In the API, discount rules are the kinds of discounts that are made available to sellers. The following are loose descriptions of the discount rules that are available for flat rate shipping.

  • "Charge the highest shipping cost, and add the specified amount for each additional item."
  • "Charge the highest shipping cost, and each additional item ships for free."
  • "Charge the highest shipping cost, and subtract the specified amount for each additional item."
  • "Charge the highest shipping cost, and subtract the specified percentage for each additional item."

These descriptions reflect amounts and percentages. If a user wishes to signify that an item qualifies for a shipping discount, the user must first create a shipping discount profile. That profile will be based on one of the shipping discount rules made available by eBay. Rules are provided by eBay; profiles are created by users and are based on such rules.

The profile definition needs to include any amount or percentage that corresponds to the rule.

For example, the API rule corresponding to the first bullet item above is named EachAdditionalAmount. A seller can create a flat rate shipping discount profile by calling SetShippingDiscountProfiles and configuring following parameters:

Similarly, a seller can create a calculated shipping discount profile by calling SetShippingDiscountProfiles and configuring following parameters:

Sellers can create multiple profiles using these same rules, each with their own unique fees.

Variable and fixed rules

There are two types of rules which may be applied to a shipping profile:

  • Variable Rule

    A variable rule can be used in a discount profile only if accompanied by a value for amount or percentage.

    For example, for a user to create a calculated shipping discount profile based on the WeightOff rule, a variable rule, the user must specify the amount of weight in the WeightOff field.

  • Fixed Rule

    When using a fixed rule in a discount profile, no additional value is required.

    For example, if the user creates a profile based on the fixed rule named CombinedItemWeight and then assigns that profile to several listings, the user is designating that the calculated shipping cost for Combined invoice orders would be based on the combined weights of all items.

This distinction is important because a user can have one or more profiles based on the same variable rule, or the user can have one profile based on a fixed rule, but the user cannot have both. If the user has several profiles based on a variable rule and now the user wishes to switch to a fixed rule for subsequent item listings, the user must first delete all profiles based on the variable rule before the user can create the profile based on the fixed rule.