To offer, or not to offer…

Dear Amazon, Etsy, and other marketplace product managers,

You should consider taking a page from Poshmark and eBay‘s playbooks and enable sellers to quickly make offers to customers that have wish listed, saved for later, or abandoned products in their carts.

Aside from cart price change notifications, there are few options to nudge me to buy the hundreds of products that I have earmarked as possible purchases on your sites. If I “add to watchlist” or “like” something on eBay or Poshmark respectively, I am likely to receive a discount – sometimes within minutes – incenting me to buy NOW!

Also consider turning the table to enable customers to make offers to sellers, which can help to signal that their price is too high; but, be sure to complete the sale automatically if the offer is accepted.

I hypothesize that increased timely interaction between sellers and customers will lead to more sales at lower prices, leading to more stickiness on your marketplace.

As Jeff Bezos said in his 2017 letter to shareholders: “One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static – they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’.”

Don’t rest on your laurels, customers won’t have it!