Final selling fees on 99p items

[deb360yellow]

Because private sellers have help with fees why cant business sellers have help especially when only an item sells for 99p, which I add, ebay recommend starting at.  This is all very well, but by the time fees have been taken, we are practically making no money ( quite sole destroying)  Surely this would be a big help as a business seller.

Maybe also twice a year do 3 months free listings to give our business a boost.

A lot of effort geos into selling and as a business seller the volume is high due to being made a business seller from a private seller. We strive to give ebay  good revenue but surely we need some help too

Does anyone agree?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You don't honestly think that Ebay is likely to give us 6 months of free listings per year?

That would likely bankrupt them.

I agree that Ebay could do more to help it's business sellers, but there are things such as the partially supported discounts and such like.

If however you are struggling at the prices you are selling at, then you would probably be better off raising those prices and selling less.

Sell on other sites, you don't have to just stick to Ebay.

[typo_lee]

If we just sold on ebay we would be bust. Especially these days as ebay is dead.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Literally no idea why you answered that, when the post wasn't directed at you.

And that was a tiny part of the response.

As to Ebay being dead, I disagree completely with you.

A lot of that is to do with what you are selling as much as anything else.

It has been quiet, but is very much starting to pick up now.

[magpiecorner1]

I do! 

The whole business seller fee pricing is crazy.  I sell the highest category (so I would say that!) but never in all my years of selling on eBay has anyone explained why different sections have different costs - we are all sellers and there should be a level playing field.

The shop listings are another mystery to me - why restrict the number of items listed - what on earth does it achieve.  We have a featured shop and it is difficult to stay within the 1500 - but every extra listing is a high cost (well it certainly is if you want to add another two or three hundred listings!) but the jump to the next level is not just prohibitive, but totally crazy!  Businesses need to move slowly, pointless asking a business to subject themselves to a huge increase in fixed costs without knowing that they can be absorbed.

Its not the number of listings on the site either - even when the private sellers quantity was reduced to 300, it was only 300 NEW listings, so perfectly possibly for a private seller to have two, three, four thousand - or even more - listings - yet a business seller has to stumps up many hundreds of pounds for the priviledge of listing items for just one month!

For a company that makes money on sales, in a situation when the number of buyers is stagnating, charging business sellers for listing - in fact in any format - is plain stupid!

[edwardian-dreams]

It’s like the buyer protection fee for private sellers 

its a blanket 75p plus 4% on all items ..so if your items are a pound or so it’s a whopping 75% plus fee in effect ..

It only decreases as item is  more expensive

wrong way round 😐

should be graded down or scrapped for cheap items

detrimental to both buyers and sellers, not to mention adding insult to injury with simple delivery …not all cheap items are excluded from that 

[kidmore_kats]

Why in the name of *bleep* are you listing things at 99p ?

Never take anything that eBay suggests as your starting price, as you have now discovered, it's a recipe for disaster .

I could buy up most of what you have listed and sell it on for ten times the money

[wyntersemporium]

Yet the USA sellers have 10,000 free listings and I have 1,500 although not put anything up new on eBay as being exhausted by a excitable 5 month old puppy.
although have put up items on other places.  

[magpiecorner1]

I remember being exhausted by a five month old puppy, now that he is almost 8 I'm totally worn out - and always skint.  He's cost me a fortune even though he was insured when he snatched his leg, had to carried in and out for the house for months, all 42 kilos.  And costs me £200 a month in food and treats.

Didn't realise that, but US sellers aren't divided into business and private, so business sellers are getting that 10,000.  I'm going to the Roadshow next week just to ask why.  I'm in first thing for a one to one - probably will be hoyed out of there before 9.30!

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[magpiecorner1]

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@therenewalworkshopltd wrote:

You don't honestly think that Ebay is likely to give us 6 months of free listings per year?

That would likely bankrupt them.

I agree that Ebay could do more to help it's business sellers, but there are things such as the partially supported discounts and such like.

If however you are struggling at the prices you are selling at, then you would probably be better off raising those prices and selling less.

Sell on other sites, you don't have to just stick to Ebay.

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Dunno, they could give us free listings.  All year.

In fact, if they gave us free listings and charge everyone 10% fees plus VAT they could easily increase buyers, sellers and income.   

If they organised themselves properly, there's a canny business here.

I wouldnt even have a problem if the bug guys got a better deal, cos they're getting a better deal at the moment.  

They should be innovative, not running scared because someone else is letting sellers sell for free (and losing money doing it).   Provide a first rate service and they will get first rate sellers - and buyers.

If only eBay had the nerve to make it work.  Cos slowly strangling the golden goose is going to stop the egg production a lot sooner than they might realise.  And then they will be bankrupt, but not before the rest of us.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I agree that they need to change things, the way that they are charging now is very prehistoric.

But just dropping fees for all business sellers for half the year, is not going to happen.

Seriously, that is literally their income for half the year.  Can any business survive on only taking half normal fees?

Who is letting sellers sell for free and losing money?  If by that, your talking about Vxxted, then you will find that they are certainly not losing money now, quite the opposite.

Extract from very recent report:

• Revenue increased 36% in 2024 vs 2023, with net profit increasing 330% year-on-year

They do need to lose the shops, they are strangling a lot of sellers now, as the jumps between the shops are just too big.  Never mind the fact that virtually everywhere else, there are no fees for listing items.

[4_bathrooms]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

Didn't realise that, but US sellers aren't divided into business and private, so business sellers are getting that 10,000.  I'm going to the Roadshow next week just to ask why. 

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It is simply because the USA's consumer laws are very different to the UK's and the EU's. The requirement for businesses to identify themselves as such (i.e. by displaying their contact details) meant eBay UK and eBay's EU-specific websites had to create a distinct account type for businesses. This provided eBay with an opportunity to create disparate fee structures and listing allowances for the separate types of account.

[magpiecorner1]

Yes,  VINTED made profits in 2023, and again in 2024.

Every single year from the six years previous to that they made a loss.   I don't have figures from before, but Ibelieve 2023 was the first year if profit.

But, they are going to be a danger if Vinted Pro takes off, and the majority players in used, who are massive, exodus, especially if heavily persuaded.

I didn't suggest eBay drops business fees for half a year, wouldn't be a good idea.   My suggestion was to drop listings fees altogether, and make all sales fees the same across the board, with better rates for the bigger sellers.  EBay have never asked for my input in the past, and never will, but perhaps they should?  They certainly haven't increased the number of buyers or really had any positive effect on income (except by merely adding fees with promotions).

Continuing to do the same thing won't get a better result.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

So I am presuming that is who you meant.

But it's not unusual for a company to lose money for the first few years of operation.  It takes time to build up, especially so the bigger the company is.

Vinted pro HAS taken off.  I bet there are very few (certainly clothing) sellers who do not have an account there.  The advantage that Ebay has though, is that they only have a relatively small range and it's really quite restrictive.  Particularly so for business sellers.  Though I dare say that given time, this will change.

But you can't even list more than one item on there, so you can see that they really don't know where they are going yet.  The gun was jumped to open Pro here, because of the way Ebay was acting.

Yes, I agree as I said before, the fees need to change.  Listing fees in particular and shop fees.  They are just ridiculous.  The problem is, that Ebay now rely on these fees and changing will be very difficult for them.  But they are getting to the point where if they don't do something soon, it's going to really backfire on them.

Personally I hate this halfway house they have done with the BPF.  Ebay needs to be Ebay, the place people go to for everything, the unusual and the strange.  Along with the major bargain.

The thing is, there simply isn't anywhere else that is Ebay.  Yes, there are a couple of obvious comparisons, but they are so far behind as to be not worth notice.