Automation Engine

Overview

The Automation Engine runs a 3-stage pipeline that handles routine listing management tasks without manual intervention. It can analyze your inventory, send offers to watchers, and end stale listings, all on a daily schedule that runs in the cloud. Your computer can be off and your browser closed; the pipeline runs regardless, and the results are waiting for you the next time you log in.

The engine is designed with safety as a priority. All stages are disabled by default, safety caps limit how much any single run can do, and dry-run mode lets you preview every action before it executes for real.

The Three Stages

Stage 1: Auto-Analyze

Runs the same analysis that the manual Analyze button performs, pulling live data from eBay and producing a full tier assignment for all active listings.

What it does:

• Pulls active listings from eBay
• Evaluates performance metrics (age, views, watchers) against eBay’s 28-day listing cycle
• Assigns listings to the four tiers: Relist, Offer, Fresh, Performing

When to enable: Always. This stage provides the data that Stage 2 and Stage 3 depend on. Without a recent analysis, offers and endings would use stale data.

Stage 2: Auto-Send Offers

Automatically sends negotiation offers to watchers on Offer-tier listings.

What it does:

• Identifies listings with watchers from the latest analysis
• Calculates a discount for each listing using the smart discount formula
• Checks offer history to respect the cooldown period
• Sends offers through your connected eBay account
• Records sent offers to prevent duplicates

Discount formula: The discount scales based on listing age and watcher count. The configurable bounds are:

• Minimum discount: 5% (default)
• Maximum discount: 20% (default)
• Cooldown: 7 days between offers to the same watchers

When to enable: After you are comfortable with the discount formula and have reviewed a few batches of offers manually.

Stage 3: Auto-End Stale

Ends listings that have gone stale with no meaningful activity.

What it does:

• Identifies Relist-tier listings from the latest analysis
• Ends each listing on eBay
• Queues ended listings for relisting
• Does not automatically relist, that remains a manual step

When to enable: After you have reviewed a few Relist batches manually and confirmed the stale threshold works for your inventory.

Configuration

Open the Automation panel from the dashboard. It provides:

• Toggle switches for each stage (enabled/disabled)
• Rule configuration, Adjust discount percentages, cooldown days, and the stale threshold
• Safety caps, Maximum offers sent and listings ended per run
• Schedule time, Set the daily run time (e.g., 09:00 AM)
• Run Now, Execute all enabled stages immediately
• Dry Run, Preview what would happen without making any changes

You can enable stages independently. A common starting configuration is:

• Stage 1: Enabled (low risk, just analysis)
• Stage 2: Enabled (offers are non-destructive)
• Stage 3: Disabled (ending listings is permanent; enable after confidence)

Scheduling

Automation runs in the cloud once per day at the time you choose. There is nothing to keep open, no scripts to schedule, and no computer that needs to stay on. Set your preferred run time in the Automation panel and the pipeline takes care of itself.

Safety Features

Off by Default

Nothing is automated until you turn it on. Each stage has its own switch, so you can adopt automation one step at a time.

Safety Caps

Per-run maximums limit how many offers can be sent and how many listings can be ended in a single day. Even a misconfigured rule cannot run away with your inventory.

Dry Run Mode

Dry Run executes the entire pipeline logic but does not touch eBay. It produces a report showing:

• Which listings would be analyzed
• Which offers would be sent (and at what discount)
• Which listings would be ended

Use Dry Run to validate your configuration before enabling stages for real.

Reports

Every automation run produces a report you can review in the app. Reports include:

• Timestamp and duration
• Stage-by-stage results (listings processed, offers sent, listings ended)
• Any errors or skipped items with reasons
• A dry-run flag indicating whether actions were real or simulated

Monitoring

Dashboard Indicators

When automation is configured, the dashboard shows:

• Next scheduled run time
• Last run status (success/failure)
• Stage-level results from the most recent run

Error Handling

If a stage fails mid-run:

• The error is recorded in the run report
• Subsequent stages still execute (stages are independent)
• The next scheduled run is unaffected

Recommended Setup

Week 1: Observe

1. Enable only Stage 1 (Auto-Analyze)
2. Review the tier assignments daily
3. Run Dry Runs of Stage 2 and Stage 3 to see what would happen

Week 2: Offers

1. Enable Stage 2 (Auto-Send Offers)
2. Review sent offers daily in the automation report
3. Adjust discount percentages if offers are too aggressive or too conservative

Week 3: Full Pipeline

1. Enable Stage 3 (Auto-End Stale) after confirming the stale threshold
2. Check the relist queue for ended listings that need relisting
3. Review the daily report for any unexpected behavior

Next Steps

• Tier Management, Understand the tiers that automation acts on
• eBay Integration, How the eBay connection powers offers and endings
• FAQ, Troubleshooting automation issues