Welcome to Outright.com join us to jump into the discussion or ask a question and subscribe here to follow the community
As a seller, waiting for eBay to announce its changes is a little like waiting outside the principal’s office in middle school; you know it’s not going to be good, but until you actually get called in, you can fantasize that you’re there to be presented with the Good Citizen award. But the wait is over. Today, eBay announced the changes that will effect buyers and sellers across the board, as of March 30. I haven’t had much time to process the information (perhaps I am still hoping for the Good Citizen award?) nor to fully grasp what the changes are going to mean to me as an eBay seller and eBay store subscriber, so I will try to present the changes here with as little wry commentary as possible.
There are three major areas of change, as announced today by eBay Dinesh Lathi, VP of Buyer and Seller Experience: changes to auction-style fee structure, fixed-price fee structure and to buyer protection.
I. Fee changes in auction-style formats for sellers WITHOUT stores:
Listing fee changes:
* Auction style listings – for small sellers without an eBay store: Free listing fee for up to 100 auction listings per month, when auction price is below $1.00. Lathi commented that the $.99 auction is the building block of auction-style listings.
Final value Fee changes:
* As of March 30, you will be assessed a fee of nine percent of the final sale with a cap of fifty dollars in final value fees, per item sold.
II. Fee changes to Fixed Price listings for eBay sellers WITH stores:
For sellers with eBay stores, depending on which tier of store you subscribe to, your listing fees will change. Depending on your store tier, your inventory will list for either $.03, $.05, or $.20 per listing.
Further, the Store Inventory Format that we now use will no longer exist, but will be replaced with the Fixed Price listing format. As of March 30, your Store Inventory Format listings will automatically become regular Fixed Price listings with the same duration and renew at the new rates—and surface in search results right along with all other listings.
* On the positive side, these listings will now be part of the core search and will receive “full search exposure.”
* Also, the monthly $.35 fee that we paid for each our Fixed Price listings, will be reduced to $.20 or lower, depending on the store tier to which you subscribe.
* On the negative side, the $.03 cent listing fee that we all enjoyed on our Store Inventory Listings will now ONLY be available to Anchor Stores as of March 30
Below is a summary of the three tiers of eBay stores with their fees and benefits as of March 30:
* Basic Store, cost: $15.95 per month. Benefits: free pictures, fixed price inventory. Fixed Price Inventory lists for $.20 per listing. Recommended if you list more than 50 items per month.
* Premium Store, cost: $49.95 per month. Benefits: free pictures and free Selling Manager Pro. Fixed price inventory lists for $.05 per listing per month. Recommended if you have more than 250 listings per month.
* Anchor Store, cost: $299.95 per month. Benefits: free pictures and free Selling Manager Pro Fixed price inventory lists for $.03 per listing per month. Recommended if you sell in volume.
In a video interview, Dinesh Lathi suggests that eBay sellers can choose the fee schedule that works for them. You can try out this nifty Fee Illustrator to see what works best for you. EBay is touting these listing fee changes as the lowest insertion fees ever. However, this is only true if you are an Anchor store subscriber - since the $.03 Store Inventory Listing will no longer be available for the rest of us - and for many eBay sellers, particularly small sellers, the Anchor Store is not a viable option.
III. Buyer Protection Program
eBay is launching a new Buyer Protection Program, which protects its buyers not only when they use PayPal but when they use any other approved payment method. The new motto is: "eBay's got you covered." I’m not sure exactly what this means yet – other than the fact that this and other aspects of the 2010 changes are clearly modeled after the Amazon seller and buyer programs - and my attempts to understand it, including watching this video Q and A with Lynda Talgo, Senior Director of Resolutions at eBay, haven’t helped. But from my experience as a seller, until I hear differently, I am going to assume that if eBay Buyers are "covered" as their motto suggests, it is under a tarp made from the flesh and bones of eBay Sellers.
Oops – and I was trying so hard to hold back here on commentary before I become better informed! But if you have every experienced an infuriatingly biased, buyer-caused suspension to your PayPal account, the memory will send shivers running down your spine, and you will understand my concerns about a beefed-up eBay Buyer Protection Program. Don't get me wrong, I believe that every seller should be held to the highest standard of responsibility. However, in a system that is already so strongly biased against the seller, and that holds the buyer to no responsibility - including responsibility for payment of their purchases in some cases - this does not bode well for us sellers. I am planning on becoming better informed by attending a webinar on the changes coming to eBay. Know someone else who might be affected by these changes? Tweet this post!
What do you think?
How will the changes to eBay's fee structure effect your business?
Share your thoughts about the upcoming changes.
1
1. I'd not heard about the changes, so thank you for the alert.
2. It won't affect me at all, aside from letting me know that EBay might not go out of business, as they move into a different market. (They were already on their way out the door, especially as compared to their previous successes, as a day-to-day clearinghouse of odd objects.)
3. Might want to see about editing that "effect" into an "affect." (Not trying to be rude; it's an easy typo to make.)
Posted Jan 29, 2010 7:54:55 PM by: Hawkins