Business VS Private - What are the differences?

[bricks117]

Hello all,

Recently, I've been thinking about making the change to a 'business' account - but I'm struggling to find any kind of up-to-date relevant information that properly details the differences between 'business' and 'private' sellers. 

I've heard rumours of a monthly £26 fee to eBay, custom postage, better listing tools, etc etc.

Would someone be so kind as to list them for me? - Thankyou! 🙂

[tressygirl]

This is a matter of being registered correctly,  and all depends on the items you are selling.

If you are wishing to sell your unwanted used items,  say a garage / attic / wardrobe clear out,  then you can open a Private account.

If you are wishing to sell all Brand New items,  items bought to sell, you wish to make or grow your items for sale, for this,  you have to register with a Business Account.

You can have both accounts if you are wishing to sell a combo of both the category of items above,  you just need an different email and different username ID for each account.

@bricks117 

[cobwebcottage]

It's quite simple. Were all of the 6500 item you have sold and the ones for sale, your own unwanted items or did you buy them to sell?

If you have bought items with the intention to sell them, then you are a business, by law. Same goes if someone has a knitting hobby but then decides to take money from a customer for the items they make.

A legitimate (online) business seller will give their customers their consumer rights by accepting change of mind returns and also displaying their details so the customer knows who they are buying from. They also pay fees to Ebay for using their platform to sell.

I would say that it is not a choice to abide by Consumer Law but Ebay seems to give a lot of sellers who should be registered as a business a choice to sell legally or trade illegally on a private account.

The fors: trade professionally, provide your customers with their legal rights, build up your client base, sleep well at night, set your own postage polices.

The against: fees - but every business has fees. Being undercut by private sellers who are 'trading' and not paying any fees.

Research the business fees and then make your mind up about how you wish to sell your goods depending on the answer to  'are you trading or not' ?

Fees for business sellers | eBay

[suelel1968]

@bricks117  All of the above is good and correct advice. However, you have a third choice of not to sell at all.

I say that because the £26 a month you mention is likely basic shop fees without VAT and I think that provides less listings than the 300 a private sellers get , so you may need a bigger "shop" than basic if you are going to scale up. You presumable know how much you have been making per month and how much that will cut into what you make. You have to ask yourself is it worth it financially? Do you have time to scale up or were you just going to carry on at current levels?

Can you scale up to a level that actually enables you to get cheaper delivery via one of the couriers. That is probably quite key for making an online shop delivering lots of small items work financially.

Couriers only refund the cost of the item to businesses not the sale price when things go missing or get broken in the post and that's if you can find the time to bother.

One thing that might help keep to a basic shop level would be use of Variation listings. I have only ever set one up and it appears to treat it as one listing. If that is how it works for Businesses then you could probably avoid the shop altogether and just pay the listing fee per month. 

Also, if you change your account to business you cannot change back. I think you are doing the right thing in doing your homework before changing over in haste.