Oh ebay - what have you done to the UK site???

[whf-southampton]

This is as much for ebay  to try and absorb as  for anyone else reading.  What have you done to the UK site? You essentially buried it on 4th February, that's what.

Our sales plummeted overnight on this date when the 'buyer protection fee' was introduced' From an approximate weekly payout of £1200 - 1500, we are lucky if we receive £300.

Why oh why, in an economic shock like this one, did you do this?? It was suicide (or greed) and we now, almost overnight, and along with most others  I suspect by all the posts, no longer have a viable site to sell on here.

On top of the promoted listing debacle and 'simple delivery' for private sellers (fortunately we have dodged that bullet as we have a Royal Mail business account')  ebay is dead and buried in the UK.

We have closed one shop, and are now  trying to run this one down (I say trying because we cannot now even sell our footwear for tuppence.)

We have seen the speed in turnover of your board of directors  - as a certified accountant with 45 years experience, i am gobsmacked that one of them cannot see that ebay needs to go back to basics and return to being the great place to buy and sell that it once was, the original and the best in it's field, instead of trying to mimic it's vastly inferior competitors .

[xyz307xyz]

Very few, if any, ebay employees are going to read this as it is a member to member forum.

I would be surprised if an ebay employee responds or even passes it on to anyone else there.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with what you have said (I'm in a completely different situation - a private seller, selling my old stuff). What I don't understand is, as you are a business seller - how did BPF affect you/your sales decline by £900+/week?

[a45heaven]

@xyz307xyz 

 as you are a business seller - how did BPF affect you/your sales decline

When browsing thru items on ebay - the potential Buyer can not see at a glance whether the Buyer is Private or Business, so would not know if the BPF would be inflicted on them, without clicking into each listing to see.

For some reason ebay seem to be obsessed with increasing the number of clicks potential buyers have to make.

BPF was not communicated to the buyers, it was left to the Sellers to inform them, with what sparse information was made available by ebay.

[xyz307xyz]

I'm not a huge fan of BPF either. Thanks for your reply.

However my understanding is when browsing/searching the buyer sees the "final price" i.e. it already includes BPF for private sellers. The only exception I know of, is if somehow a buyer finds a private sellers item within about the first two minutes of listing, the BPF is not there. (But a buyer would be unlikely to find the item in the first place.)

Anyway it's not really the main focus of your original post - feel free to respond but I don't really plan to discuss the BPF further, here.

[a45heaven]

@xyz307xyz 

There are many aspects of the recent Dimprovements which have been discussed on the boards over the past weeks. I understand that ebay state they dont view the boards, during the ONE hour per week when ebay staff  do get asked questions , most answers involve forwarding Q's to which ever team gets a mention - which tends to be the last ever heard. Im still interested in the implications regarding combined packages ( a community manager said they would respond in X number of weeks time) , and ebays total inability to accommodate them - Although ebay do get extra BPF and desperate postage costs.

On the positive side , maybe the question should be what changes have ebay inflicted this year, which improves life and funds for the Sellers.

Looking back over Seller Monthly News', they  seem to be lacking in this scope.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

This has me baffled as well.

Buyers are presented with the final price, regardless as to whether a seller is private or business.

So how on earth would this affect things?

And why on earth should sellers be informing their customers that they are paying a fee to Ebay?

It is literally no different than before, when fees where included.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

I'm guessing the BPF drives buyers away from the site and that this impacts sales for both private and business sellers (site traffic ?).

Another thing to remember is that all types of seller often use the money they get from sales to buy items from the same site.

Low sales = low purchasing power.

[a45heaven]

@xyz307xyz 

Buyers are presented with the final price, regardless as to whether a seller is private or business.

So how on earth would this affect things?

Years ago i aborted ebay for Set Sale items - my Set Sale home charges me 8% Fees compared to ebays close to 20% when all considered.

Auctions to accommodate BPF  i can not  appreciate any logic applied to it.

Then the absence of combining wins makes low priced items nonviable anymore.

Mentors quote the systems inability to incorporate tracking being a reason for not combining - maybe if the system cant cope, then dont use design it in.

Their work around being scrap the order and relist as a 'Lot' - really ?

Do ebay give a discount for wasting the sellers time?

[art2own]

What is clear is that buyers object to paying a buyer protection fee—protection they know was, for the most part, already provided by eBay for free and is, to some extent, included within their legal rights.

Private sales appear to have a running total decline of approximately 25% in my main selling category since February, whereas business sales have remained relatively stable, showing only a 3% decrease. These figures were calculated from the running total of sold listings for all UK business vs private sales, as shown for the search term "painting" in the Paintings category. I have been recording notes at the end of each month since October, based on the figures shown for all active and sold business vs private listings displayed for the UK on the left-hand side of the search results page.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Yes, sellers do use the money to buy other things.  I wasn't disputing that at all.

But please explain to me how the BPF drives buyers away, if there is absolutely no difference to what they are seeing with other sellers?

As I said, buyers are presented with a final sale price.  They do not have a fee added to the selling price.

So in itself, it makes no difference at all.

[xyz307xyz]

Sorry, in your message #3 and I my reply #4 I hadn't realised you weren't the original poster.

Yes, these boards have loads of threads from unhappy business and private sellers. Many say they have left. I've pulled the vast majority of my items - the ones which including custom postage (excluding BPF) were for about £3 or less. I may reinstate them once Simple Delivery - combining postage etc. is more "understood", but with BPF I'll need* to list them a different way anyway.

(*) Need as in, I'm unlikely to sell many since their price to the buyer has gone up 25% because of BPF.

I do see the point that Roger and others have raised that BPF could be one of the things that have put potential buyers off ebay at a general level; certainly including sellers who are also buyers.

[the-nutwood-collection]

Yes, buyers are presented with the final sale price - but do they know this?

On the run-up to BPF there was a lot of chatter in the media saying that eBay were going to introduce buyer fees, just like Vinted.

My understanding is that Vinted, and other sites, show the price before the uplift is applied.  Maybe I'm wrong but, if I'm right, buyers think that eBay will be like Vinted - and other sites - and add the uplift at checkout.

So ... buyer sees a price and wrongly assumes that the item will cost more at checkout.

This has been my concern since the BPF idea was floated and the media picked it up.  The media correctly reported that the BPF didn't apply to business sellers - but how is the buyer to know, from the search screen, whether the seller is business or private?

[the_book_seekers]

Buyers don't want to pay BPF.  Many seem to think they are paying for something they already had despite what ebay has said it is for. Simple delivery may also be a factor as buyers get the idea they are being over charged for postage. Many buyers aren't looking to switch to business sellers. They don't like what ebay has done and it's ebay they want to punish by not buying from anyone. 

[edwardian-dreams]

Vinteds show the price a seller has put for item then underneath it out the total price payable 

The bpf on vinted is legit as that’s how they started their system 

on eBay it isn’t legit in any shape or form because buyers were protected  anyway before this new *bleep* show 

many people on these boards have been defending the bpf 

without logical reasons imo 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Frankly, the only part of it that I actually believe is wrong, is the way that they have named it.

Though I must admit, I really do think that the concept of it is ill thought out.

But for whatever reason, people just don't understand how it works and refuse to do so.

The fact of the matter is, from a sellers perspective, it is actually cheaper to sell with.

What they won't do, is understand that in order to work with it, they need to drop the price from what it was previously and combine it with the BPF.  Which actually results in earning more money overall.

I think of more harm, is the delay in payment.  I really don't understand why they have done this.  I get why they would do it for new sellers etc, but not long standing...

And lastly, simply delivery I think is actually a good idea.

For the vast majority of part time sellers, it is considerably easier than having to arrange it all yourself.

In just the same way that the likes of Vxxted does it.

However, I still believe that Ebay needs to be Ebay and not Vxxted etc.

They need to go back to their roots.

[jonatjonatjonat]

So if the money back guarantee was included in the BPF for private sales, would that work?

because that would then make eBay’s system the same as Vinted.

[honeymonster007]

What they won't do, is understand that in order to work with it, they need to drop the price from what it was previously and combine it with the BPF.

........

Started out thinking that way a couple of months ago but have learnt that it doesn't matter, just list an item for the price you want and add on the post or include the post in the price.

[darth_baggins]

I think one possible reason is sites like Money Saving Expert were saying things like this on X 'From February 4th (or whatever the date was) everything on eBay will be dearer!!! Here are some others places to buy from instead'. With a tiny disclaimer at the bottom saying it didn't apply to business sellers.

Things like this can go viral quickly and a lot of people just believe the headlines and vote with their feet.

[the_book_seekers]

Exactly. This is reflected in comments on these boards. Buyers haven't said 'I'll buy from a business seller instead', in the main they have said they are not going to buy. 

[theshoecupboard]

The issue of BPF is that it part of the law of unforeseen circumstances.

Each change that ebay has brought in over the last year has helped create a deflationary effect on the platform.

By allowing private sellers onto the site with no fees kicked a lot of business sellers off the site ( I was one when I gave up my shop last October). I know people will say that it brought a lot back to the site but how many? Because it was targeted at a few categories  (primarily clothes to try to tempt the Vinted sellers over) it missed a point - people who sold clothes on Vinted also sold other stuff ie childrens toys, so how many actually came across.

Now BPF has impacted private sellers - again how many have left because in order to price for the market the seller has to take the BPF off so will not receive the value they expected.

Now we have Simply Delivery again making private sellers leave due to the hassle and complications surrounding it.

Each is a nudge in a deflationary spiral - fewer sellers (private and business) listing fewer items so less for buyers to see and buy so few selling and so on and so on.

I have noticed a decrease in the items I search for and buy with fewer private sellers and fewer pages of items being listed.

It takes a lot to stop this and all ebay have to offer is an advert that says 'sell your tat for free' or multiple offers trying to get you to promote your listings!

BPF has affected all sellers (private and business ) because it too is part of the process of taking buyers off the platform