Scheduling Fee Bidding: What You Need to Know

Tophatter recently launched Scheduling Fee Bidding (SFB), and will be rolling it out to all categories in the coming weeks. To help you be successful, below we have put together an FAQ on everything you need to know.

What is Scheduling Fee Bidding (SFB)?

SFB is a new feature we’ve launched for the majority of categories on Tophatter — we plan to roll out to more categories very soon. SFB allows sellers to bid on a scheduling fee; the highest bidders will have more volume scheduled.

Why did Tophatter create SFB?

We’ve listened to your feedback, and across the board sellers want more control. SFB puts the control of what products get scheduled into the sellers’ hands. The benefits of SFB for sellers include:

• Volume and margin control: SFB allows sellers to have more control over what products are scheduled and the volume at which they sell. By placing competitive bids, you can ensure your products are scheduled — and if you are not seeing the margins you want, you can lower your bids to slow down the volume.
• Lower commissions: Any category that uses SFB now has a set 10% commission, plus the bid.

How much do I bid?

There is a suggested bid section for each category that shows the range of competing bids at that time. To stay competitive, we recommend bidding around or above that range. Don’t worry, if there are errantly high bids that are far higher than the next highest bid, the seller will only be charged the second highest bid + $.01.

When will I be charged for Scheduling Fees?

Scheduling Fees are charged on every scheduled item, including non-sales.

What categories is this rolled out to?

At this time, SFB is rolled out to most categories, and we plan to expand it across all categories in the coming weeks. To check if categories you sell in are included, head to your Terms page to check for new terms. Until you accept these new terms, you will not be allowed to sell in any category with SFB.

What do I need to know to be successful?

We recommend familiarizing yourself with the new tools and experimenting a bit. Head to the new Auctions tab to see your Daily Scheduling Budgets — this is where you set the maximum amount you want to spend on bids per day, per category. You will never be charged more than your Daily Budget, but remember this number will carry over every day, unless updated. On the Products page, you can set a bid for each product, using the suggested bid amount as a reference.

How do sellers ensure products do not get over-scheduled (i.e. get charged excessive scheduling fees)?

There are a number of ways for sellers to ensure this does not happen:

• Set a Daily Budget you can afford. This will set a max on how much we can schedule items in the category.
• Set your product Available Quantity to a reasonable level on your products.
• Monitor your Scheduling Fee Bids. These can stack up if you are setting high bids across all of your products. Be especially mindful of your top products, low-performing products, and new/experimental products.
• Check your performance. Your Scheduling Performance page gives you very detailed performance on product-level.
• Consider shipping prices. The best way to rack up non-sale scheduling fees is to set high shipping prices and have items continually go unsold.

How do I improve my sell rate and maximize the value?

We recommend tracking the sell rate of each product closely with the Scheduling Performance tool to ensure you are bidding on the right products. To improve your sell rate you can: set shipping rates low, ensure all products have good descriptions and that all variants are loaded, if they are indicated in the listing.

What if Sellers set a Scheduling Fee Bid to $0.00?

This will essentially act as setting the product to Catalog Only.

What should sellers set their Daily Budget to?

A good rule of thumb is to take the number of sales you wish to make in a day and multiply that by your average Scheduling Fee Bid. These numbers do not have to be exact to start, so just use general benchmarks. You will also want to add 20–30% buffer to account for non-sales.(depending on your sell rate. Example: Desired Sales (1000) x Avg SFB ($2) x Buffer (1.3 or 30%) = Daily Budget ($2,600)

What if sellers set their Daily Budget to $0.00?

This will essentially act as if you are setting a category-wide Catalog Only. We will not schedule anything in the category at auction.

What if a product or seller account is blocked?

SFB is not a work around. These blocks are still in place.