

1. Go to Pricing, Price rules.
2. Make sure that Price is mapped. Both Min. price and Base price fields must be defined. Note that ChannelEngine exports the higher of the two values –  typically the Base price. To learn more, check out the ChannelEngine: price rules v2 article.

Set up your discounted price

There are two options for defining the discounted price, depending on how your products are organized:

• If you have a product selection ready to apply the discount to, set up your discounted price in Pricing, Price rules.
• If you want to cherry-pick products to include in the promotion or upload a CSV file containing your products, set up your discounted price in Pricing, Promotions.

Set up your discounted price for a product selection

If your discount applies to a specific group of products that you pre-selected in the Product selections step, apply it to that product selection.

1. Go to Pricing, Price rules.
2. In the Product selection price overrides section, select Add product selection.
3. Choose your product selection. 
4. Map the Price attribute to the actual discounted price. Make sure this price is lower than Original retail price. Consider that both Min. price and Base price fields must be defined. Note that ChannelEngine exports the higher of the two values –  typically the Base price.
5. For more details on creating price selection overrides, check out ChannelEngine: price rules v2.
6. Click Save.

Set up your discounted price for individual products

If you do not have a specific product selection to group the products ready by, and you want to pick them manually or upload a specific product list via a CSV file, create a promotion at Pricing, Promotions.

1. Go to Pricing, Promotions. 
2. In the Promotions tab, define the promotion's name and set up the start and end dates.
3. In Products, click the Price tab to indicate the actual selling price. I.e.: the lower of two prices.
   • Make sure this price is lower than Original retail price.
4. Select the products to be included in the promotion.
5. The Price you set in Promotions overwrites the Price defined on the Price rules tab for the selected products. With one exception, it cannot go below the Min. price defined on the Price rules tab. E.g.: if Price has a minimum of EUR 30, and your promotion Price is EUR 27, ChannelEngine exports EUR 30 instead. To allow prices set on the Promotions tab to go below the Min. price:
   1. Go to Mappings, Offer mappings.
   2. Find the Allow promotion below Min. price attribute.
   3. Set its value to true.
6. For more details on creating promotions, check out ChannelEngine: promotions.

If set up correctly, your product displays a strikethrough price on the marketplace.

Example

Setup on ChannelEngine:

• STP enabled: activated
• Price: USD 154.99
• Original retail price: USD 449.99

How strikethrough pricing appears on eBay:

Note that different eBay marketplaces use various phrasing for strikethrough pricing. E.g.: the US marketplace uses "Was", "[Percentage] off", or "Compare at", the UK uses "RRP" (recommended retail price), and the DE marketplace uses "UVP" (Unverbindliche Preisempfehlung).

FAQs

I configured my strikethrough prices, but they do not appear on eBay. Why is that?

The value mapped to the Original retail price attribute must be higher than the value mapped to the standard Price attribute. If the original price is lower than or equal to Price, the update fails, and an error is displayed on the Listed products page.

Additionally, make sure your eBay account is officially approved by eBay to use STP; otherwise, the marketplace rejects any submitted strikethrough data.