TL;DR

Sending an offer can be a simple way to turn interest into a sale. You are targeting people who have already looked closely enough at your item to watch it, add it to their cart, or otherwise qualify as an interested buyer.

You do not need to slash the price. A modest discount may be enough to give an undecided buyer the nudge they need.

What Does “Send Offers to Watchers” Actually Mean?

Sellers often call the feature “sending offers to watchers”, but eBay refers to it as Offers to Buyers or sending offers to interested buyers.

A buyer may become eligible because they are watching your item, have added it to their cart, or have shown another form of buying interest recognised by eBay. Not every watcher will necessarily be eligible to receive an offer, so the easiest approach is simply to check which listings eBay marks as eligible in Seller Hub.

This is one of the useful things about the feature: you are not advertising to a completely cold audience. These are people who have already shown some interest in what you are selling.

I use the Send Offers feature on a daily basis and consider it part of my normal eBay selling strategy. When I check my listings, I also check whether any items have become eligible for an offer. It only takes a few moments, and over time it becomes another routine part of managing an eBay store rather than something you only use when sales are slow.

Why Send an Offer?

There are plenty of reasons why somebody might watch an item without buying it straight away. They could be comparing several listings, waiting until payday, thinking about the postage cost, or simply hoping the seller will reduce the price.

A small private discount can be enough to turn that hesitation into a purchase.

For the seller, it can also be preferable to reducing the public Buy It Now price. Instead of lowering the advertised price for everyone, you can make a temporary offer directly to buyers who have already shown interest.

That gives you a chance to make the sale without immediately changing the value you are presenting to the rest of the market.

How Sending an Offer Works

In Seller Hub, eBay provides a Send offers – eligible filter that shows listings where an offer can currently be sent.

You can send offers individually or select multiple eligible listings and send offers in bulk. You can generally set the discount as a percentage, dollar amount, or custom offer price.

On eBay Australia, the offer currently needs to be at least 5% below the Buy It Now price. Postage is not included in the discounted offer price. Offers are sent to eligible interested buyers and normally remain available for 48 hours, or until the listing is sold.

If there is only one item available, the first buyer to accept and successfully complete payment gets it.

How Much Should You Discount?

There is no percentage that works for every item. Your starting point should always be the price you are genuinely prepared to accept.

The minimum eBay allows for these offers is currently 5%, but that does not mean 5% will always be enough, nor does it mean you should automatically offer 15% or 20%.

A useful way to think about it is in ranges.

Around 5%

A 5% offer is a small nudge.

This can make sense when an item has only recently been listed, is already competitively priced, has several interested buyers, or is something you believe will sell without much help.

On a $100 item, 5% brings the price to $95. It is not a huge saving, but sometimes seeing a private offer appear in a buyer’s account is enough to trigger the purchase.

Around 10%

A 10% discount is a more noticeable offer without dramatically changing the economics of the sale.

For many sellers, this can be a sensible middle ground on an item that has attracted interest but has not quite converted into a sale.

A $100 listing becomes $90. The buyer feels they are getting a genuine discount, while the seller is still retaining most of the original asking price.

Around 15% or More

A larger discount can be useful when an item has been sitting for a long time, you want to clear older inventory, your original price included room for negotiation, or your priority is turning the item back into cash.

But before offering 15%, 20% or more, look at your numbers.

The discount comes out of your selling price, while your eBay fees, postage costs, packaging costs and any advertising costs still need to be considered.

Set Your Offer Threshold Before You List

One useful habit is to decide your acceptable selling price when you originally price the item.

For example, suppose you believe an item is worth around $80 and you would be quite happy to sell it for $70.

You might list it at $79.95 or $80 and know from the beginning that an offer somewhere around $72 to $75 is still comfortably within your range.

That makes sending offers much easier because you are not making an emotional decision every time somebody watches the item.

You already know your numbers.

It also prevents the common problem of offering a discount and then immediately wondering whether you went too low.

When Should You Send an Offer?

There is no magic hour or day that guarantees a sale.

More important than trying to guess the perfect moment is recognising that buyer interest can cool fairly quickly. Someone looking for a particular item today may buy another one tomorrow.

My own approach is simple: because I check eligible offers each day, I generally prefer to act while the buyer’s interest is still relatively fresh. I do not see much benefit in deliberately holding an eligible offer back for days just to try to find a perfect time.

That does not mean every eligible item automatically gets a large discount. The amount still depends on the item, how long it has been listed, its margin and how keen I am to sell it.

The daily routine is simply about making sure opportunities are not missed.

New Listing or Older Listing?

Your discount can change depending on the age of the listing.

If something was listed only recently and is already attracting watchers, that is often a positive sign. There may be little reason to offer a large discount straight away.

A modest offer could be enough.

An item that has been listed for months is different. If several interested buyers have come and gone but nobody has purchased, a stronger offer may be worth trying.

The longer an item sits, the more useful it becomes to ask whether you would rather hold out for another $10 or turn the item into cash and move on to something else.

Should You Allow Counteroffers?

When sending an offer, eBay can also allow the buyer to make a counteroffer. You can turn this option off if you would prefer your offer to be your final price.

There is no universally correct choice.

If you send a fairly small discount and still have room to negotiate, allowing counteroffers can make sense. The buyer might come back slightly lower and you can decide whether the sale is worthwhile.

If you have already sent your lowest acceptable price, allowing another round of negotiation may simply waste time.

The important part is deciding where your bottom line sits before negotiations start.

Should You Include a Message?

eBay allows sellers to include an optional message with an offer.

There is no need for a lengthy sales pitch. The buyer already knows what the item is.

A short, friendly message is usually enough.

Simple Offer

Thanks for your interest. I’ve sent you a special offer in case you’re still considering the item.

Older Listing

Thanks for your interest. I’m offering a reduced price on this item and thought you might like the opportunity before it sells.

Stronger Discount

Thanks for your interest. I’ve sent through my best current price on this item. Hope the offer helps.

There is no need to pressure the buyer with messages such as “BUY NOW”, “LAST CHANCE”, or artificial urgency. A private offer already gives them a reason to reconsider the item.

Do Not Chase the Buyer

Once you send the offer, leave the decision with the buyer.

Some will accept immediately. Some will counteroffer. Many will do nothing.

That is normal.

A watcher is not a commitment to purchase. People watch listings for all sorts of reasons, including price research and comparison shopping.

The purpose of sending an offer is to provide an opportunity, not to turn every watcher into a customer.

Automatic Offers Can Save Time

If you regularly send the same discount, eBay also allows sellers to automate offers on eligible listings.

This can be useful if you have a large number of listings and already know your standard strategy.

For example, you may decide that selected listings can always be offered at 5% below the asking price. Rather than checking each one manually, automation can take care of some of that routine.

Personally, I still like checking offers regularly because it gives me a chance to look at the individual item and decide whether the amount I am prepared to accept has changed.

That might not suit every seller, but it is another example of how Send Offers can become part of your overall pricing strategy rather than simply a one-off discount tool.

Be Careful With Automatic Discounts

Automation is convenient, but it makes knowing your margins even more important.

If you automatically offer 10% off everything, eventually you may sell something where that discount does not make financial sense.

Before applying an automatic offer across a large group of listings, think about the lowest price you are comfortable accepting.

A low-margin item may only have room for 5%.

An older item with a large margin might comfortably handle 15%.

One rule does not necessarily suit everything you sell.

Offers and Promoted Listings

If you are also using Promoted Listings, remember that sending an offer does not necessarily make your advertising cost disappear.

A buyer may originally have found your item through a promoted placement, so any applicable advertising cost also needs to be considered when working out how much room you have to discount.

This is another reason not to look at the offer percentage in isolation.

The question is not simply, “Can I afford to give them 10% off?”

It is, “What will I actually have left after the discount, eBay fees, advertising, postage and my other costs?”

Offers Are Not the Same as Best Offer

The terminology can get confusing.

Best Offer is something you enable on the listing so buyers can approach you with a price.

Offers to Buyers works in the opposite direction: you approach eligible interested buyers with a private discounted price.

Think of Best Offer as saying, “Make me an offer,” while Offers to Buyers says, “Here’s a price I can offer you.”

Both can have a place in your selling strategy.

Do Not Automatically Discount Every Watcher

Seeing five or ten watchers can make a seller impatient, but watchers are useful information in their own right.

If a newly listed item is building watchers quickly, it may be telling you that the item is attractive and reasonably priced. You might not need to discount it heavily at all.

On the other hand, if the same item has accumulated interest over a long period without selling, price may be the thing holding buyers back.

This is where offers become especially useful. Instead of immediately cutting the public price, you can test a private discount and see whether interested buyers respond.

If nobody accepts even after a worthwhile offer, it may be time to review the listing itself: the price, photos, title, postage cost or simply the level of demand for the item.

A Simple Starting Strategy

For a seller who has never used offers before, there is no need to make it complicated.

Try a modest offer on eligible items while they still have fresh interest. Around 5% can be a gentle nudge on newer or well-priced stock, while around 10% gives the buyer a more noticeable reason to act. Larger discounts can be reserved for older items, clearance stock or listings where you have plenty of margin.

The important thing is to make it a habit rather than remembering the feature only when sales are quiet.

That is how I use it myself. Checking Send Offers is part of my daily eBay routine, alongside keeping an eye on listings, messages and sales. Some days there may be several opportunities and other days very few, but it takes little time to check.

Over time, your own results are more useful than somebody else’s universal rule. You may discover that buyers in the categories you sell respond well to 5%, while another seller finds that 10% is the sweet spot.

Final Thoughts

Sending offers to interested buyers is one of the simpler tools eBay gives sellers, and it can easily become part of a regular selling routine.

The buyer has already shown an interest in your item. Your job is simply to decide whether a small price reduction could turn that interest into a sale.

I use Send Offers daily because it gives me another opportunity to convert existing interest without automatically reducing the public price of the listing. It does not mean giving every watcher a large discount; it means regularly looking at the opportunities eBay presents and deciding whether an offer makes sense.

Know your minimum acceptable price, keep your message short and friendly, and do not feel that every offer needs to be a huge discount.

Sometimes 5% is enough. Sometimes 10% gets the job done. Sometimes the right decision is not to discount at all.

The goal is not to win every watcher. It is to use offers strategically to turn more genuine interest into worthwhile sales.