Question about eBay store listing limits

[surplussalesuk]

Last year I began selling selling on Vinted on eBay to make some extra income after I was made redundant. After having some success I am now looking to go full time into eBay and become a business seller but I am confused about the listing fees and store subscriptions for business sellers. 

With a Basic store subscription for £32.40 per month you get 250 listings, which I thought should be fine as I would only list 50 items or so per week (not a lot for a business clothing seller), but then I read that listings renew each month meaning that any unsold listings would count in in the 250, and any over that would cost 12p. 

Doing so calculations, based on listing 50 items per week and selling roughly 10 per week, by week 6 I would have reached the 250 listing limit and so would be charged to list each new item. By week 13 (only 3 months) I would have roughly 500 listings and be charged roughly £65 per month just to list on eBay. 

Is this correct? If so I can understand why many traders remain on a private account where there are 300 free listings per month and most importantly renewals are not included in this number...who can afford to spend hundreds of pounds per month on listing fees when many items get so few views?

We will also be listing on V'd where it is free to list and where items tend to sell much quicker, and so any listing sold on Vinted would have to be removed on eBay, wasting a listing.

I personally don't mind paying paying the current commission to eBay, or even a small store fee, but I can't understand why they would impose tougher listing limits on business sellers than on private sellers? Surely eBay would prefer professional sellers to grow with the platform and to be able to list and sell more items on eBay? Charging for listing renewals seems counter intuitive to any seller growing their business on eBay. 

If this is correct then our strategy will be to prioritise listing first on V'd and other sites, perhaps waiting a couple of weeks to see if they sell there and then listing on eBay if not.

[cobwebcottage]

Firstly, if you are looking to sell for profit, registering as a business seller should not be an option as you need to comply with Consumer Law.

If you are looking to go over the basic shop limit, then you can either opt for the featured shop which will give you 1500 listings per month plus 600 auction listings or pay the 12p listing fee which is only pennies so I am sure that you can incorporate this in your selling price.

Yes it's tough being a business but up to you if you wish to trade professionally or illegally ( and  if you can sleep soundly at night).

[reskufashion]

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@cobwebcottage wrote:

Firstly, if you are looking to sell for profit, registering as a business seller should not be an option as you need to comply with Consumer Law.

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I am aware of this and I have already switched my account. Why is it so hard to ask a question in this forum without that being everyone's first comment?

My question was not about the law, it is about why eBay has such counter intuitive listing policies for business sellers compared to private sellers? 

So you are saying is the Basic store front is not suitable for anyone actually looking to run a clothing business selling on eBay and the Featured Shop at £92 per month is the preferred option? 

I'm asking as I am looking at how to incorporate all of these costs into our final selling price. For us our pricing difference will need be around 30% more on eBay than on Vinted. 

[game_raid]

It all depends on your items and sell through, I don't know what you're selling except that it is clothing, are these just singular unique items?

Meaning do you have various sizes, colours per item so you could list a qty of 50 items all sizes small to xl and different colours, style and this would all be as one multi qty variation listing, this would save the need of creating a listing for each size, style or colour and only use 1 of your included allowance.

Without seeing your listings it's pretty hard to give advice.

I have just looked at your solds, the paul smith t shirts sold could have been a variation listing, and also the adidas t shirts along with many others, those alone at first glance would have saved quite a few listings from the allowance.

The link below will explain more

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/multiquantity-listings-listi...

If your items are all unique then there is workarounds but again it all depends on sell through.

This is an example of a variation listing, I haven't a clue who the seller is.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296659506172

[cobwebcottage]

My  reply was to your comment and anyone reading your statement:

'Is this correct? If so I can understand why many traders remain on a private account where there are 300 free listings per month and most importantly renewals are not included in this number...who can afford to spend hundreds of pounds per month on listing fees when many items get so few views?'

'So you are saying is the Basic store front is not suitable for anyone actually looking to run a clothing business selling on eBay and the Featured Shop at £92 per month is the preferred option? '

It all depends on how many listings you want and will use. You can start with a basic shop and upgrade at a later stage. I would factor in around 20%  in Ebay fees, more if you promote. 

From my small experience of selling my own clothes, I find they sell on Vinted for far less than Ebay and nearly every listing generates lower offers as this is encouraged by them. 

[game_raid]

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@surplussalesuk wrote:

If this is correct then our strategy will be to prioritise listing first on V'd and other sites, perhaps waiting a couple of weeks to see if they sell there and then listing on eBay if not.

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Why not cross list so your items are active on all marketplaces, many sellers do this but you have to have a system in place that deducts the qty at the places that didn't get the sale or you end up cancelling orders which no marketplace likes, whether this is manually done or with software you have to keep on top of it.

[wyntersemporium]

I was on the second tier store but had to drop down to basic as basically can’t afford the second tier of 1500. 
I seem to only sell one item per day now when it used to be 15 or so.

feel like kicking eBay into touch. It’s not like it used to be in the late 90’s. Was a pleasant place to sell. 

[cobwebcottage]

So true @wyntersemporium . It's a tough old world now.

[crg_music]

You have to using well over the 250 to justify the more expensive stores imo. 

I really dont understand why they limit listings, it should be a flat rate with unlimited listings, surely more listings means more sales. They could maybe do promotion bundle offers if they wanted to charge more but imo the extra ebay would make from business sellers having unlimited listings would more than cover what was lost from everyone downgrading.

[wyntersemporium]

You want to see the USA stores they have up to 13000 free listings for the 2nd tier shop. As follow an American couple on YouTube and they were talking about how many listings they could have up. 

[crg_music]

Wow thats a lot. I think its the only site with a listing fee fullstop at this point, I have no issues with them increasing the final fee if it means unlimited or far more listings.