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Input needed: How to do/announce Sales etc?
8 years ago
General
Heyo!
I've been wondering how to go about special sales and discounts. A few times people mentioned they'd like to see something like that (understandably?!)
My main issue is that generally I get a new commission every few days, so if I were to randomly be like "xx% sale on everything!" I would feel bad for any people who commissioned me in the past week, but it would also be a hassle to apply the same discount to them if they've already paid, too.
I'm also a bit afraid of people only waiting until I put up a sale for something, and not really commissioning me in the meantime due to it. I guess this could be fixed by only doing random sales on specific things, but never on everything?
But for special occasions, such as Christmas upcoming, I have been thinking of doing a sale on everything for a while prior. But how much? How long? When will it start? Should I start randomly (brings up my first issue) or should I announce when (brings up my second issue)??
Another thing I've considered for such occasions would be an art slave thing, where I put up an auction for x amount of days where I will exclusively draw stuff for the highest bidder. I would preemptively make sure to actually have time on that set amount of days and say no to any new plans. (Example, if its a 3 day thing, and I'm busy Tuesday and Wednesday, it would apply for Monday, Thursday, and Friday. So in the end it will likely take longer than the x amount of days!)
I've been wondering how to go about special sales and discounts. A few times people mentioned they'd like to see something like that (understandably?!)
My main issue is that generally I get a new commission every few days, so if I were to randomly be like "xx% sale on everything!" I would feel bad for any people who commissioned me in the past week, but it would also be a hassle to apply the same discount to them if they've already paid, too.
I'm also a bit afraid of people only waiting until I put up a sale for something, and not really commissioning me in the meantime due to it. I guess this could be fixed by only doing random sales on specific things, but never on everything?
But for special occasions, such as Christmas upcoming, I have been thinking of doing a sale on everything for a while prior. But how much? How long? When will it start? Should I start randomly (brings up my first issue) or should I announce when (brings up my second issue)??
Another thing I've considered for such occasions would be an art slave thing, where I put up an auction for x amount of days where I will exclusively draw stuff for the highest bidder. I would preemptively make sure to actually have time on that set amount of days and say no to any new plans. (Example, if its a 3 day thing, and I'm busy Tuesday and Wednesday, it would apply for Monday, Thursday, and Friday. So in the end it will likely take longer than the x amount of days!)
Personally, I see sales as being something that should randomly come up or only come up for an event, and not be given a set start date. However, a sale done in this manner should be hosted long enough to allow people to get the money together to grab a piece.
For example. A sale that’s advertised to start on week X would be fine to last only for that week, as people have been able to prepare in advance to purchase an item.
A sale that randomly starts on week X should last for longer, perhaps for X, Y and Z where Y is a commonly known payday so that people who could still only afford to pay for things on the sale can do so and plan out their finances.
Might come off as weird and it doesn’t exactly solve either of your issues, as you’re still going to get people taking advantage of your sale when they could normally pay full price - but truth is, no matter how you do the sale, you’re going to get people like that. Do it in the way that will impact you negatively the least. And don’t refund people who have already paid when you start a sale - it’s annoying and sad when you find out you’ve missed out on a sale but that’s the thing, you missed out. You can always drop hints or warnings if you know the sale is coming up, but otherwise... they’ve already spent the money. It’s not theirs to have back.