Does Envato interfere in pricing promotions?

Envato Authors ThemeForest
#1

Just noticed on a comment on an item page of an author when client complained about author raising the price up before the promotion deadline…

and the response from the author was:

Hi

Sorry for the change, we have contacted to Envato support and they explained that we don’t have permission to give promotion for the new item. It need to take minimum 3 months to apply the promotion, so that’s why we removed the promotion image and set the original price for the item

Hope you could understand

Thanks

Is this true?

1 Like
#2

There you go: Pricing Promotion

#3

Yea just saw it :slight_smile: thank you

#4

This makes no sense whatsoever. It’s impossible to have Author Driven Prices but not to allow promotions only after a certain time. @matthewcoxy, @KingDog, can you guys please confirm if this is true? Are we allowed to offer promotional discounts for a certain item only after 3 months from it’s inception? That kind of defeats the purpose of having adjustable prices if we can’t promote them whenever we want. :expressionless:

#5

Yes exactly my point, envato did it on envato elements :slight_smile:

#6

Hey folks,

I’m really not sure what’s going on here. To the full extent of my knowledge, Envato does not do this.

There is no “3 month from inception” rule. Setting prices is entirely at the authors discretion and they can change the price whenever they wish.

It sounds to me like the truth may be getting twisted here slightly…

Item discount on the first week?
#7

Directly copied from here https://help.market.envato.com/hc/en-us/articles/204429024

For example if you reduce your item’s price by 50% and promote this as a “50% discount” or “Save $10 - originally $20”, you must have actually offered the item at the original price for a reasonable period of time.

So actually envato does in a way interfere. In any case i would really wish ADP to go away, it is killing our business, we already are experiencing a massive drop in sales and the review times do not help, the run to the bottom already started (for which envato predicted it will not, despite our warnings). For example one of our competitor themes in construction niche went down to 17$ for a week and it seems they will get on the popular list very high. So skewing the popular list puts the list itself into question, doesn’t it?

1 Like
#8

Not really. The popular list is based on sales figures, so if an item sells well, then it deserves to be in the popular list, whether it’s $100 or $20.

#9

Actually i disagree, as this is relative to the price itself. Making something popular by lowering the price itself does not reflect the real state. But hey…what the hell… eventually when popular list starts to shift big guys will start to cry and the reality will hit some people on the head.

#10

Sure, something may only be popular due to the price, and it’s only become popular because the price is so low… but it’s still popular, i.e. it’s selling well. If the list was named something other than popular (quality/value for money etc), then I would agree with you… but it was based on how many sales there were before and it’s still based on how many sales there are. It’s just that previously the list was influenced more by quality and features, and now there’s an element of it being weighted more towards price.

Are budget airlines not popular just because they’re cheap? Because they compete mainly on price? When they publish figures that they’re the fourth most popular airline in x country, or they’re third for passenger numbers… are they lying? Or such statements don’t have any validity due to the low prices?

I guess the important question is… if the popular list has always been based on sales, and you feel that’s no longer fair… what metrics should the popular list be based on?

#11

So you are assuming that the price has no effect on the number of sales? Two multi-purpose themes having very similiar features and customer support quality, one with price tag of $29 and another with $59, which item has more chances to reach popular items list?

#12

Its in relation what it was. You are stating the obvious facts. You are right in literal sense. But the fact remain thing will shift. Price dumping is already happening despite envato’s predictions that it will not. For example we also have to go on board that train now even if we do not wish.

All i want to say that the popular list will loos the meaning that it use to have.

#13

I kind of said quite the opposite of that. My point is that popular is popular, no matter how or why it is popular.

#14

“All i want to say that the popular list will loos the meaning that it use to have.”

For those that felt it had a meaning other than sales figures, then yes… I agree, you’re probably right.

#15

Yea the point is that it reflected, on the features, quality, support etc.now price will be the key factor, without envato suffering as prices fall envato with the fixed few earns actually more. As i mentioned a genius move from there part, but sadly short sighted. The big guns will eventually leave so to reach the minimum price quality will fall. Let the games begin.

#16

Any shop or website in the UK (not sure about elsewhere) has to have sold a product at a higher price for X amount of days before they can put it on sale and promote it as a sale e.g. 50% off.

I could realistically raise the price to $120 for 1 day and then put to $60 the day after and promote as 50% off, but it was only available for 24 hours at the full price, it was never that normal selling price.

2 days later I change price to $200 and a day later change to $100 and again put as a sale at 50% off, but the price has risen $40 in 4 days.

Foul play like this misleads buyers, trying to think they are getting a bargain when in fact they are being mislead and lied to, to try and convince buyers they are getting something cheaper. When you allow sellers to set their own prices then you need to have some fules which stop them abusing the price controls.

In regards to ADP, it’s better for authors, it’s not for sellers, buyers now have a much varied choice for their budget, e.g. I only want to spend $40 on a theme I now have some choice.

Sellers now have to fight with each other for the sale, and for some buyers, price is the main factor but I work with tons of buyers (they buy themes under their accounts, not mine) they are more interested in the design and features of the theme and not the price, one buyer chose an $80 over a $60 as it was better for their needs. Sellers need to make themselves stand out, promote your better support, promote your experience (20+ themes, 50,000 customers etc) and keep updating items so they fit the needs of the buyer.

In the short term, sales will be hit as buyers work out what ADP is and find out what separates a $19 theme and a $60 theme but it will soon settle as sellers will realise they are doing a lot of work for $19, their prices will soon creep up and you will find most will be in the $50-$100 price point, but at the moment it’s new so some authors are trying to get work out if selling at $19 is viable (it’s not when you have to support as well).

Over time the prices will rise imho, just need to give it time to settle and for the bottom feeders (as we call them) to work out being the cheapest doesn’t work, you just get the customers the higher priced sellers didn’t want…

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#17

So nice to read your words of wisdom as always Gareth :wink:

Partially i do agree, but you have to take into consideration authors globalisation. Authors from some other country’s can go by very well with for example 5k per month as we on the other side cannot. ( maybe i should move? :smile: )
People will keep on trying to trick the system with lowering the price drastically just to get on popular list.

I really hope you are right since we are hit big time. Trying with one not so popular theme of ours with drastic price drop just to test it, which i would rather not.

But back on the point, is then envato in violation in UK with the model 19 and then 39 and then the full price periodically right from the start or not? Since there was not a full price in beginning?

Thanks
Cheers

#18

They maybe able to live on $5k a month but can they sustain support for 500 theme buyers on $19 a theme? unlikely, hopefully they realise this and raise prices before they give themeselves a bad name because they were too cheap.

I think Envato needs to clarify a mutually benefical time limit for all authors, it wouldn’t be "you have to have it at this price point before changing for x days) but more of a recommendation e.g. if you want to lower your prices, we recommend having it at the higher price for 15 days.

At the moment, I couldn’t tell you whether it’s legal or not as it’s not my area but I do know companies do get their asses kicked for reducing prices and promoting a discount when it wasn’t there for very long (couple of large companies have been done).

#19

But do you guys think that Envato and all authors on the market now overall make more or less money?

#20

more in the long term as prices will increase on average, but it will take time for that to filter down, probably a few months, I would like to see the average of a wp theme cost $80 with the lowest being $40 for a simple blog and highest being $200 for a multi-purpose mult-demo theme.

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