EBay plan to add fees for buyers - hurts businesses even further

[vintagefunk01]

From the sky news article here which is obviously a press release https://news.sky.com/story/ebay-selling-fees-are-scrapped-to-boost-to-reselling-13225638

It seems clear ebay is following in the footsteps of other selling marketplaces by adding fees for buyers in the early new year,  but since fees remain in place for business sellers adding another fee on top of this is another hit to our bottom line.

We will now be expected to absorb the buyers fee and our own business selling fee (and shop fees etc).

This seems crazy to me - although eBay say it'll be 'small' , if it's 8% like elsewhere that's a massive hit for us to take.  Yes it's for the buyers but we all know prices will drop because of it - for example a 350 item will now cost 379 to the buyer with an 8% fee that is currently used by another platform, so ofc sellers will drop the initial price so that the item actually sells and to offset this.

Fine for private sellers who have no fees to compensate, but insane for business sellers with hefty fvf and shop fees already 

[dwtrading2015]

Isn't Amazon Prime about a TV channel with some sweetners thrown in to direct them to the online store?  Is eBay about to setup a TV channel?  Idon't think there is any parallel with Prime.

[valueaddedresource]

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@dwtrading2015 wrote:

Isn't Amazon Prime about a TV channel with some sweetners thrown in to direct them to the online store?  Is eBay about to setup a TV channel?  Idon't think there is any parallel with Prime.

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@dwtrading2015 Amazon Prime started out as a membership service primarily geared toward getting perks like certain exclusive discounts and fast, free shipping - while Video and other benefits have been added in over time, many buyers still subscribe for those discount and shipping perks.

I absolutely think there is a parallel to Amazon Prime when you look at the eBay Plus program in Australia and other marketplaces are looking to the same model, for example Etsy just launched something similar with Etsy Insider.

It won't be surprising at all if eBay brings the same concept to the UK next years and maybe even to the US at some point in the future.

[hudsonsclothes]

Pre-empting the TV channel Idea i'm going to copyright SeeBay now 😂 i'm gonna be rich when they try buy the naming rights off me

[pg_kicks]

They want to hold your stock, especially in the sneakers categories so customers get it faster but they will also charge you to hold it so really its so eBay can charge you whilst you pay to list and then pay to sell and pay extra to have it sell faster. Whilst they dont have a clue about how its customers are finding the site they certainly know how to squeeze the last drop from the pip.

[ett1954]

'Calling it a "buyer-facing fee" suggests it is a fee charged per transaction rather than some sort of subscription model for buyers. That makes me wonder whether business sellers' FVFs will be based on the total paid by the buyer including the "buyer-facing fee".'

Exactly what I was wondering.  We currently pay a fee on all monies collected and processed by eBay (postage, taxes on international sales, etc); plus of course the VAT on these fees.  Excuse my cynicism, but this could be yet another way of screwing more out of the business seller.

dave@ebay, kat@ebay, could one of you please confirm whether this new buyer fee has such implications to business sellers.  I would appreciate if you didn't insult our intelligence with a non-committal answer as I am sure the accountants at eBay have been busy calculating all the increased revenue that will be raised by this 'buyer facing fee' before the announcement was made.  A simple yes or no will suffice.

[yvonnshepher54]

The CEO of Ebay UK was on Radio 4 today and confirmed this, not sure when it will begin but for sure it will hurt business sellers as more fees for us to take on.  They even acknowledged  it is business sellers that make all the money for Ebay with some business sellers on there.

Ebay justify this by saying that if people sell on ebay they are more than likely to buy on ebay so will all level its self out, I think they need to seperate businesses from private sellers and do more for us, not that they will I imagine

[pg_kicks]

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@yvonnshepher54 wrote:

They even acknowledged  it is business sellers that make all the money for Ebay with some business sellers on there.

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They have a real funny way of showing gratitude to us don't they. If it was Sholto the man has zero creditability he stood infront of everyone at the open event and never mentioned this huge move by eBay, my thoughts on everyone at the event who knew and didnt say anything are as low as they could be.

[exponential_developments]

I'm not paying fee's to buy, end of.

For a rapidly growing number of items doing a Google search finds things cheaper than on here anyway.

[chrbac.uye5b7]

They have already stopped buyers from using Nectar vouchers to pay for items from sellers and now they want to charge buyers to make a purchase! Do eBay have a death wish. It will be great for the revival of the local high street though.

[bojangled]

@pg_kicks it was Kirsty. Of the two eBay sellers they had one was George of retro reselling who was in the running for a community award at the Open. Of the little time he had he did well. Explained how much he has paid in fees last month. 
There was nothing from eBay apart from the repeated 1:1 and seller protection 'benefit'.

I'm really not against the free listing thing, as long as it applies to the right sellers, not the guy with 5 shops and multiple variations listings totalling over 15,000 items. 

Jo

[cobwebcottage]

Probably going to charge businesses to use their monthly packaging vouchers which is a joke already as you can't buy anything for £10!

[thesmokingrunner]

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@hudsonsclothes wrote:

Pre-empting the TV channel Idea i'm going to copyright SeeBay now 😂 i'm gonna be rich when they try buy the naming rights off me

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You do know that as eBay's HQ is in the US you'll have to pay commission on the sale, don't you? 🙂

[hudsonsclothes]

eBay charging me for a sale? Well I never 😊

[theregoesatenner]

It will be tiered levels dependng on the services required for sellers and a buyer insurance payment per purchase.

[pg_kicks]

Thanks, I dont mind the new system, eBay could just release the figures instead of saying yeah its work but you cant see the proof, my issue is they dont care for the law or their own policies so all this has done is rewarded the people who are breaking the law and policies, same as giving people free FFV if they upgrades last month whilst they broke the law and policies for months/years previously.

[messier44000]

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@ett1954 wrote:

"dave@ebay, kat@ebay, could one of you please confirm whether this new buyer fee has such implications to business sellers.  I would appreciate if you didn't insult our intelligence with a non-committal answer"

Don`t hold your breath, This weeks Q&A broke new records for intelligence insulting answers.

[signs_and_vintage]

eBay - 'do as we say and this time next year, we'll all be millionaires*'

*CEOs only

[crg_music]

Vinted do this alread dont they? and seem to be hyped as the the place to be and it works well although have heard others say buyers dont want it all for free so its a bit of a race for the bottom.

Dont underestimate the benefits of buying from a business over a private seller hence I think people will still pay up. Reputation on grading and returns being the stand out. I will defininitely pay 50% more to not have to buy the same item again in a week.

What id really love to see Ebay do is unlimited free listings for shops in certain genres ie cds, games, records, dvds etc where there are literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of titles, in other words the barcode genres. Most of them are only worth a couple of quid but people dont really wanna be burning free listings on them. Discogs for example is free to list with just a fee on sale. I for one have thousands of cds which id be happy listing many of for £1.99 but dont want to use free listings on and dont think id sell enough of to be upgrading shop packages.

[crg_music]

*buyers want it all for free

[stormatic2015]

"Ebay justify this by saying that if people sell on ebay they are more than likely to buy on ebay so will all level its self out, I think they need to seperate businesses from private sellers and do more for us, not that they will I imagine"

I can tell you now, I sell on eBay and Etsy, not one moment do I think about buying on eBay or Etsy because I sell there. I look for the cheapest price, both on eBay, Etsy, Amazon and personal websites. I recently brought "Do not Bend envelopes" eBay was a nightmare to search because everyone sells 1 envelope for 99p which made it hard to find the best deal. Amazon was a bit easier to work out cost per envelope.

Took me 3 hours to find the best deal and then it wasnt the best, as I found it cheaper after pruchasing. The reason I comment is that one company on amazon also sold on ebay (busines account) and was was cheaper on eBay then amazon but they where the cheapest over all on amazon. So I ended up buying on eBay as its the same product.
The best place which was cheaper, was a personal website, I will be ordering form there in future.

Also another note, I now only buy from business sellers or private that are not private-business on eBay or any other marketplace.