eBay Tests Auto Price Reduction Allowing Sellers To Automate Lowering Item Prices Over Time
UPDATE 2-9-26
eBay community mentor mr_lincoln has provided additional information indicating the Auto Price Reduction feature may still be available for some sellers but currently not for others, depending on which version of the listing tool they are using.
I have some updated information on the APR (Auto-Price Reduction) feature confirmed by eBay...So as far as the feature goes and as it relates to specific eBay listing tools here are the facts. My comments after the two bullet points are in parenthesis.
- APR is available on the Quick Listing Tool (I have never used this listing tool)
- APR is not available on the Advanced listing tool accessible through Seller Hub. (This is the listing tool I use so the screen shot provided up thread is accurate)
- The phone app was not mentioned.
So based on this information some sellers may see it as an option and others will not. If additional information from eBay is confirmed to me I will post about it but at this point this is what I can provide as fact confirmed by eBay. My sincere thanks for your patience and understanding.
So, like the previous Easy Pricing feature before, it appears that for now at least eBay has decided Auto Price Reduction will only be offered to new or occasional sellers who use the Simple Listing Tool, which is only available to those who are not opted in to Seller Hub.
UPDATE 2-5-26
eBay has reportedly discontinued this Auto Price Reduction feature, according to community forum mentors.
Sellers posting in the forum say they've noticed in the last few days they no longer have the option to reduce prices over time.
Auto Price Reduction Option disappeared
Good afternoon. I have been using the new feature for auto price reductions (a certain percent drop every 30 days). Today I noticed that the option is no longer available when I tried to list new items or revise older ones. Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone know how to restore this option? Thanks!
A community mentor, mr_lincoln, chimed in, advising that the feature has been discontinued.
That feature has been discontinued. Some features on eBay come and go based on their success, failure or lack of use. Sorry that happened but one method to pricing is set your lowest price on your item(s) that you will sell for and cover eBay fees, your cost and most importantly, YOUR profit margin.
Mentors are not eBay employees, they are volunteer community members who have been tapped by eBay to be part of the Mentor Program - but being part of that program includes exclusive meetings with eBay staff and inside information about topics that may come up in the forums.
So while this information isn't direct from eBay, it's possible this mentor received an update from the eBay community staff about the discontinuation of the program.
Sellers in another community thread expressed frustration about the rug pull, saying they found the feature useful and were sad to see it go.
Less than a month ago I spent a few hours enabling this on all my listings. Im so upset it's gone now. I really liked that feature once I figured out it was there.
Bummer. I had a good response using this feature.
I thought it was just me, thanks for posting. I loved it, I would set it as...."I didn't take much off " and "not to often(30days)", ....but I knew the item would sell and out the door it goes one day and without any energy on my part. O Well. Maybe it will be back......
While other sellers say they've contacted eBay support directly about the issue and were told it's not being discontinued, there's just some unspecified technical problem with an unspecified timeframe for a resolution.
When I contacted eBay on Wednesday night about it they advised me it was a site wide technical issue and they were working to resolve it. They also stated any auctions you have set up with it would be restored and you would'nt have to fix any of them.
In the past I've experienced eBay Customer Service just telling me what I wanted to hear only to have something else happen, but we shall see. They gave no timeline on a resolution either. I hope they haven't discontinued it; it's an amazing tool for us sellers and I love it!
I just chatted with eBay on Facebook. They also said the Automatic Price Reduction feature has not been discontinued; instead, it is experiencing technical issues. Hopefully, it will be resolved soon.
eBay has not responded to request for comment, stay tuned for updates.
eBay appears to be testing a new Auto Price Reduction feature which allows sellers to set dollar amount and schedule to automate lowering prices over time.
The new option on the listing form was recently spotted by eBay sellers/YouTubers Lonnie and Candace at ShedFlips.
In the version Lonnie is seeing, which is meant for business sellers, eBay allows the option to set a flat dollar amount to reduce the price by; time intervals of every 3, 5, 7, 14, or 30 days; and a minimum price cap at which to stop the reductions.
If that sounds familiar, back in 2018, eBay introduced a similar feature called Easy Pricing which would kick in 10 days after a listing went live and lower the price 5% every 5 days thereafter until pricing hit the minimum.
But Easy Pricing was not available to all sellers. According to eBay for Business podcast host Jim "Griff" Griffith in 2022, it was only shown in the app and only for some undetermined amount of time to new or occasional sellers to help them learn about setting pricing - but after the seller gained some experience selling on the platform, the option would go away.
Liz Morton
This new Auto Price Reduction feature is also currently not being shown to all sellers, suggesting it may be either in beta testing or a phased rollout.
Out of 3 accounts I was able to personally check, 2 did not have it at all and 1 that would definitely be classified as a new/occasional personal selling account had a simplified version compared to what is shown for business sellers.
This simplified version only allows the seller to set the flat dollar amount to reduce the price by and a minimum price cap, but eBay defaults to an every 7 days interval and there are no options for any other time frames.
While this could be a very useful tool for some sellers, it's also likely to lead to some questions and confusion as sellers may not realize some settings in the listing form can be "sticky" - meaning if you turn it on when creating one listing, it may default to "on" for subsequent listings or when revising other listings.
It's not entirely clear if this setting is "sticky" but at least one seller posted in the eBay community forum that they are seeing it automatically turned on when trying to revise listings.
Auto Price Reduction
Every time I list something then go to revise it, I noticed that it is defaulting to the Automatic Price Reduction. I made sure that I didn't turn on the button but it keeps defaulting to the ON position. How can I turn this off??
You should still have to enter the price and time increments as well as the minimum price, so in theory just having it defaulted to the "on" position shouldn't cause price to be reduced without the seller's knowledge, but it's definitely not a bad idea to double check.
The feature is also sure to add fuel to the age old debate about whether it's really a good thing to encourage automated price reductions as it may foster "race to the bottom" dynamics and sellers already face significant pressure to provide discounts, coupons, and lower prices through buyer and seller initiated offers.
Last year, eBay tested a feature that went so far as to offer post-sale price matching for lower prices.
Liz Morton
Many sellers felt that was a step too far and the test was eventually ended after significant pushback.
What do you think of eBay's Auto Price Reduction functionality? Will you use it on your listings if/when it is available? Let us know in the comments below!
