Auto outlet discounts the products that have stopped selling. It starts each one at your smallest discount and makes the discount bigger, step by step, while the product still doesn’t sell. You set the pace, read the plan in Preview, where Auto outlet changes no prices, and switch to Live when the plan looks right.
You will learn #
- How to set when a product gets its first discount and how fast the discount grows
- How to read the plan in Preview before any price changes
- What Tendlio needs before Auto outlet can go Live
- Which products Auto outlet holds back, and why
- How to see the results and undo the discounts
Before you begin #
- Run an analysis first. Auto outlet picks from the products your last analysis marked Slow or Dead, the health colors on Products & insights. If the plan says no products qualify, click Re-scan store under that message to run one.
- Turn on seasonal detection. Auto outlet can’t go Live until Detect seasonal products automatically from sales history is on under Inventory → Seasonal, and an analysis has finished since you turned it on. Without seasonal detection, a seasonal product that’s out of season looks the same as dead stock.
- Know what Auto outlet leaves to you. Auto outlet works on simple products. To discount particular products yourself, right away, use Manual outlet, the page next to Auto outlet. A variable product has a sale price on each variation, so neither page changes it: if you want one discounted, put it on sale in WooCommerce yourself.
- If you sell in the EU, show the 30-day lowest price. In the EU, a sale has to show the lowest price the product had in the 30 days before the discount started. WooCommerce doesn’t show that price on its own, so add a plugin that does. Tendlio’s product rows on your store use your store’s own price display, so they show it too.
Open Auto outlet #
- In your WordPress admin, open Tendlio → Inventory.
- Click Auto outlet. It’s next to Manual outlet.
The page has three tabs: Discount rules, Protection & exclusions and Results. The banner above the tabs says what Auto outlet is doing right now. A new store starts with Mode set to Disabled, where Auto outlet doesn’t discount anything.
Set the pace #
On the Discount rules tab, under Automatic Outlet rules, each rule reads as a sentence with a number in it:
- Enter the outlet after … days unsold is how long a product goes without a sale before its first discount. It starts at 60. For a product that has never sold, Tendlio counts the days from when you listed it.
- Discount grows every … days in the outlet is how long a product stays at one step before it moves to the next one. It starts at 45.
- Newly listed products wait … days before their first discount protects the products you listed recently. It starts at the number your store vertical uses: 365, or 180 for High-Volume Retail. You can type your own, from 1 to 1095 days.
- Under Discount steps, type the discounts, smallest first. A new store starts with 10%, 20% and 30%. Click + Add another step to add one (you can have up to eight), or the × next to a step to remove it.
- Outlet tag is the product tag Tendlio adds to every product it discounts, so you can build an “Outlet” page in your shop from it. Keep “outlet” or type your own.
- Outlet badge is an optional label shown on discounted products, for example “Online only”. Leave it empty if you don’t want one.
- Click Save outlet settings.
Each step has to be a bigger discount than the one before it. If one isn’t, Tendlio doesn’t save the steps and tells you why, and the numbers you typed stay in the form so you can fix the one that’s out of order.
Important: Auto outlet doesn’t check what a product cost you before it lowers the price, so your deepest step can sell a product below cost. The note next to Mode shows your deepest step, so you see it when you choose the mode.
If a Tendlio feature that gives out percentage coupons is on, the same note also shows your biggest percentage coupon, and the discount a product would get if that coupon and your deepest step both applied. They don’t both apply: Tendlio’s percentage coupons skip products that are already on sale, so they don’t lower an Outlet price any further.
Check the plan in Preview #
- Next to Mode, click Preview, then Save outlet settings. In Preview, Auto outlet plans the discounts and doesn’t change any prices.
- Scroll down to What would be applied (preview). The line under the heading says how many products Auto outlet would discount, and how many more it lists with the reason it leaves them out.
- Read the table. It has one row for each product:
- Idle days is how many days ago the product last sold, or, for a product that has never sold, how many days ago you listed it.
- Step is the step the row would set, for example “1 (−10%)”.
- Price → Sale is the price now and the sale price the row would set. A row that Auto outlet leaves alone shows the price it keeps, with “(we change nothing here)”.
- Action says Will discount for a product’s first discount, Discount grows for a product moving to its next step, or Skipped with the reason in brackets.
- If you never want Auto outlet to discount a product, click Don’t auto-discount on its row. The product moves to Excluded from auto-outlet on the Protection & exclusions tab, where Re-enable brings it back.
One run discounts up to 200 products, the ones unsold longest first. When more are waiting, the page says so, and they follow on the next daily runs. For each reason a product can be left out, the table lists up to 50 of those products.
Switch to Live #
- Next to Mode, click Live, then Save outlet settings.
- Check the banner. LIVE means Tendlio sets the sale prices every day, and also when you click Apply now.
- To start today instead of waiting for the daily run, click Apply now under What the next run will apply, and confirm. The message that follows says how many products got a discount.
When Live doesn’t turn on #
Tendlio lets Auto outlet go Live only when it can trust the analysis it would set prices from. If something is missing when you save Live, it saves your settings in Preview and says what to do first. For most of the reasons below, a note next to Mode names the step that’s in the way while you’re still in Preview, so you see it before you try. These are the reasons:
- Seasonal detection is off. Turn on Detect seasonal products automatically from sales history under Inventory → Seasonal, then run a new analysis.
- No analysis has finished yet. Run one.
- The last finished analysis started more than 14 days ago, or it ran before you changed a setting it depends on, such as seasonal detection. Run a new analysis.
- An analysis is running, or the last one didn’t finish. The note next to Mode doesn’t show this one, so you find out when you save. When an analysis is running, wait for it to finish, then switch to Live again. If Auto outlet was already Live, it skips its runs until the analysis finishes, then carries on. When the last analysis stopped before the end, run it again.
- A category in your lists no longer exists. Open Protection & exclusions and untick it, or pick the category that replaced it.
- This isn’t your live shop. On a staging copy, or after your shop moved to a new web address, Auto outlet doesn’t change prices. When your shop’s address has changed and Tendlio can’t tell whether this is a copy or a move, the page sends you to the Site address page to say which. Preview still works on a copy.
- Tendlio couldn’t check your last analysis. Try again, and check System status if it keeps happening.
Tendlio checks all of this again before every run. If one of these stops being true after you’ve gone Live, prices stop changing, and the banner says LIVE IS BLOCKED with the reason.
What Auto outlet holds back #
Some products look like dead stock and still don’t get a discount. The plan lists them with the reason, and the products held back by the season check or the visits check come first, so you can see that the checks ran.
Products that sold at this time last year #
Before a discount, Tendlio takes the next three months and checks whether the product sold in the same three months last year. If it did, the discount waits until that stretch has passed. That’s how a Halloween line that hasn’t sold since last autumn keeps its price in August, right before its season. It only delays the discount: once the season is behind the product, it can get one like any other product.
These rows say Skipped (sold at this time last year). Hover over the words to see how many units the product sold and between which dates. If Tendlio can’t read last year’s sales, it holds every product back and says so above the table.
Products that are too new to judge #
A product you listed recently waits for the number of days in Newly listed products wait, even when it has sold a few units. A wait of a year covers every season once. If you wait less, a product you added last autumn can look like dead stock all summer, right before its season starts. These rows say Skipped (too new to judge).
Products shoppers haven’t seen #
A bigger discount is an answer to shoppers who saw a product and didn’t buy it. When shoppers have hardly seen a product in the last 30 days, Tendlio keeps the discount it already has instead of moving it to the next step, because the product first needs to be seen. Tendlio counts both the times the product showed up in your shop’s product lists and the visits to its page. These rows say Skipped (hardly seen yet).
This check never holds back a product’s first discount. It also needs two things. Tendlio has to be measuring your storefront, which it does while Measure views, clicks, add-to-carts and purchases, for your widgets and for every product is on under Settings → Storefront (it’s on unless you turned it off). And shoppers must have seen your shop’s product lists and product pages often enough in those 30 days for Tendlio to judge. When either is missing, the discounts keep growing on schedule.
Other products it leaves alone #
- Skipped (your own sale): a product with a sale price you set yourself. The next section explains how to change that.
- Skipped (variable product): its sale prices belong to its variations.
- Skipped (the sale price would come out to zero): at the number of decimals your store uses, the sale price would round to zero, so there’s no price to set.
- Skipped (boost running until …): a product you’re boosting so more shoppers see it. Auto outlet waits until the boost ends, then carries on as before.
- Products you excluded, products in categories you keep out, and, when you picked categories under Only these categories, products outside them.
- Products that are out of stock.
- A product the 30-day forecast expects to sell two or more units of.
- A seasonal product, whether seasonal detection confirmed it or you set its season, on the product or through its category, unless it’s well into its own season and has sold far less than it had by the same day last season. If you turned on Seasonal products that sold nothing last season, one that sold nothing in its last season, and nothing so far in this one, can be discounted once its season is running again. A product whose season started after your last analysis joins the plan after the next analysis, and until then a note above the plan names it.
- Products that sold, sold out or changed price since your last analysis, and products you excluded since then. A line above the table counts them, and Tendlio checks each product again before it sets a price.
When your store has had too few orders in the last year to tell dead stock from a quiet month, Auto outlet doesn’t pick new products, and it says so under the plan heading. Products already in the outlet keep moving through their steps. It starts picking new products as orders come in.
Products already on sale #
By default, Auto outlet leaves alone a product you’ve put on sale yourself. If something has sat at your own discount for months without selling, you can let Auto outlet take it over:
- On the Protection & exclusions tab, turn on Also mark down products that are already on sale, under Products already on sale.
- Click Save outlet settings.
Auto outlet then waits the same number of days as for any other product, and it uses the smallest of your steps that’s a bigger discount than yours. When your discount is already bigger than your deepest step, the row says Skipped (your discount is already bigger). Reverting a product Auto outlet took over brings your own sale back, with the start and end dates you had on it. Turning the switch off later keeps the discounts that are already on your products, and Auto outlet stops taking over new ones.
Choose where Auto outlet works #
On the Protection & exclusions tab:
- Under Only these categories, tick the categories where Auto outlet may work. With nothing ticked, it may work across your whole catalog. Starting with one category lets you watch the discounts on one shelf before you let Auto outlet work on more.
- Under Excluded categories, tick the categories Auto outlet must never touch, even inside the ones you allowed. When a category is in both lists, the exclusion wins, and the page names that category under Excluded categories.
- Click Save outlet settings.
Ticking a parent category ticks everything under it, and you can untick a sub-category to leave that one out. A branch you leave fully ticked also covers the sub-categories you add to it later. The line above the lists says what they add up to right now, for example “Right now the automatic steps may work across your whole catalog.”
To keep a single product out, click Don’t auto-discount on its row in the plan, or check Exclude from Outlet Auto on the product’s edit screen in WooCommerce. The Excluded from auto-outlet list on this tab shows the products you excluded, with Re-enable next to each.
Neither category list limits Manual outlet, where you choose the products yourself.
See the results #
Until Auto outlet has discounted anything, the Results tab says so. After that, it shows what Auto outlet has done:
- Outlet discounts compares how many units a day the discounted products sold before and after their discounts, and shows the margin the discounts gave up. Until there are enough sales to compare, it says it’s still measuring. See per-product detail opens the Discount report.
- Currently discounted lists every product that has an Outlet discount now, including the ones you discounted on Manual outlet, with its step, its regular and sale price, the date it got its current discount, and a Revert link.
- Not moving, even at a discount lists the products that have had an Outlet discount for about a year and still haven’t sold. A bigger discount probably won’t fix these, so the page suggests a final clearance price, giving one away with a best-seller, or taking them out of your catalog.
In Advanced mode, Stuck after on the Protection & exclusions tab sets how many days “about a year” is.
Undo discounts #
- One product: click Revert next to it under Currently discounted on the Results tab.
- Everything: on the Discount rules tab, click Revert all, next to Apply now (or Refresh preview, while you’re in Preview) above the plan, and confirm. The button is there once a product has an Outlet discount. It removes every Outlet discount, including the ones you set on Manual outlet. Those products go back to full price, and products Auto outlet took over go back to the sale price you had set. To clear your own sale prices on those too, check Also clear the sale prices I set myself before you click. That box is there while taking over sales is on.
Revert all works through your products in batches and shows its progress. If it stops before the end, click it again and it carries on from where it stopped.
A product you revert stays out of Auto outlet for 60 days. To keep a product out for good, exclude it instead.
Switching Mode to Disabled stops new discounts, but the discounts already on your products stay. Revert all is what removes them.
If you change or clear a sale price that Auto outlet set, Tendlio treats that as you taking the product back. It stops managing that price, the product’s sales from then on don’t count in the Outlet results, and the product stays out of Auto outlet for 60 days, as it would after a revert. The Results tab says how many products you took back.
Why Auto outlet works this way #
The discount only grows #
Each step is a bigger discount than the one before it, and a product never moves back to a smaller one. That way shoppers never see an Outlet discount get smaller, and it’s also why Tendlio won’t save steps that are out of order.
A product starts at the smallest step #
A product joins the outlet at your smallest discount, however long it went unsold before. Starting deeper would give away margin on a product that might have sold with a small discount. The one exception is a product Auto outlet takes over from your own sale, which starts at the smallest step that beats your discount. The discount also grows one step at a time after a pause: if Auto outlet sat in Preview for three months, a product doesn’t jump several steps when you switch back to Live.
The discount stops growing once the product sells #
A sale is a sign the product can sell at its current discount, so Auto outlet doesn’t cut deeper. It moves a product to its next step only while the product still doesn’t sell, and before each step it checks your orders since the last analysis as well.
A reverted product waits 60 days #
Without the wait, the next daily run would put the discount straight back, because the product still looks like dead stock. Reverting means “not now”. Excluding means “never”.
One run changes at most 200 prices #
Each run discounts at most 200 products, the ones unsold longest first, and the rest follow in the next days’ runs. That caps how many prices can change between two chances for you to look at the plan.
Additional resources #
- How to discount products yourself with Manual outlet: including how to keep a product away from Auto outlet.
- How to set up seasonal detection: how Tendlio finds seasonal products, which Auto outlet needs before it can go Live.
- Product health colors (Fast / Steady / Slow / Dead): the colors Auto outlet picks from.
- Are your discounts paying off? (Discount report): the per-product results.
- How to use the Tendlio fields on a product: the Exclude from Outlet Auto checkbox.
- What to do with dead stock
- Selling below cost
Frequently asked questions #
Can Auto outlet sell a product below cost? #
Yes. It doesn't check a product's cost before it lowers the price, so choose your deepest step with your margins in mind. The note next to Mode shows your deepest step.
Why isn't a product I know is dead in the plan? #
It may be held back (it sold at this time last year, it's too new, shoppers haven't seen it), excluded, a variable product, on a sale you set, out of stock, or expected by the forecast to sell soon. The plan lists up to 50 products for each reason, and one run takes up to 200 products, the ones unsold longest first.
What happens to the discounts when I switch Auto outlet off? #
Disabled stops new discounts. The ones already on your products stay until you use Revert all.
Does Auto outlet change prices on my staging site? #
No. On a staging copy of your shop, Auto outlet doesn't change prices, and Preview still shows you the plan.