Setting prices that cover eBay fees and Amazon costs, and repricing when Amazon moves.
When your supplier's price rises after an eBay sale, honour the order if you can deliver it as described and on time, even at a smaller profit or a small loss, then reprice the listing at once so the next sale covers the new cost. Prevent repeats with re-reads after every sale, a margin buffer and a profit floor.
Raise prices on eBay listings that sell steadily at their current price, have few close competitors or have seen their costs rise. Move in small steps, wait long enough to see the effect on sales, and judge each step by total profit. Step back down if sales fall more than the extra margin makes up.
When pricing multi-variation listings, give each option its own price calculated from its own cost, with its own floor, rather than one price for the whole listing. Watch the spread between the cheapest and dearest options, set each option to zero when its source runs out, and reprice each option separately when its cost moves.
Price testing on eBay means changing one price setting on a group of listings while a similar group stays the same, then comparing profit over the same weeks. Test one thing at a time, avoid sale events, run long enough to see past normal weekly swings, and keep every test price above your profit floor.
A price circuit breaker is a set of checks between a new calculated price and your live eBay listing. A floor blocks prices below break-even plus your minimum profit, a ceiling blocks absurdly high prices, and a swing limit holds any change bigger than a set percentage for review. Together they stop most bad readings reaching buyers.
A percentage markup adds a share of the cost, so profit grows with the price; a fixed markup adds the same amount of money to every item. Percentage markups earn too little on cheap items and can price dear items out of the market, while fixed markups do the reverse. Many sellers combine both, with a minimum profit floor.
Markup is profit as a percentage of cost; margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. A 25% markup is only a 20% margin. On eBay, fees are charged on the selling price, so thinking in margin makes fee planning easier. Mixing the two up is a common reason prices come out lower than planned.
How often to reprice eBay listings depends on how often their costs change, how often they sell and how thin the margin is. Reprice immediately after a sale and whenever the cost moves, check fast movers several times a day and slow listings at least daily, and only send changes that are big enough to matter.
The main eBay repricing strategies are cost-plus (price from your cost and formula), competitor-based (price against other listings), sales-based (adjust by how well a listing sells) and event pricing (temporary changes around sale events). Most sellers who source products start from cost-plus with a profit floor and layer the others on top, never below the floor.
eBay repricer software changes your listing prices automatically. Cost-based repricers follow your supplier's price and add your markup and fees; competitor-based repricers follow other eBay sellers' prices. Dropshippers and resellers usually need cost-based repricing with a profit floor, a ceiling and a swing limit, because their real risk is a supplier price rise.
A sound eBay pricing formula starts from your full cost, adds your markup, then divides by one minus every percentage fee charged on the sale, so the fees come out of the price rather than your margin. Add fixed per-order costs before dividing, and check the result against a minimum profit floor before it goes live.
Most eBay pricing errors in automated stores come from a bad reading, a currency mix-up, a formula or fee setting mistake, or two tools fighting over one listing. When a wrong price sells, fix the listing first, then deal honestly with the buyer. Prevent repeats with a profit floor, a ceiling, a swing limit and a currency check.
