Ebay of the future... The perhaps not so bonkers idea of levelling up for business sellers

[tommystrezures]

Over the past few weeks I have been asking some of my customers, "why do you buy from me and ebay". The general consensus is that they trust our listings and descriptions and they find ebay 'cheap'.  However one of the odd things that came out of these conversations was, why don't we pay a buyers comission/premium?

If I was to goto an bricks and mortar auction house I would expect to pay comission on my purchases of anything these days of between 25-30% - Many of these include an online platform fee.

SO, What if business sellers on ebay had the ability to charge their buyers a buyers premium/commission like any auction house would charge?

To keep the exercise simple to list an item largely is 10.8% fee + + +  What if business sellers had a mechanism when listing that they could charge a maximum 5% buyers premium. That 5% charged to the buyer would be deducted from their 10.8% fee so the seller would pay 5.8% fee and the buyer 5%. Ebay get their 10.8%.

Business sellers then have the ability to control matters if they don't want to charge a premium they don't. I personally if I had the option I would put a 3% buyers premium on my lots/listings. This would help offset the obvious fees and I would say share some of the costs eg the Regulatory fee, which doesn't affect just sellers but buyers too, but as ebay have chosen not share this fee then give us the seller a way to offset some of it a little.

After all as a seller I take time to source the items, describe them, list them, picture them, pack them goto the post office to send them etc.

Buyers on ebay on the otherhand pay nothing, they get free support, they get free buyer protection (which in most cases is applicable on items). If they were to goto the shops they would incur costs to drive there, park, pay for carrier bags etc. That cost would far outweigh the cost of a few pence buyers commission on their purchases here.

Private sellers when getting a special promotion of say 70/80% off, pay fees of around 4%, thus it begins levelling up the divide.

Now before you all jump and down, I know this may not work in all categories or even suit some, but I believe it would in many of them such as collectables, vinyl, ceramics, coins etc, however I personally thought it would be an interesting point for discussion.

[plpmr]

you cannot compare eBay to B&M shops etc.

"Buyers on ebay on the otherhand pay nothing, they get free support, they get free buyer protection (which in most cases is applicable on items)."

Any savvy seller includes fees etc into their price, so buyer's do pay and that also covers buyer protection.

The very best support is given by volunteers and that's free to all members and to eBay.

[plum993]

Why shouldn't seller's benefit from a small buyer premium in the form of commission, as selling isn't free,and if set at the right level I can't see why buyers buying online shouldn't support online sales in this way.

[litp*records]

Yep it's all factored in to your prices. Or should be.

Another website/app takes a different approach - sellers pay 0 fees, but the buyer pays a small "buyer protection fee" which goes directly to said app.  It's a lot more simple on the seller's side because if you sell something for £30, you receive £30. No less.  And postage labels are purchased directly by the buyer, so you don't even have that to worry about.

That is the sort of model i'd prefer to see implemented here. (As it perhaps would if Ebay began today from scratch)

[the-nutwood-collection]

It's a good idea, and seems to work for Vinted (although I think they've yet to turn a profit).

However, as @litp*records says - it would need to have been the eBay business model from the get-go.  There would be a huge outcry if buyers suddenly found a premium added to the purchase price.  Also, it would have to be a standard charge for all sales - it just wouldn't be workable if every seller set their own % premium.  

[vinylscot]

It wouldn't work now, as most established sellers wouldn't use it, as they've been getting by perfectly well without it for years. All it would do is drive buyers away from those sellers who imposed the extra charge.

If it had always been the way, I suppose either buyers would have accepted it, or eBay would never have taken off in the first place.

[magpiecorner1]

I think if you check your accounts, you will find that you already do this - its called 'mark up'!

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I tend to buy from cheapest seller so a seller adding a few percent to price is just going to see me buy elsewhere.

[ojewellery]

Years ago, some sellers on eBay didn't give a full price until you'd commited to a purchase.  It was quite confussing as a buyer and annoying when the price suddenly jumped up if you'd missed listing small print saying vat/ handling charge/ postage/ packing will be added at checkout.

I do get the desire to push back feels like as a small business everywhere we turn costs are up (fuel/ post/ general living/ platform fees/ packaging/ goods) and there's only so much that can be absorbed/ added on. 

As a customer I'd want to be able to get the item at advertised price.  I could just about understand a service premium, this is becoming a bit of a thing.  Isn't that what Vinted do when you purchase? you pay a few percent extra to protect that your purchase is what it says it is.  Seams a bit like the platform washing their hands of issues when you don't pay the protection though.  eBay regulars are comfortable and trust the platform, thats valuable.  Building that loyalty and trust takes time, breaking it is costly.  

[ojewellery]

On the note that building customer trust is expensive, repeat customers and customer loyalty important, maybe the push back could be trying to get a bigger percentage discount for Top Rated Seller status.  Those of us who consistently break our backs making the platform what it is.  Our customer service and general platfrom overhead must be a fraction of that of some sellers - including private trading sellers who aren't generating fees.  If it were bigger it might even incentivise some to clean up their act.

Carrot and Stick approach!

[rainbowtrax]

I would also like to see the TRS discount brought back without the free postage requirement. Having tried "free" postage and found that multiple item orders dropped through the floor, we don't get any discount because we went back to using separate postage with generous discounts for multiple purchases. In terms of sales, this is what works best for us and also means buyers don't pay multiple postage charges that are hidden within each item price on "free" postage listings. We're consistently TRS and don't cause ebay any issues where they have to step in and deal with things but we don't get rewarded at all for being a "good" seller. "Free" postage doesn't necessarily equate to a "good" seller. Surely that should be assessed on feedback and seller metrics.

[ashley*and*ollie]

Totally agree Rainbowtrax.  I have always had TRS on this account - which is hard to keep.  But I don't list that much with free postage so I see very little benefit to the hard work at all.

I want my customers to buy multiple items, and checkout is set to combine postage automatically.  The customer benefits hugely by me not listing with 'free postage' by being able to buy multiple items without racking up the postage. 

I do have some things listed with free postage, I didn't particularly want to - but otherwise i disappear into the nothingness never to be seen again.

Me being a good seller,  has absolutely nothing to do with whether I offer free postage or not.  So why can I not get a bit of help back from eBay for being one unless I list with free postage.

[ojewellery]

The free post thing has been going round my head the last couple of days.  A few things have cropped up lately off eBay about this.  There is a strong move to charging for baskets under a certain amount - generally around £40 - to encourage increased basket size, you can go with its greener to have fewer delivery miles by combining purchases, you can then offer incentives to notch further up like next day over £60.

It works for me as a customer.  I don't sell much off ebay under £40 now so less relevant for my product but there is definately a strong move in that direction.  Maybe something worth lobying over - free post for TRS on baskets over 'x'

[the-nutwood-collection]

In the past you could offer freepost for baskets above a certain value by using the postage tables, but I haven't explored it recently.

I set it up for my ribbon items - if the order value was small, the buyer was charged postage.  However, if the buyer purchased multiple lengths and widths across the range and reached a certain order value, post was free.

The problem was that, unless the buyer clicked to see more details about the postage, from the listing it just looked as though they would be charged £n for each item they purchased.  Many buyers don't read descriptions, and I reckon even less of them read the 'postage discounts available' information.  I don't know whether this is even available to see on the app.

The postage discounts I offered would have been advantagious to large order buyers - but I don't think they knew that.  I changed all the listings to freepost, and sales were greatly improved.

This is one of the many problems I have with eBay - the app just doesn't trumpet good deals to the buyers.  I used to offer multi-buy across my whole fibre range - but there wasn't a banner to proclaim this, so the buyer didn't know that if they bought more items they would get the multi-buy discount.