Changes coming soon to eBay.com.au (14/08/2012)

[CmtyGuide@ebay.com]

This thread is to discuss the Changes coming soon to eBay.com.au

These changes include:

Enhanced functionality for multi-variation listings

Show your item location to increase buyer confidence

Greater 'Item Condition' clarity for buyers

Share your listings through your social network

Changes to Basic and Featured Store subscriptions

Please be advised, off-topic and/or disruptive posts may be deleted.

[ausfast]

They may aswell raise it too $100 and just get rid of normal store owners, though I figure they probably don't have the interest from proper businesses (e.g. like those in a shopping mall) to make anything more than $50 feesable. When they do have that interest, say goodbye to the local Joe or Jane if they want a store - they won't be able to afford it.

There are plenty of ways to simplify... that wasn't eBay's goal with this price hike, it seems.

I would not be surprised if next year the price is doubled again.

I'm sure they are gradually increasing it to make less of a shock

I also believe they are deliberately trying to get rid of the sellers they consider to be casual trash merchants, making the website more of a virtual shpping mall filled with large companies as opposed to little old granny hobbyist who wants to sell a few of her hand knitted scarfs and tea cozys.

It is sad, but thats where its heading. It'sall about commercial business, goodbye to the little guys..

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

The ability to share your items on social media could mean more sales for people as friends usually have similar taste to ourselves.

[shinygiftbox]

The big jump of the store subscription fee is just ridiculous. I am going to close my store! Very very disapointed about these changes from eBay, they just don't care about the seller's feeling at all.

[digital*ghost]

The doubled fee took me by surprise, in amount rather than the fact that it actually occurred, but for such an increase I'm not surprised that the justification is considered immensely offensive.

Do buyers have different (higher) expectations when purchasing from a store? Maybe the majority do, I dunno, I'd like to see the study / survey / statistics that assurance was based on, but I digress... Speaking for myself, as a frequent buyer, I absolutely have different expectations from different sellers, but a store icon next to the name has nothing to do with creating them - my expectations come from what the seller tells me to expect within their listing, their TOS, their handling time and return policies. If it's about meeting buyer expectations of store owners, then a fee increase is not going to change a darn thing, because some of the highest volume (i.e. serious business sellers) stores have less attractive terms, policies and practices than many small hobby sellers who are dedicated to their products and their customer service...but that's going to go unnoticed as eBay's policies etc move more and more towards creating and dictating buyer expectations on everyone's behalf. (I really don't see this as "meeting" them, in any way whatsoever).

I've worked hard over the last year building my store, developing new skills to offer unique items and create a brand name; I'm not about to let an extra $25 per month undo all that in an instant, but I have no illusions about the stability of my presence here, and eventually those fees won't be worth the service provided in return. That's ok though, if I happen to be the last kind of seller eBay want to operate a store, I'll (hopefully!) be the first kind of seller people turn away from eBay to look for, and I'll be found one way or another.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

In any terms being thrown around here tonight, a hobby is something someone does for love and obviously doesn't want to pay a fee associated with this hobby.

A business is something you derive income from on a commercial basis, if that means spending more $ to get a more prominant position in the market, the business operator will do so to gaurantee their income. The other option is being down the back of a market paying lower fees, but with much less foot traffic and sales.

[putney32]

allun.... there is no other aussie site that gets the traffic that ebay does,

there are other sites with much cheaper listing fees, full of disgruntled ebay sellers over the years, but unfortunately the majority of buyers have never heard of them.  obvioulsy you dont know the names of these other sites either?

[ausfast]

allun.... there is no other aussie site that gets the traffic that ebay does,

there are other sites with much cheaper listing fees, full of disgruntled ebay sellers over the years, but unfortunately the majority of buyers have never heard of them.  obvioulsy you dont know the names of these other sites either?

This change may move a wave of Ebay's disgruntled sellers over to that other site... but it won't move the buyers there unfortunately.

The structure of the other site is quite reasonable... but the traffic is not sustainable to run a business.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

And buyers aren't disgruntled and have no logical need to place another site into their memory banks to clutter up their lives.

Lets say the other site ran a multi million dollar tv marketing run for 12 months.

At the end of the day, they may have gained 10% of ebay's buyers, but they all end up returning to where they can find what they're looking for or where higher copetition means lower prices for them.

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

I think if you're in business and used to paying $700 - $2,000 week for a B&M lease, an ebay store is just a fraction of that, but can bring in as much t/over as the B&M withouth the rates, power, lease commitments.

[digital*ghost]

I think if you're in business and used to paying $700 - $2,000 week for a B&M lease, an ebay store is just a fraction of that, but can bring in as much t/over as the B&M withouth the rates, power, lease commitments.

My guess is that's part of the reason people take decisions and changes like this personally - or, at the very least, not very well..

eBay has provided an extraordinarily cost effective avenue for a lot of people to maintain a profitable business that doesn't necessarily turnover huge amounts, but means they don't have to worry about some of the things they otherwise would. People have often started from just selling one or two personal items - like me. I sold some things I no longer wanted about 4 years ago. I never invested a huge chunk of money, I don't have any formal business qualifications, I didn't even really have a plan, I just very slowly and steadily built something for myself here and in real terms I make nice pocket money.

I certainly have eBay to thank for inspiring me to teach myself some skills I never would have otherwise, but I don't (yet) have the back-up or comfort of another option if yet another change squeezes me out. This one won't, at least not in the immediate future, but who knows?

Not that I take these things personally, I either figure out a way to keep myself here or move on, but for a lot of people something that was only possible on eBay is becoming increasingly impossible (if it hasn't already), and I think that's a real shame because the big businesses that either benefit or are completely unaffected by such changes probably don't even need eBay.

I would suggest people don't have knee-jerk reactions to this news. At least take the time to do the sums properly rather than assume paying an extra $25 a month is going to destroy your profits. If you had a store when insertion fees were 40c, compare what you paid then to the projected fees you'll pay after 15th September, taking into account that insertion fees are still halved and the difference in FVFs. If it was worth it back then, is it really not going to be worth it after Sept. 15?

(Again, that's for non-media stores, my greatest empathy is with small sellers of books etc).