eBay Disappoints Buyers Once Again, Ends Discount Offers For Luxury, Sneakers & Pre-Loved Fashion Early
eBay has once again left buyers in the lurch, prematurely ending discount promotions for luxury accessories, sneakers, and pre-loved fashion that were supposed to run through May 13th.
The eBay-funded fashion-themed sale event offered multiple discount opportunities with LUXURYDEAL offering 10% off select luxury accessories, SNEAKERDEAL for 15% off select sneakers, and RELOVE20 for 20% off pre-loved fashion - all with an advertised expiration of 11:59PM Pacific Time on May 13, 2025, or while supplies last.
Many buyers are likely to overlook that "while supplies last" part, or at least assume it refers to supplies of the items included in the offer, not the discount itself - after all, it's a digital code, so it's not like there is a physical limitation on the number available like there would be with an old school paper coupon.
But once again, eBay has chosen to end the discounts early and, also once again, that has left buyers who were still planning on taking advantage of the offer wonder what happened.
LUXURYDEAL promotion code
The LUXURYDEAL code is no longer available now?
I checked other sales looks like the deal coupon is gone...sounds they planed for a lie.
eBay discount codes
Wondering if others have experienced what I did while trying to buy an item.
Last night I was waffling back and forth as to which buyer I was going to buy a pair of sneakers from. EBay had a code for 15% off of sneakers that were $75 or above… SNEAKERDEAL… good until May 14th. I spent more than an hour going back and forth as to which seller I was going to buy from. This morning I go to buy the sneakers and the deal is magically gone. “Unfortunately this code no longer works.”
It essentially cancelled out the shipping cost.
I believe someone at eBay made a mistake and canceled out the code three days early. Anyone else had this happen before? I’m a bit irritated because I wanted the shoes but I’m not buying them for $15 more when I was already on the fence of buying.
Users reported similar experiences with another sale event in March that ended early, with some disappointed buyers demanding that sellers make good on eBay's unfulfilled promises.
Liz Morton
That kind of negative user experience is just one of many reasons previous eBay CEO Devin Wenig was heavily criticized for running frequent eBay-funded sitewide discounts in 2018 - 2019.
Those 15-20% off flash sales proved to be a double edged sword - once buyers get used to receiving discounts, they'll often wait for a sale before making a purchase, creating "one and done" or only occasional buying patterns.
Wenig's strategy was considered such a failure that current CEO Jamie Iannone explicitly distanced himself from it when he took the helm, telling investors in 2021:
We've discontinued legacy tactics that led to low value, infrequent or one and done buyers. Our buyer base is starting to evolve based on this strategy. These high-volume buyers are growing compared to a year-ago and their spend on eBay is growing even faster. This higher-quality mix of buyers increases value for sellers and will lead to improved health of our ecosystem over the long-term...
..This is something that I laid out last July when we talked about the tech-led reimagination as being focused on turning buyers into lifelong enthusiasts on the platform and moving away from the tactics that we had in 2019 what was really just about the number of active buyers even low value buyers or one and done buyers.
However, despite those early assurances of having abandoned the practice, Iannone has increasingly turned back to these kinds of legacy discounting tactics to try to goose GMV and active buyer stats in recent quarters - with similar negative results.
Liz Morton
eBay has clearly covered themselves legally with the terms and conditions on these sale events, but such technicalities won't matter to disappointed buyers who may feel they have been "cheated" out of the discount eBay advertised to entice them to make a purchase.
Meanwhile, eBay's Q1 2025 report shows the company has now had 12 consecutive quarter with less Active Buyers than they had in Q1 2018.
Liz Morton
Note: eBay changed the definition of GMV and Active Buyers at the end of 2021 and restated both figures going back to 2018 (chart reflects restated figures per eBay's amended reports.)
If investors are not concerned about the return to legacy discounting tactics driving one and done or low value buyers, they should at least be concerned with how unethical "rug pulling" ending coupons early might chase away active buyers that eBay can ill-afford to lose.
Did you miss out on the eBay's LUXURYDEAL, SNEAKERDEAL, or RELOVE20 coupons or have buyers asking you to make up the difference from eBay's unfulfilled discount promise? Let us know in the comments below!
