Buyer Protection is coming soon

[nutrafituk]

Just announced - finally some sort of good news for business accounts basically saying ONLY PRIVATE SELLERS will have this fee added (£0.75 fixed + various %). Hopefully that will make a difference for genuine business sellers and make those dodgy ones re-think their position:

We’re excited to announce that from 4 Feb, buyers will benefit from a brand new protection every time they shop on eBay. What’s even better is that this comes at no extra cost to you or your buyers. To give your buyers more confidence and security when shopping, Buyer Protection will be included on every purchase on ebay.co.uk. We’ve kept things simple for you, so there’s nothing you need to do to access this protection. These are all part of our efforts to make eBay the best marketplace for our community. Here’s how the recent changes will benefit you.

Why Buyer Protection is good for your business As a business seller, Buyer Protection is included for free for you and your buyers. They’ll get the protection, without the cost. With Buyer Protection, all buyers and sellers will now get 24/7 customer support where you can connect with a real person by phone whenever you need, or start a chat to get quick answers. We’ve also still got you covered with secure transactions, thanks to payments that are encrypted end-to-end and handled by our trusted payment partners.

We’re always looking for more ways to help drive sales to your business, so from 20 Jan, Coupons, Multi-buy and other discount tools will only be available to business sellers. You can look forward to more exclusive benefits in the future. Learn more about Buyer Protection What’s changing for private sellers

• We recently made changes to our fee structure so it’s free for private sellers to sell on eBay (excl. Vehicles). As part of this, from 4 Feb, a Buyer Protection fee will be added to listings from UK-based private sellers so we can make investments into these protections. This fee will be included in the item price and be paid for by the buyer. As a reminder, this is free of charge for business sellers.

• To give buyers more protection and encourage timely shipment, private sellers will be paid once the item is delivered. There’s no change for business sellers and you’ll still receive your payouts as quickly as you do today.

• We know it’s important to have a fair and equitable marketplace for all business sellers. That’s why we’re monitoring trading activities on eBay to help business sellers using a private account transition over to a business account, or restricting selling activity as necessary.

[game_raid]

The Buyer Protection fee will be calculated as:

• A flat fee of £0.75 per item, and
• 4% of the item price up to £300, and
• 2% of any portion of the item price from £300 to £4,000

[rubie*red]

It's the buyer who pays it, not the seller. It'll only be added to private sellers listings. Sounds a bit confusing and off-putting for sellers. Not sure....

[game_raid]

I don't think it will be seen, and more just added to the listing, so they see the one price as below in their example.

Item price set by the seller	£20
Buyer Protection fee variable (4% of £20)	£0.80
Buyer Protection flat fee	£0.75
Price that buyer sees for the listing	£21.55 + postage

[Anonymous]

Along with the other changes, it will probably result in thousands of private sellers leaving the site - and if they ain't selling here, they ain't going to be buying.

[nutrafituk]

True - it's hard to see the impact right now. My quick conclusion is that 'overall' having an actual business it will stop being beneficial hiding behing a private account. Having other features removed is a move in the right direction. What I would like to also see is private sellers being able to promote their items and business offers being prioritised.

Feel sorry for genuine private sellers though.

[padanpcparts]

Hahahaha I called it. I knew this was coming. The good old switcheroo begins! E-bay are going to get their money one way or another. I at least thought they would leave it 6 months before turning the screw! Another ill thought out change. Don't worry business sellers, in a few months we will all have this fee added as well. 

[rubie*red]

One other thing - hopefully it will drive a few of the (not really private) private sellers into registering as business (perhaps!).

[bricklanebargains]

I just read the Ebay announcement and to be honest I`m not so sure if this "Buyer Protection Fee" is a good idea. I understand and appreciate that it won`t affect business sellers but still may be off putting for some buyers as they are not used to this. Vinted model works for them because there are tens of thousands of items listed on that app for next to nothing and buyers probably don`t mind paying an extra pound. That`s not the case for Ebay. 

[game_raid]

They won't see it, all they will see is the item that costs £21.55 + postage and they are getting better protection, as their example base on a £20 sale.

It is down to the seller to set the price considering this extra fee or just let it be added to the listing, it is still free for them to sell which still poses an advantage if a business wants to exploit the private account status.

In our category we are being undercut by 10-15% on brand new items even with 4% added they are still cheaper than us.

[crg_music]

Yeah I think so, the fact there will be 2 formats on the site will make it less confusing if they just include it. If the idea is to make it simple for the seller to achieve what they want then it will work, no surprises.

Has anyone calculated how it compares to previous fees/business seller fees? Will be curious to see how beneficial it is for dodgy fake sellers to continue as they are.

[notstopbuying]

I cannot see how it will stop "Private, Business sellers" as it is the buyer who pays the protection fee... The fee will be hidden until the check out... It is all smoke and mirrors, IMHO make it free for all sellers and just add the protection fee for every seller.... Job done. 

[Anonymous]

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@game_raid wrote:

They won't see it, all they will see is the item that costs £21.55 + postage and they are getting better protection, as their example base on a £20 sale.

It is down to the seller to set the price considering this extra fee or just let it be added to the listing, it is still free for them to sell which still poses an advantage over a business seller.

In our category we are being undercut by 10-15% on brand new items even with 4% added they are still cheaper than us.

---

Don't forget the 75p fixed amount. It means low value items won't be worth bothering with.

[crg_music]

I guess but their final prices are going to go up by possibly 20%+ on sub £5 items, its the low end I feel its a major issue anyway

[thekraftbox]

I have a private seller account for selling personal items e.g. old craft magazines, patterns etc but this 'buyer protection' will probably be a bad thing and will put people off buying if they will be forced to pay an extra 75p +4% on low cost item.

I sell a lot of old knitting patterns for £1 + postage but this will raise the cost to £1.82 + postage.

I suspect a lot of people who are selling cheap personal 'bits' will have customers screaming at them that they have been overcharged and demanding refunds or cancelling orders.

I suspect eBay is just  trying to recoup it's 'sell for free' money but risks putting itself out of business and will end up as a business seller platform only. It stopped being an auction platform a long time ago.

Some of you may think that is a good idea to get rid of the 'businesses' masquerading as private sellers but check out some of the registered addresses for some of the so called 'business' sellers.

I've checked some in the past via company house (UK) when nervous about buying certain goods only to find out that the address is literally a drop box residential address with many other 'companies' registered under the same details.

As a buyer this makes me very nervous.

A lot of the named persons with Company House seem to be from the East which also makes me suspicious as to how much protection I would actually get because they seem to simply close down a business then set up another the next day (it doesn't cost much).  I place a lot of blame on Company House because they never check on these 'companies' and a huge number are overseas 'businesses'.

[pal_version]

another nail in the eBay coffin. if they want to kill off VInted they need to just be a carbon copy of Vinted. Too many rules and and insane amount of sub categories which puts off Business Sellers and Private Sellers. ebay boast how simple it is to sell on here yet it's a convoluted mess that involves fees after fees to get ahead. promoting inventory item should just be as simple as the Vinted spotlight option yet eBay have several options that mostly seem to line their pockets.

[crg_music]

I think the real problem like you say is the low end. I only list under £6 if it goes in a Jiffy bag but would go lower if it was worth it. Maybe they need to change it fullstop down in this range.

Mentally ive found this free private thing hard to deal with and have listed barely a thing on ebay since that happened. Seeing fake private sellers doing 300+ sales a month for free just made me not even want to sell here and sell elsewhere. This new change definitely makes me considerably more likely to in the next mont.

[retail_media_station_group]

Appreciate as business sellers we want a fair and level playground , but forcing private sellers into business accounts , extra fees for buyers will mean two things will happen that will now damage us business sellers, 

1. Promotion Fees. We should now expect these to increase by 2x or even more as more business accounts are created it makes the actual business side of the game become a very hard playground to compete in.

2. Buyers will leave the site , these changes will only see less people turn to Ebay and business sellers we will lose the repeat customers as well as see fees double this year. 

Sometimes we ask for something that we never truly understand the consequences of. We asked for a hard line on private sellers but failed to understand how this actually in the real world will affect business seller sales.

These new changes coming 20th Jan and 4th Feb will in my eyes only see loss of sales for business sellers... Promoted fees will rise significantly now as a result of this

[retail_media_station_group]

but you really don't want that do you? Think about it more business sellers the Algorithm is thn going to increase the promoted fees ,and if you don't promote your listings are dead.  Having more registered business sellers means less sales all around for all  

[retail_media_station_group]

100% people dont realise that businesses will now find it more than difficult to get sales. More registered businesses means higher promoted fees , less buyers for the private sellers that move on to somewhere else. Which ever way this playouts next month , one thing is for sure. Competition will be even greater w