Is Upgrading to a Business Account Really Worth It?

[Anonymous]

Is Upgrading to a Business Account Really Worth It?

I'm planning to start selling on eBay and am considering subscribing to a store plan. However, I want to make sure I fully understand the differences before making a decision.

From what I understand:

• Private sellers get 300 free listings per month, and any additional listings only incur a one-time £0.35 fee but can be relisted indefinitely under GTC (Good 'Til Canceled).
• A Basic Business Store costs £27 per month, but only includes 250 free listings. On top of that, GTC listings count toward the monthly free allowance, meaning they reduce the number of new listings I can create each month.

If my understanding is correct, then why would I upgrade to a business account and end up paying more for fewer free listings? Am I missing something?

Would love to hear insights from experienced sellers!

[jonatjonatjonat]

If you can’t return an unwanted item from someone who should be a business seller,  Well right there is one point where you don’t have your full consumer rights.

and if you were reselling something you previously bought, it’s no longer new is it, because you owned it.

[writesoon]

You're right in saying "making items to sell on a small scale does not automatically make you a business seller". You can have a hobby making things, and if you are selling them to cover costs, that is fine. There may come a point, though, where you change the focus to making a profit from what you make, and then HMRC will regard you as a business. 

Obviously if you 'buy' something you discover you no longer want, or want to clear old possessions you've previously 'bought', and later resell them, you're not 'trading'. 

'Trading' relates to buying with the express intention of reselling for a profit - either on eBay or anywhere else.  

You're right when you say "buying....to sell on a small scale does not automatically make you a business seller. Someone who occasionally sees something in a charity shop  and buys it to  make a bit of extra money may be 'trading' technically on that occasion, but you wouldn't call it a self-employed business unless they started doing it routinely and deliberately, and were getting a regular income from it. Likewise, a collector of rare books who bought job lots at auction and sold the ones they didn't want wouldn't be considered a buisiness. And anyway, it's unlikely someone doing that would be making much, if anything,  from the leftovers they sold. It would be classed as managing a hobby (book collecting).

Quite simply, it's the people on eBay who are 'trading' deliberately, and getting a regular income from it,  who should have business accounts. And once their turnover from trading goes over £1000, they have to register for self-assessment with HMRC by law.

[5216elisabeth]

I quite often will look at a seller's shop, mainly those of business sellers.  It also sometimes results in me buying more than one item or putting something in my watchlist that I go back for later.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@1956glyn wrote:

Is it just me?     I never look in a members shop Business or Private.

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For the last couple of years ebay protrader team have been pushing developing your shop - as shown by the fact there is now a shop traffic tool. The idea being that ebay has got so big (I think we can agree on that) and the search engine being subsequently so hit and miss (I think we can agree on that too?) that buyers are increasingly checking favourite sellers' shops before (or as well as) doing a general search.

Certainly I have seen my repeat buyers increase from 1% to 5% over the last 3 years. As @5216elisabeth said, this might just be because buyers select two items when they shop, but I don't think so give a 5% repeat buyers rate. A trick is if you get in a conversation with a buyer that goes well - ask them to mark you as a fav seller. Then use a newsletter to direct buyers (who have marked you as fav seller or just bought from you) -  to your shop with a discount and/or coupon. You can create buyer groups.

Possibly it is a category thing - but I get compliments on my shop from repeat buyers so its definitely something to think about in terms of increasing sales.

[pillarboxred]

It depends on your motive. You have told us that you are thinking of opening a store on eBay so that is a business reason. If your reason is to just clear out your home or your late auntie's collection of six thousand bookmarks then you should sell as a private seller.

[4_bathrooms]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

• Basic shop: 90 listings: 90 x 30p = £27.00
• Featured shop: 140 listings: (140 - 90) x 10p = £50 (£77 - £27 = £50)
• Anchor shop: 8,700 listings (8,700 - 1,500) x 5p = £360.00 (£437.00 - £77.00 = £360.00)

I'm not following your calculations on where next level shops become better value. Re the basic shop I agree its 90 listings. But the featured shop I make it higher than 140 listings.  £77 - £27 = £50. £50 divided by 0.10p = 500. 500 +250 (basic shop) = 750 listings.  (140 - 90) x 10p = £5 not £50. 

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Well spotted! I made a mistake when calculating the featured shop "threshold"; I stuck 0.01 (a penny) instead of 0.1 (ten pence) into the formula I used.

That said; I make the "break even" point for a featured shop 590 listings. If you have a basic shop (£27.00) with 590 listings you have 90 free listings included in the subscription and would pay 500 x 10p (£50) on the remaining 500 listings: £27 + £50 = £77.00. It is still a huge gulf.

[4_bathrooms]

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@writesoon wrote:

You're right in saying "making items to sell on a small scale does not automatically make you a business seller". You can have a hobby making things, and if you are selling them to cover costs, that is fine.

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As mentioned earlier, the legal definition of a trader is:

"“Trader” means a person acting for purposes relating to that person's trade, business, craft or profession, whether acting personally or through another person acting in the trader's name or on the trader's behalf."

That definition is found in both the Consumer Rights Act and the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Therefore it is impossible for someone who regularly makes things to sell - regardless of any intention to turn a profit - to not be breaking the law by selling via a private account. Of course nobody is going to care if such a seller is below the trading allowance threshold (well, unless they're selling something like food; I have no idea why eBay allows private sellers to list food items).

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