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 

[cobwebcottage]

I'm hoping that the additional charge will only be on sales from a private seller and there will be no additional charges if you buy from a business who already adhere to legal rights.

This makes more sense with the introduction of no FVF or listings for private sellers. The sellers won't be affected but the buyer will have to decide if they are going to pay a small charge for protection fee similar to Vinted if they buy from a private account.

If this happens, it will be good news for businesses.

[signs_and_vintage]

This all relies on buyers knowing or caring about any service differential. Most buyers never look past the price.

[cobwebcottage]

Most buyers would notice if the price increased at checkout. We don't know yet if there will be a notice on the listings to say that ( private) items will include a protection fee.

It's all guess work but if they are going to introduce it, it makes more sense to me that it will be on private accounts.

[the-layer-laboratory]

I wonder if recent changes in Germany are indicative of what's coming to the UK in 2025. Ebay will not let me link to the relevant details, so you'll need to Google the following for more information:

'eBay Tweaks Amazon Prime-Like Program in Germany'

[pg_kicks]

That would be a nightmare tbh, people would just see the additional fee at check out and leave, many wouldnt then look for a business seller as you know for sure that eBay wont highlight that you wont be charged the fee by business sellers. It'll just be another nail in the coffin by eBay.

All they needed to do was make all the fee's the same for business/private, have listings shown as they once were, best match with the best performing accounts first, not the ones willing to pay more, have a reporting feature that works and have humans who know the law of the land so incorrect accounts/listings are removed and if you do run promos dont make them every 2 weeks so sellers expect them but give them to categories that are underperforming or fit in with a certain time period/holiday. Just make the site simple and it will work, instead they are making it more and more complicated and I have no idea why, because eBay and communication are 2 things that never go well together.

[tranceenthusiast]

Fee for buyers.. Lol No thanks. 

[stormatic2015]

Knew it.

But how am I going to get paid for postage if its free for buyer?

If eBay pay me, that what is stopping me from doing the 99p item £15.00 postage.. Still cost me the same in fees buy buyer only pays 99p, they will buy mine over others.

"eBay Top Service" So... basically the star badge you get on etsy. A badge to show good performance and I bet they remove the 10% discounted fees we currently enjoy.

"greater visibility" ... Yer right. Would be on top and then lose the sale as the buyer has clicked on a private-business seller in my listing who can lower there price less than mine.

Also I sort by price low to high. This would have no effect when I search.

Again another move that only benefits eBay, but not the sellers who actually make eBay

[befate]

No because then they are liable for £15 as shipping is not covered by distance selling regulations and might only get a 99p refund back for an item that is valued at £15

[rjwilmsi]

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@befate wrote:

No because then they are liable for £15 as shipping is not covered by distance selling regulations and might only get a 99p refund back for an item that is valued at £15

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My understanding is that distance selling regulations for a refund include item price and the cheapest postage option. So if that £15 postage is the cheapest postage, then the buyer's £15.99 total would still be covered (i.e. same as listing for £15.99 free P&P). If there were another £20 upgraded postage option the buyer chose then the £5 extra postage wouldn't be covered by DSR.

[leon9503]

The difference being, one can make an informed decision as it's in hand and up to the individual to decide if it's worth it, just because it's cheap doesn't mean it's going to break and the same applies to EB, a lot of sellers with overpriced tat from AE, so people buy direct from AE as you can get 10 of the same for what someone on EB might be charging for 1, I do for certain items as it's exactly the same thing so if one does break, I have 9 more....😎  And it gets here quicker than EB....📬

My recent purchases arrived within 7 days from AE, fully tracked, when sent, when landed in the UK, when got through customs and when on the way to my letterbox, all for free!

As someone who buys things from EB sellers that some have websites, I will just use those more now as it's always cheaper from them direct as no EB fees to recover, one recent item was twice the price on EB as it was from their own website.

Whether people like it or not EB will just become another Grabazon, I've not bought anything from Grabazon since they increased the free postage limit to £35.

EB is a dinosaur in modern consumerism.

As soon as the buyer fee kicks, if it does....then as others will do, I'm outta here....

[valueaddedresource]

Poshmark just reverted back to their previous fee structure after less than 3 weeks, with the CEO admitting they saw buyer spending less since the change and apologizing to sellers for the disruption.

Just an example of what the power of very public user voices can do for when/if UK eBay buyers and sellers need it.  😉

[pg_kicks]

Imagine how much money they get paid to come up with these ideas when all they need to do is ask the people who use the site every day. Still amazes me that people running these sites never use the site or get top sellers over to HQ for open forums so they know the issues on the site and they can be fixed in a day or two and make them more money.

[signs_and_vintage]

Have a heart, consultants have got gas bills too.

[amphibolous]

Are the fees proposed across all eBay sites?
The majority of my customers are in the US. It seems likely Trump will win the elections, and if so he is proposing a 10-20% tariff on incoming goods. That would surely be on top of local state taxes which can vary. If we end up in a scenario where there are state taxes, Trump's new import tarriff and eBay buyer fees, you could be talking 30-40% on top of any purchase. It's effectively game over.

[unclestein]

It's because they probably still have a central person in charge who gives a damn!

Back in the day you could email people like Richard Branson directly...

[valueaddedresource]

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@unclestein wrote:

It's because they probably still have a central person in charge who gives a damn!

Back in the day you could email people like Richard Branson directly...

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@unclestein speaking of leadership - Mercari also went the route of shifting the fees to buyers in the US back in March and it has...not gone well.

They've continued to struggle with buyers abandoning carts when they get hit with the sticker shock of the fees and laid off ~45% of US staff in June.

Things have gotten so bad that they finally just announced their US CEO John Lagerling will be "resigning" at the end of the year and the CEO of their Japan operations will be taking over leadership of the US marketplace as well - and while they haven't directly said they will be going back to the old fee structure yet, he did tell investors on their most recent earnings call that they "will be flexibly considering options such as revising the fee model as part of our strategy in the US going forward."

On eBay's Q3 earnings call, CEO Jamie Iannone told investors that they have no plans to bring fee-free selling and buyer fees to the US but they believe the UK is different, saying "UK buyers and sellers are more open to buyer fees" because it's "more standard in the market."

But investor reactions to the lowered revenue projections for Q4, largely due to UK fee-free selling, indicate they may not be so confident that eBay will be successful in their plans to "re-monetize" those sales with buyer fees in 2025.

[theelench]

"because it's more standard in the market"

What does that mean??  It's either the standard or its not.

To me there is no "standard" right now.  Some sites have no fees buying or selling.  Some have fees for sellers, others have fees for buyers.  Ebay has fees for some sellers but not for others and is "thinking about" fees for buyers.  It's a bit of a mess, but from what I've read (not all from UK sources) some of those that pioneered fees for buyers, not sellers, are now having second thoughts ?

[valueaddedresource]

@theelench definitely agree it's all a mess right now!

To clarify, eBay hasn't said they are "thinking about" fees for buyers in the UK - they have very clearly and directly said they will be introducing buyer fees for the UK in the back half of Q1 2025.

While they have not yet released details about what those fees will look like or how they will be implimented exactly, they have stated in no uncertain terms that it is happening and committed to a timeframe for when it will be rolled out.

The fact that time is both relatively specific and fairly soon would indicate their plans are fully formulated and well on their way, when you consider how much time in advance would be needed to have everything for this plan vetted, prepped and ready to go from all angles: legal/regulatory, pr and communications, technical functionality, etc.

As far as what "more standard in the market means" - my personal opinion is it means eBay is feeling the heat from analysts and investors who are looking around at the mess and wondering why eBay would move forward given...all that...so eBay is grasping at straws to find ways to calm nerves and assure them that "all is well."

The most glaring failures of this strategy (Poshmark and Mercari) have been in the US. While the UK is still more of a mixed bag then I think eBay would like to admit, they can at least point to Vinted and Depop (maybe others I'm not aware of?) as examples of the UK market being more "tolerant" of buyer fees.

Yes, Depop and Vinted have the same fee structure in the US as well, but they are very small players here so apparently we're supposed to pretend that doesn't matter. 😂

So rather than take an honest look in the mirror about why some who have gone this route failed and how that could be applicable to whatever eBay is planning, they're hoping they can convince investors that's just a quirk of the US market and their strategy in the UK will still be successful.

And like I said, given the reaction on the last earnings call and subsequent drop in stock price...investors don't appear to be quiet as confident as eBay leadership at least pretends to be about how it will all work out.

[johnwash1]

There's been a slight dip in the ebay share price over the past month, but over the past year it's been steadily climbing.  I can't figure out why it's so at odds with what we can all see.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Ebay have been buying back their own stock.