Base price for variant offers: How to implement it in a legally compliant way?
Summary: auprotec asked a question about the display of the base price in eBay variant listings, because the base prices shown are not correct. miriam@ebay explains that eBay currently does not automatically support different base prices for each variant. She recommends including the base price in the variant title and seeking legal advice if there are questions. auprotec asks further how price changes would affect this title, since manual adjustments would be impractical. An automatic adjustment of the base price is not planned.
Hello everyone,
I have a question about how base prices are displayed for eBay variant listings.
For each variant, different values are maintained in the eBay category attributes for
Number of units
Unit of measure
(e.g. 0.25 m², 0.50 m², 0.72 m², 1.00 m²).
The listing was then recreated.
The problem, however, is that regardless of the selected variant, the gross selling price is always shown as the base price in €/m².
Example:
Area: 0.25 m²
Selling price: 44.88 €
Expected base price: 179.52 €/m²
But displayed: 44.88 €/m²
So my questions are:
Does eBay even support different base prices per variant in variant listings?
If not: How do you implement the legal requirement to show base prices for variant listings in a compliant way?
Is there an official statement from eBay on this, or a technical limitation?
Thanks for your experiences!
miriam@ebay
Hello @auprotec and thanks for your post! The behavior you describe is known and is related to the technical implementation of variation listings. If the base price differs between the variations, eBay currently does not support an automatic variation-specific base price display. Therefore, it can happen that, regardless of the selected variation, an incorrect base price is shown.
On our Help page: Base price, the following procedure is recommended for this case:
If all variations have the same base price, it can be displayed uniformly.
If the variations have different base prices, the respective base price should be stated at the beginning of the variation name so that it is clearly recognizable to buyers when selecting the variation.
So for now, this is the option we recommend as general guidance for implementing the base price requirement for variation listings. If you have questions about legally compliant implementation of the base price requirement, we recommend seeking legal advice if in doubt.
Best regards
Miriam
auprotec
OP2 weeks ago · EditedHello Miriam,
many thanks for your feedback.
I have one more question:
If we include the base price – as recommended – in the variant name, how does that work with price changes, e.g. due to discount campaigns, special offers, or general price adjustments?
The variant name is not automatically updated. That means the base price stated there would differ from the actual selling price.
In this case, is the base price automatically calculated and displayed correctly by eBay somewhere else, or would we have to manually adjust all variant names every time the price changes?
Especially for listings with many variants, that would be hardly practical and could in the worst case lead to an incorrect base price indication.
Many thanks in advance for a brief explanation.
Best regards
Sindy
sunrise1605
·2 weeks ago.... or would we have to manually adjust all variant names with every price change?
I think that's what it will come down to.
Ebay will not change the text of your variants.