May 2013 Fee Structure Changes

[CmtyGuide@ebay.com]

eBay will be introducing a new fee structure on May 1, 2013.

For some sellers fees will be going up, while others will see notable reductions.  We encourage you to take the time to visit the newly launched Seller Centre to see how the changes will affect you (http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/fs5).

You will notice that to offset the fee change, we have worked to remove the major barriers to listing and have continued to reduce upfront fees to make selling on eBay easier and fairer. Most sellers should only be paying fees on an item after it sells – not before.

Your fees contribute to eBay’s ability to significantly invest in the overall experience for both sellers and buyers.  Enhancements on the buyer side of the equation are aimed squarely at driving traffic to your listings and ensuring the 7.3 million Australians who visit the site every month continue to do so. For example, investments in marketing, social media promotions and mobile commerce applications helped sellers to capture a greater share of online sales in 2012 and saw a 21% year on year increase of visits to eBay.

After reviewing the changes it should be clear that the new fee structure also encourages sellers to adopt the behaviours that we know buyers increasingly prefer (eg: fixed price over auction in some categories) – therefore increasing your chances of a successful sale.

In 2013 we will be working even harder to respond to the rapid pace of change in our industry and to ensure you are taken along on the journey. You will see a number of innovations announced in the coming months and throughout the year which support all of our sellers, no matter what their size or business aspirations.”

[phoneaccessories2000]

The day Amazon lands in Australia, they're going to have a field day with eBay.

[canvasfineprintpl]

So do like me. Im closing my store as of tonight midnight and 36k listing going to other sites.

Ebay lost plot no longer is attractive for sellers, I will keep my account open or my open other just to see where they will go with latest updates, if they in the future make easier for selers i my decide to come back.  . ...

[phoneaccessories2000]

And by the way, I sell most of my items around $7,

$1.5 of insertion (that's not counting the cost of the store or unsold items)

$0.7 Final value

$.45 Paypal (which is eBay)

--

$2,65 or 37% of commission, seems a bit greedy.

[modelnerds]

I agree with every seller that has voiced concern and outrage at this fee hike.

I sell 100% of items under $100, so this fee hike really makes it difficult to list low value items, so the number of bargains will definitely drop. 

However, from the propaganda posted by ebay in forum, it sounds liek they want to move ebay away from an auction site, to a straight selling market place anyway, because that's what the buyers appear to want.

But stay tuned, I don't think this is the end of it, I am predicting that there other double dipping mechanism (PAYPAL), will be increasing fees soon as well, so ebay will get a double windfall.

What the market needs is a viable alternative.  I've seen people mention Gumtree, but guess what, ebay own that as well!

The only alternative I can see is that we will have to increase the listing price of our goods to try and make it viable to sell low priced items.

But you know what, we can sit here all we like and complain, but ebay don't care, because they see us coming back and continuing to use their service.  The fact is, no other selling site has the market awareness and reach.  You maximize your chances of selling here because of the sheer weight of numbers visiting.  It's a great place for buyers, not so for sellers.  Ebay are simply milking the sellers to provide the ebay profit.  We as sellers really all just work for ebay, with none of the benefits of being an employee, such as Super Annuation, Sick leave, Annual Leave, etc.

The market desperately needs an alternative!

[modelnerds]

Hi,

Would be interested to know how you went about doing this?

Cheers

[yodablu]

As a seller of clothing I am now screwed with the new fees, because I prefer auctions over BIN.   I just used the fee calculator to work out my best options. I downgraded my feature store to a basic 2 days ago but am now thinking of cancelling my store subscription all together. I will be better off with no store. WTF. Using the fee calculator I will be over $140 better off with no store.

If I sell $2000 worth a month at auction with average sale price of $25 my monthly fees will be $348.40 and that is without paypal's bit on top.

$2250 = $372.75 in fees

$2400 = $417.60 in fees

Yet if I keep my featured store fees will be even higher.

[3-tierstand]

Dear EBAY

your greed is limitless! Reward occasional sellers and rape the people who have made ebay their livelihood and who give ebay a good reputation by have great ratings. Incredible. Do you seriously think we are all that stupid and that our bottomline won't tell us otherwise. notable reductions....who for?? ma and pa kettle who list a couple of things per month - awesome! Fees increase, search capability of ebay items decrease. Glad we are all paying you guys to make a mess of the whole system.

[3-tierstand]

interesting, how is ebay Europe treating you in terms of sales?

[thesoulyearns]

are you also looking forward to the increased fvf of 9;9% capped at $250 not $100??

?:|

It's not ideal but 9.9% only comes to an extra 10c per sale for a $5 item, 20c for a $10 item and $1 for a $50 item. It's not huge... or doesn't seem to feel that way. You can save that same amount or more by doing Schedules Listings or Auctions w/ BIN. The capped price does seem a little much but maybe some sellers out there can afford it. I don't make much (if any) profit on eBay so the price rises aren't a huge concern.

[acrowsa]

well, just closed my Store and Manager Pro.

Thanks eBay for allowing me to have a nice Store and allowing me to put in a lot of work to make it reasonably successful.

And thanks eBay for now stuffing it up with all your extra fees, continually changes (eg: fees, postage restrictions, free postage requirement for high rated sellers, not allowing feedback for sellers on buyers etc etc etc).

You have hundreds upon hundreds of disgruntled sellers here and you do not have the guts to get on these forums (like some of you used to in the past) and provide some answers to our questions.

And I thought the Labor party was bad --- thank god Ebay is not in politics !!