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 

[exponential_developments]

Lat night i bought two new slot cars, on here the cheapest i could find, and i've been looking for over a month, in total was £100.96 including 1st class delivery. 

That was from two private sellers, not businesses.

Online from a company on their website, the total was £60.00 including 1st class delivery.

The differences i see are not going to do ebay as a site any good in the longterm, but then again it's an American company and they only look to the next quarters results.

[mardo_4489]

It goodbye ebay from me 

[dch2112011]

My thought is that ebay have for years been spinning, offer free delivery - buyers are more likely to buy if they have an upfront fixed price - so if ebay are suggesting BIN listings  incur an additional fee for buyers I wonder how many abandoned purchases would occur ? 

With returns who refunds the buyer fee ?  would ebay exert the same rules for buyers as they do currently for sellers ?

Auction style listings (I use the word auction very loosely)  maybe a buyers premium would be acceptable potentially to the detriment of the bid amount, feedback, cancellations,returns and chargebacks

[dch2112011]

Might be irrelevant but today Amazon are offering free business buying accounts with free delivery, discounted first order, business pricing from sellers, VAT invoices, flexible payment terms -  seems that ebay are going one way and Amazon the other way ?

[chrbac.uye5b7]

Get a grip.

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone shed light on these impending changes: "We are also planning to introduce a buyer-facing fee in the UK in early 2025 alongside a set of buyer enhancements that provide additional value."

[signs_and_vintage]

Buyer enhancements include;

Get a refund for your item without having to return it (any reason, limit of 3 week though!)

Double your money back on delivery fees if it doesn't arrive when you think it should (regardless of postal service!)

0% Loans for items over £500; sellers are to pay a FOS regulatory operating fee of a low, low 3% to help cover finance charges and will be liable for non-payment.

5 year battery warranty on all items sold with a rechargable battery (seller liable for first £100 of costs)

ITS MEGA eBay-tastic!!

[stormatic2015]

As much as I was to laugh at that... Stop giving ebay plausable ideas. 😠 😜

[signs_and_vintage]

Yeah I know, too real?

[ett1954]

 ".......... alongside a set of buyer enhancements that provide additional value." - additional value to eBay no doubt ......... paid for by the business seller.

Still no answer from the eBay community responders to the question I asked in post # 45.  I think that tells sellers all they need know - another fee increase on the horizon.

[bidnbuy-uk]

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@theelench wrote:

I've related on here that the two small electric items I looked for on ebay I eventually bought at the local supermarket because they were cheaper.   Because of ebays high fees to businesses (?)

I did buy an out of season diary, also more than I paid for an identical one a few months earlier, even when the seller sent me an offer reducing their price.

That leaves a couple of items I bought for my collection, so I'm not what you'd call a big shopper on ebay !

Would I pay a monthly subscription to buy 3 items in a year?  I don't think so.

Would I pay a buyers fee to buy something that's probably already over-priced (because of high fees) ?  Again I don't think so, unless it's something very special for my collection.

I genuinely can't see any good coming from ebay trying to get fees out of buyers unless it reduces fees to business sellers to help them be competitive.  Trying to keep all their current fees from businesses and adding any fee to the buyer just makes ebay look even more uncompetitive.

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I have to agree with your post on so many levels.

[befate]

I think I'might do a spread bet on ebay going under within a year, not a huge sum, £100 or so 

[messier44000]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

"So if ebay are suggesting BIN listings  incur an additional fee for buyers I wonder how many abandoned purchases would occur ? "

If buying from a business seller, by looking at their email and address, should take 

no time at all to figure out what their website is, where there will be no extra buyer 

charges + the price may be cheaper.

Better price for the buyer and less fees for the seller. Win - win

[rjwilmsi]

We'll have to wait for concrete information on what this all means.

I had assumed that the 'free for private sellers' change was to switch to a Vinted-style model. So therefore step 2 would be to add the fees on the buyer end. I never expected eBay to keep zero fees for private sellers indefinitely.

Key question then in my mind, if eBay add a buyer fee, will they reduce business seller fees by the same amount? Logically they should but I suspect they won't.

Mention of "value added services" etc. sounds like eBay want to launch an Amazon Prime type service. Not clear to me how that might work (it makes sense when using FBA so Amazon can be in full control of stock management, picking and delivery, unclear how you do the same when sellers keep their own stock and do their own postage).

As a buyer I don't really care whether seller pays the fees (so BIN is higher) or buyer pays the fees (so I see lower BIN plus fees). Likewise I don't really care if it's free postage. For cost, I just look at the total cost to get the item to me. But it is easier to get to total cost if the first price you see includes all fees and postage.

[rjwilmsi]

With regards to physical/high street shopping versus online, as a commenter said above when online first came in there were online retailers able to substantially undercut physical retail.

However, I think times have moved on, certainly for lower priced items (say £20 or less). Physical retailers mostly have an online/in store hybrid model and be more price competitive with online. On a £20 item bought online there are postage fees of around £3.50, packaging, platform fees of say 10%, probably add up to £6 or so of cost. So it's enough cost that online is not necessarily or automatically cheaper than physical any more.

[signs_and_vintage]

Physical shops are also less ashamedly buying in absolute tat too, making it even cheaper, they are less bothered about quality, the lower down chains like B+M, Poundland are literally using aliexpress type suppliers and not fussed about the reputation or supply chain longevity. And it's win-win, as most people won't bother to return something (bought from a physical shop) that cost £1.99 if it breaks 6 months later, even if it is their right. Even M+S and John Lewis have crept somewhat along this axis in the last 10 years, especially with 'value' ranges.

[hoarder_peter]

Fees will definately affect my constant buying, I have been a buyer only for 18 and Half years in total a roughly 8% rise will to me be to much, I have been looking into and purchasing items of other selling sites like Cex and Temu, I am most posotive I will continue to do this as the postal service on E-Bay is getting worse, I recently purchased a 10 adaptors, Yodel the courier the seller used left the package on my Electric box outside my front door and they were subsequently stolen I told the selelr about this and they did nothing and showed me a photo of the package on my electric box I spke to YODEL they appologised for the non delivery and asked me to tell the seller to get in touch with them I also did an appeal and E-Bay agreed with the seller that Yodel had deliverd and I lost the appeal, So I think they are obviously looking more to helping the seller rather than the buyer.

[valueaddedresource]

There have been some interesting developments in the last couple weeks from competitors going this route.

6 months into their experiment shifting fees to buyers, Mercari US is still massively struggling with sticker shock and abandoned carts.

So now they're running a beta test with some users where they are taking whatever amount the buyer fee would be and adding it on top of whatever item price the seller set to show buyers one total "fee inclusive" item price with shipping and tax calculated at check out - you know, just like it used to be back when sellers paid the fees and just baked it into their pricing.

Sure seems like a lot of wasted developer time and resources, not to mention lost goodwill with buyers and sellers, just to basically end up back where they started with only really a minor tweak to when/how they take their cut of the pie.

Poshmark also announced a fee structure shakeup in the US, going from their previous 20% seller fee to a split deal with both seller and buyer each paying 5.99% plus a flat amount of $1, $2, or $3 depending on item price.

Now, just two weeks after that announcement and a lot of pushback from both buyers and sellers (not to mention complaints filed with the US Federal Trade Commission over the sketchy way they are displaying the buyer fee combined with sales tax), they appear to be rethinking things.

Yesterday, Poshmark sent out a message saying they "hear the feedback" and are working on updates to the policy to "better fit user needs" - though no details on what those updates will be just yet.

It's starting to look like eBay will be pulling the trigger on adding buyer fees in the UK just as other marketplaces are finally admitting it didn't work for them and going back to the drawingboard....which makes me wonder if eBay is paying attention and may reverse course before 2025.

Of course this is all the very predictable result most experienced sellers or buyers could have told any of these companies would very likely happen, if they had only bothered to ask and actually listen before making changes.

[vintique*violet]

I for one do not understand the term " buyer- facing" - what are potential buyers facing exactly?

A tax, a charge, a fee, a gift, a slap in the face?

IF that means , as a buyer,  I have to pay to either  use eBay and/or  pay an additional fee to purchase an item, and am  not greeted by a welcoming hello and smiling face  - it is an absolute no from me - I will simply shop elsewhere, in person or head directly to their websites. 

[chrbac.uye5b7]

If a job is “buyer-facing,” it means that the person works directly with customers, helping them with their needs or addressing their concerns.

[ett1954]

@valueaddedresource  I must admit I also fail to see what eBay can offer a UK buyer here.  In the UK a buyer's rights are enshrined in law and the buyer can return to a business seller for any reason within the return period stipulated by the seller (minimum 14 days after receipt).  The only cost to a buyer would be for a remorse return with the return postage cost and this can be circumvented by an unscrupulous buyer (and from reading these boards often is).  There are a few exceptions including personalised items and hygiene reasons spring to mind.

Only a private seller can refuse remorse returns.  The only way eBay could enhance the buyer experience would be to cover the cost of remorse returns to business sellers and the minority of private sellers who accept returns where it is stipulated the buyer covers the return cost on remorse returns.

This certainly wouldn't offer my buyers a great deal for their money; I have only had one return (a remorse return) in nearly 20 years of selling.  I see this 'initiative' as another nail in the coffin for selling on eBay.