Since ADP, I see a lot of authors reducing their prices to $13, and then bumping them up to $59 once they’re on the popular list.
This would be prevented if the popular list was populated by weekly earnings of the items. Seems fair as I think selling a $200 theme 10 times is much bigger accomplishment than selling a $20 theme 100 times.
Looks like people are liking the idea 
Can we get a reply from you @matthewcoxy ?
I can’t believe it wasn’t already implemented, shame you guys
Sounds like a good idea. The only problem I see is that it will be harder to some type of themes to compete against multi purpose or big themes. For example blogging themes (there are some that have been part of the top sellers for a long time), that are usually not priced like other themes… Say listing themes or multi purpose. Perhaps working out some type of formula with earnings and sales.
I think the popular should be based on the Visitors Buyers Ratio.
Eg: One item has been viewed 1000 times and got 10 sales. Another item has been viewed 20 times and got 10 sales means the second one should be in the top.
Popular based on price is a bad idea, because there are WordPress and HTML items where WP has higher pricing and HTML is lower. So If implemented no HTML will be on the Popular page.
It has no logic to be by earnings. You don’t go out and purchase an iPhone because Apple made 23 billion dollars in the first week, you do it because you hear that 45 million people purchased that product, and induces a sense of quality. No buyer cares how much money you make off it!
I wanna buy an car because 95% of the 2 million units sold have no defects in the first year, not because that car manufacturer made 340 million dollars and out of those they only lost 10 million to maintenance.
See my point? Cheers!
Yeah, but Samsung does not reduce its prices to $13 every other week
You want to buy the best, usually the most expensive phone. That’s why Apple 's the winner. Not just because it sells more than the competitors, but because the phone is also the most expensive.
In any case, the international standard of showing popular items is not based on price but on volume of sales. The saying really applies here “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, furthermore, this kind of information may somehow be sensitive, and although it may motivate other authors to produce items, it may also motivate hackers to crack those accounts ( although nothing can come from that since withdrawals are set 15 days apart, it still can become an issue )
Last but not least, As Envato is now accepting Author Driven Prices for certain categories, authors are allowed to set their own prices to whatever amount they see fit. ( please see Setting Prices Responsibly Help Article )
Although changing prices to incredibly high or low amounts is not a viable marketing or advertising technique there are strict laws governing pricing conduct regulated under competition laws (also called anti-trust laws in other countries) as well as consumer rights laws. In particular, it’s strictly prohibited to have an agreement, arrangement or understanding between competing businesses (such as two authors) about what price of an item should be, therefore Envato cannot impose a price limit and trying to do so would be illegal.
You sure about that, cause Envato sure is putting a lower price limit on items?
Absolutely certain. Author driven prices are author driven, that should say everything about that!
A valid point, but if we use a closer analogy from a slightly more related field… a lot of people will know the box office takings of the latest film, but it’s rare that they’ll know the number of people that have seen it!
Box offices don’t share that to attract purchases. They spend 400 million on the movie and make 2 million in the first week, it’s considered a fail. What should we do?
John Doe has spent 32 dollars and 51 cents developing his latest theme. This includes food, toilet paper and water, after his first 10.000$ made … it makes no sense
Why they release such figures isn’t the issue though. The OP was just looking for a new way to gauge popularity, and I think total revenue is no less valid than total number of sales. And it’s not like the actual revenue would show on the page, they’d just be ranked by revenue.
They spend 400 million on the movie and make 2 million in the first week, it’s considered a fail. What should we do?
Sure, but a film that’s made 2 million in the first week probably wouldn’t show up in the popular list. Or it would be pretty far down the list.
“John Doe has spent 32 dollars and 51 cents developing his latest theme. This includes food, toilet paper and water, after his first 10.000$ made … it makes no sense”
You’re right, it makes no sense. But that exact same paragraph makes no sense if you apply it to number of sales rather than revenue! I.e. John Doe has spent 32 dollars and 51 cents developing his latest theme. This includes food, toilet paper and water, after his first 100 sales … it makes no sense
I agree with you, but then, how do we differentiate a immensely high quality WordPress theme from a HTML one?
A WP theme that’s 49$ and makes 100 sales generates 4900, correct?
A HTML template, 13$ and makes 200 sales generates 2600, correct?
Therefore, the WP Theme will be at the top, yet, maybe the HTML is just as beautiful. Number of sales allow popularity to be based on actual customers that got the file, not on earnings. Aligning them by sales then would make the popular page look weird. Item 1 - 500$ / Item 2 - 13500$ etc etc
I agree with this. If you’re selling something like an addon that sells hundreds of copies at a low price- it’ll be a lot harder for it to feature in the popular lists for the week because it doesn’t generate as much money- but it’s still an incredibly well-selling popular addon.
That’s true for All Items Popular list, but each category has its own popular lists anyways.
I think a simple tab on top that switches between “by revenue / by sales” could work. However, it won’t be necessary on individual categories.