topic Re: ebay dying? whats the solution? in Selling

ebay dying? whats the solution?

phantomchris1984 — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 13:01:04 GMT

FACEBOOK = FREE

GUMTREE = FREE

EBAY = APROX 20% FEES INCLUDING FORCED PAYPAL FEES AS OPTION NO ONE WANTS.

IS EBAY DYING? IS IT THE NEXT BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO STORE? IRELEVANT?

WITH AMAZON COMING TO AUSTRALIA THEY WILL BLOW EBAY OUT OF THE WATER.

IM NOT SAYING EBAY HAS TO HALVE ITS FEES, IM SAYING IT MUST!!!!!!!!

SEEING A COMPANY SIMPLY PRETEND NOTHING IS WRONG AND TO NOT LISTEN TO THE SELLERS CRYING OUT LOUD IS VERY SAD. ITS JUST LIKE BLOCKBUSTER, THEY WERE OFFERED THE CHANCE TO BUY NETFLIX BACK IN 2000. BUT THEY CHOOSE NOT TO AND DIDNT WANT TO FACE REALITY AND THOUGHT IT WAS A FAD, NOW EBAY IS BEING FACED WITH THE NETFLIX TAX, THE IRONY. REALITY IS COMING.

LOWERING FEES IS A START, WHAT ELSE HAS TO HAPPEN TO GET EBAY BACK ON TRACK?

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

lyndal1838 — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 13:30:59 GMT

No need to yell at us....and it is hard to read.

Who says paypal is a system nobody wants. There are plenty of sellers and buyers who will not use anything else.

Amazon is not the be all and end all. It is most unlikely to "blow ebay out of the water".

They are going to have the same business expenses as any other Australian business so we will see how cheap they are in 6-12 months after the loss leader prices expire. They are not just going to be able to convert their US prices to AU$ you know.

The Netflix Tax applies to all businesses providing digital delivery goods/services. It will no doubt apply to Amazon also.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

chameleon54 — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 13:59:09 GMT

I actually quite like paypal. Sure I pay a fee to use the service, but its integration with ebay makes it very simple to track which sellers have paid, do refunds when required and keep track of my accounts for tax purposes.

Once buyers want to direct credit my bank accounts, things start to get messy. I have to keep a watch on the account waiting to see if and when funds clear and if I sell two or three of the same item, it makes it more difficult to work out who has actually paid as the deposit is for the same value., basically its just a pain in the but.

I think you are making the mistake of thinking that the ebay platform in Australia is as important to ebay as it is to you. Ebay Australia is very small beer for the global company and the entrance of Amazon into our local market is just another small pot hole in ebays road.

Sure there are many things that I think ebay could do to improve and stay relevant in a changing market, but halving fees aint one of them. The company is not making huge profits now and the simple truth is if ebay drasticly reduces fees it would go broke and be placed into recievership within months. That would not be good for ebay and would be a disaster for the small sellers who rely on ebay for their livelihood.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

phorum_junkie* — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 15:13:45 GMT

What makes you think nobody wants Paypal? An awful lot of us have used Paypal for many years, long before it was available in Australia and I would say a good 65% of all the companies I have bought from on line in the last year offer Payal as a payment option. In this day and age do you honestly think many people would pay by bank deposit?

Yes there are places you can advertise without fees but on how many of those platforms can you actually sell anything? FB and Gumtree are reasonably successful for local sales but not for blanket coverage of Australia and certainly not for the overseas market.

Have a look at the cost of selling on Amazon in the UK, I think you will get a bit of a shock plus their returns policy is much more buyer orientated than ebay's. I don't sell now when I am in the UK but if I did no way would I choose Amazon over ebay for selling, great for buying though, do you think that doesn't come at a cost?

Ebay is not in decline, it is evolving, it may no longer be as good for small time and hobby sellers as it seems it is concentrating on getting large companies and labels on board and unless you can buy a majority of ebay's shares so you call the tune they will continue to do as they think best to keep their shareholders happy. That is there only remit.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

springyzone — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 23:19:48 GMT

I like paypal & use it wherever possible for buying on other online sites. It saves me from having to give out credit card details.

If things go wrong, with paypal I have a back up to claim for item not received, which actually saved me about $80 once when one of the companies went into liquidation.

Back in about 1999 when ebay started here, it was about the only online player in town (there was also a site called SOLD for a while, but that closed down).

I don't know that Amazon will blow it out of the water. I just think the retail world is changing. It's changing a lot. Just about every retail srore or chain sells online too now. Service/delivery has ramped up.

The main change I am seeing compared to say, 4 or 5 years back, is delivery. Some of the big online sellers then (not thinking ebay here) worked on the premise 3 weeks from order to delivery was okay. In most cases, that won't be tolerated now. They are generally much quicker off the mark. Even things that need to be personalised/printed are generally making it within the week.

So ebay has had to change with the times-hence their attempt to make expected delivery dates clearer to buyers.

I think they have a good chance of staying in business-as long as they don't make it too hard for sellers of second hand items.

That's a huge point of difference between ebay and others. others usually sell new, ebay is one of the few doing second hand/vintage, and at present it is more secure than facebook, with postage available etc

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

x3n0m — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 02:13:21 GMT

ebay dying? whats the solution?

let it die .. no use pumping air into this bloated carcass ..

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 02:50:52 GMT

Not screaming at people would be a good start

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 03:31:36 GMT

Well let's just hope OP doesn't have a crystal ball.
Listing an item on ebay is like a gentle breeze compared to the

gale force hurricane of red tape that Amazon throws at you.

If anyone has ever tried FBA USA and succeeded then I say jolly

good luck to you.
I will certainly take FBA Australia out for a spin but FBA USA justs

keeps slipping off my desk into the too hard basket.

Maybe it's just me but dealing with Amazon is like dealing with

a government department.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

porcelain_dolls_by_me — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 06:33:10 GMT

Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront. The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%. Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

fred_foofighter — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 07:45:17 GMT

@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront. The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%. Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?

With B&M the outgoings (Rent) are usually a fixed cost, with eBay they are a variable cost - BIG difference. You double your sales in a B&M shop the rent stays the same, double your eBay sales and your FVF double.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

padi*0409 — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 08:28:57 GMT

Not quite true, most of the shopping centres will demand a percentage of sales from shopkeepers, so if the sales go up they do pay more for their rent/lease.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

digital*ghost — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 09:46:12 GMT

eBay and the A site have coexisted in the US & UK for a number of years, that doesn't mean A isn't having an impact, or that it won't when it arrives here, but logic dictates that it is unlikely to be the proverbial falling sky for eBay here, either.

Insertion fees are a little lower in the US, but final value fees are (on average) higher than they are here, even in the face of direct competition from A. For example, the US has no difference in FVF between each store package, so a category that attracts a FVF of 9.15% (their highest) won't be any lower with a more expensive store package like it is for Aus stores (sellers can qualify for a modest discount if they meet some strict criteria, though).

When A do arrive, if they maintain the same fee percentage here that they do OS, eBay's fees will actually look cheaper by comparison (I applied and was approved to sell on A.com, but didn't go through with it in the end because I was less than keen on some of their site policies. From memory the monthly fees was around US$50 (about $75 per month at today's rates), then 20-odd % FVF. It's worth mentioning that includes payment processing fees as they have their own payment processing system. However, eBay and PayPal combined get a bit under 12% of my revenue, and that is worked out on all fees I pay, including the odd BX1 postage label, and my store sub, while A's 20% FVF is on revenue before you add on monthly fees and the like, so - for me at least - eBay is already nearly half the price A would be).

A also have a track record of dubious practices, eg copying unique products and undercutting their original sellers - I doubt they'd find a lot of value in my products, but they're hardly the morally superior alternative to eBay. Most of their shenanigans affect sellers, though, and I doubt there would be a high percentage of people who would refuse to shop there because of things like that (if any would at all).

Shopping online is hardly a novelty anymore, and I daresay a good percentage of Aussies have already shopped on one A site or another already, so their arrival here may come with high expectations and a lot of fanfare, but I believe the reality will be a little more low-key rather quickly. Then again, maybe I just don't get it and I'll be eating those words in a year or so, either way it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

tazzieterror — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 09:57:42 GMT

@fred_foofighter wrote:
@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront. The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%. Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?
With B&M the outgoings (Rent) are usually a fixed cost, with eBay they are a variable cost - BIG difference. You double your sales in a B&M shop the rent stays the same, double your eBay sales and your FVF double.

That is a big difference...the only time I pay any fees is when I'm actualy earning money on eBay. In a B&M store you owe rent for the week even if you didn't sell anything.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

fred_foofighter — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 10:49:27 GMT

@tazzieterror wrote:
@fred_foofighter wrote:
@porcelain_dolls_by_me wrote:
Not sure where you get the 20% cost from as I pay a total of around only 12%

I take the vierw of comparing the fee to sell on EBay to that if I was t have a physical retail shopfront. The outgoings (rent etc) for a retail shopfront, as a percentage of sales would be considerably higher - around 20%. Makes the Ebay charge look prettty good?
With B&M the outgoings (Rent) are usually a fixed cost, with eBay they are a variable cost - BIG difference. You double your sales in a B&M shop the rent stays the same, double your eBay sales and your FVF double.
That is a big difference...the only time I pay any fees is when I'm actualy earning money on eBay. In a B&M store you owe rent for the week even if you didn't sell anything.

And on eBay if you have a store you pay a monthly fee (rent). And if you only do auctions you will pay more fees the more you turnover.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 10:57:35 GMT

20% ?????????

eBay fees - 9.9% capped at 400.

PayPal fees - 2.6% + 30c.

Rather than eBay reducing fees, I prefer eBay to fix the site so it attracts more buyers.

Re: ebay dying? whats the solution?

chameleon54 — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:34:41 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
20% ?????????

eBay fees - 9.9% capped at 400.
PayPal fees - 2.6% + 30c.

Rather than eBay reducing fees, I prefer eBay to fix the site so it attracts more buyers.

The OP may have meant 20% of the sale price of the item. If so that would be common for many sellers including myself. The reason being that ebay also charge commision on the postage component of the sale. A $15 item sent in a 3 kg satchel with a post and pack cost $15 ( total $30 ) equels 20% of the item sale price, before paypal fees. Once paypal takes 2.6% of the $15 item price and $15 postage cost you are actually looking at losing around 25% in commission costs.

As mentioned on another thread ebay and paypal fees take over 20% of the sale price of items sold in my main store. ie. for every $10,000 worth of items I sell, over $2000 goes to ebay and paypal in fees.

Having said that, I accept this as the cost I pay for using the platform and accessing ebays customer traffic.

The impending GST charge on ebay fees is turning the screws another notch on my business viability and re- confirming my decision to build another non internet based business. I am not registered for GST on my ebay businesses. A few years ago when our main store looked like surpassing the $75,000 turnover threshold, we split the business into two seperate stores with a different ownership structure, negating the need to register for GST. I already run one GST registered business and could not stomach the paper work associated with another GST registration.