No Fees for selling Clothing?

[vintagewatchpart]

So Ebay has abolished all fees for selling clothing on a private account.

Now more than ever surely the clamping down of businesses operating from private accounts has to increase?

I feel so sorry for those in this niche who trade legitimately as businesses who are competing with "private" sellers who just got handed a massive chunk of money.

[cobwebcottage]

Absolutely! It's common sense, not rocket science.

[technthread]

They will just list new with tags as used and make the eBay search more of a mess. 

As someone said on this or another thread, expect an influx of items listed in the clothing category that aren't clothing. eBay's AI will need to be good to combat it. 

[btr.style]

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@technthread wrote:

They will just list new with tags as used and make the eBay search more of a mess. 

As someone said on this or another thread, expect an influx of items listed in the clothing category that aren't clothing. eBay's AI will need to be good to combat it. 

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They won't even need to do that because it's the entire clothing category including new with tags, used, new with defects. 

[pg_kicks]

We dont know what effect it will have exactly but we all know it wont be a good impact for legally trading businesses.

At max 5% of people buy from a business over a private account if they are more expensive, most dont have a clue they are buying from a private account and dont have the right to return if they dont like it, down to not knowing the law and eBay not highlighting it. I'd say for 95% of more its all about who is cheapest. 

This move will look good on paper short term, more listings, more sales but they will have more INAD and in the long run businesses will move as why should I pay fee's when Jimmy who sells the exact same thing doesnt?

Ive said it before I dont blame people for trading illegally, eBay dont care so why should they, eBay need to step up on the reporting and actually have an option for business on a private account and action bans on people who are breaking the law. They wont though unless they get fined or business accounts get sick of it and move. I wasnt looking forward to the roadshow but now I cant wait to see how they try and sell this as a positive.

[cobwebcottage]

The Private accounts are all a mess. They should not allow private sellers to have shops and limit listings to 30 a month.

I feel in despair for all Businesses who sell clothing as a main line.

[fatbobfan]

That made me laugh, cool name Anna Banana

[fatbobfan]

Wouldnt be surprising, make sense for many reasons

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Oh, but I do blame people for trading illegally.

Why should they get away with it?  I'm happy to report those doing so, to trading standards if ebay won't action them.

I can understand why they do, but that doesn't make it right.

At least with Ebay reporting to HMRC there should be some action taken on the bigger ones doing this.

Unfortunately, those smaller traders, will probably still get away with it.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Perhaps Ebay should just abolish fees across the board and let sellers promote at whatever level they want to. I don't think Ebay would lose out too much as sellers would just promote more. It would create a more level playing field and private sellers and business sellers could battle it out.

As things stand business sellers are being squeezed more and more (and more) to make Ebay a viable business and for many of us (business sellers) it isn't working.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

How can a private seller even have a shop ??

I know they can however it's a bizarre concept for Ebay to even consider it legimate and above board.

[btr.style]

eBay won't "action" them because there's no way to report them. "business seller fails to display correct details" isn't "business seller trades on private account". It's for reporting businesses that have things like their shown name and address as Mickey mouse, Disneyland. 

So that leaves trading standards. 

I'm not letting my business go under because of eBay's absolutely ridiculous decision. It was bad enough with bi weekly promo for private sellers, then 100% off fees. 

As for the impact on my business..... Well I've already seen the impact. Let's take 1 product line, Barbour 40th anniversary Beaufort jackets. We got them in stock as did some private business sellers. They were selling theirs first at around £190 each and quite a few were sold. I then listed some, hours later I was undercut and they carried on selling them. Thanks to eBay's 100% off fee promo for them, they dropped the price right down to £150, impossible to compete. 

So while they've sold around 15, seemingly all of theirs, I've sold barely any and the season is now all but gone so the remaining lot has to be packed away until Autumn and by then, they will be an old season item, possibly not be as popular and likely have to sell for less. Had they not been given that fee promo, they'd not have been able to sell the coats for as low in price. I'd say that line alone means I have around £1500 invested in them to then have to sell them for around £300 less in total in Autumn than they'd have gone for over the last month or 2. 

Now, if I carry on as I am with the business and paying full fees, that competition will increase ten fold and the business will go under. It won't be worth trading anymore and I'm left with the choice of winding it down completely this year to eliminate the risk of ending up ruined, or I seek a way of not paying fees like a lot of the competition (such as another platform) and not let years of hard work, building the business comes to nothing. 

[pg_kicks]

They shouldnt get away with it, I should have said I blame eBay more, one decision from eBay and it would end 99% of it overnight.

The HMRC is pointless, majority will either not be investigated as the amounts will be low or they are already reporting it for the big sellers. Plus it will be 18 months before that actually starts really stopping the big sellers who would get caught.

Bottom line is eBay could if they wanted to stop this overnight, private sellers unable to list as new, only have 100 listings a month and not 200 the second month, have it much bigger that they are private and you have zero rights.

[moldosgifts]

By removing fees for private sellers on sales of clothing items, we’re investing in the entire eBay ecosystem and providing more sales opportunities for private and business sellers alike. 

I'd like ebay to jusiify that stament, how will removing fees in clothes for Private sellers provide opportunity to business sellers.

[technthread]

They could argue it gives us better sourcing opportunities to buy items for re-sale that may otherwise go to landfill. 

I'm not sure where this ends. Vinted allow games consoles to be sold, the amount of electronics going to landfill is a problem so maybe eBay will decide to offer 0% fees on those too in the future. 

I think what they underestimate is how many business accounts do see their accounts as very vulnerable on here already for a variety of reasons. This decision is just another hammer blow. 

[btr.style]

eBay's logic or trying to justify it thinking everyone is an idiot. 

They ignore the private business account issue and they've spent ages in the board room trying to find a way to justify this. Part of what they mention in this is people who sell on eBay are more likely to buy. Yet we see countless sellers here posting about never buying on eBay. 

I never buy from eBay really as it's not a good platform at all. Search is bad, all those Chinese sellers pretending to be in the UK and the price manipulation with multi listings (99p junk item or sample with the actual items being much more). 

The sole reason for this move could be to bring those over from vinted and depop to sell on eBay in the hope they also browse the platform to buy from sellers in categories/from businesses where sellers pay fees. All that will happen though is private business sellers on eBay will be rubbing their hands, private business sellers on vinted will do the same. Businesses on depop will register as private sellers on eBay to get 0 fees. Many clothing business accounts on eBay will start to move away from the platform (I for one am getting this process started today). 

Then when eBay are losing out, fees for buying items and increases in selling fees for all other categories. 

It's a gamble for them that won't pay off. 

[btr.style]

"‎

They could argue it gives us better sourcing opportunities to buy items for re-sale that may otherwise go to landfill."

But if someone is a private seller, they should be "sourcing" anything to then sell on eBay. 

You could argue it would make things worse. The amount of people coming on board now because of this on private accounts will be huge. They'll all be sourcing stock, plenty of miles on the clock for stock to all different sellers (many more than there are now). Then, as the market will be way more saturated and they can't sell the items, a lot will end up in landfill (depending on the sellers morals) via being thrown in the black bin waste. 

[bricklanebargains]

I just saw this in the announcements. I don`t if anyone at Ebay realizes that this is massively unfair on business sellers. By paying for a shop subscription and final value fees as well as VAT, income tax, corporation tax and national insurance, we are already at a serious disadvantage against private sellers in terms of profitability. And it is no secret that many business sellers disguise themselves as private by splitting sales between different accounts either owned by the same person or family members.      

[therenewalworkshopltd]

This is getting silly.

Massively unfair.....

You do realise that it's always been cheaper for private sellers, than business's.

In itself, there really is no change.  Private sellers never have a profit margin.  They generally get what they get for the item.  Which is why you can go to a car boot sale and buy something for pennies still.

Business's have always had the overheads, such as VAT etc.

The problem, is the business sellers masquerading as private sellers.  Remove them and it becomes fair again.

[technthread]

Someone in my family has just rung me and asked if I want to list some of my clothing on their account as they saw the email from eBay and they have a dormant account.

It wouldn't be hard to sell 29 items and keep it under £1,700 would it. I said no thanks I don't want to get you into trouble but thank you for thinking of me 😆. 

Im going to list some vinyl records this week and leave my clothing to one side for a few days until this announcement doesn't p me off as much as it is doing today. 

[btr.style]

They know and don't care. It's been unfair for business sellers for a long time with no fee promos and bi weekly promos for private accounts. 

It's a head office decision, a wrong one but a decision nevertheless. The only way it could be a "right" decision is if they know something we don't, such as fee increases across the board and even introducing a buyers fee they are waiting for the right time to announce. From what's been announced, it's a terrible decision and if I were a gambling man, I'd bet on it being one eBay will eventually live to regret.