The Other Shoe Finally Drops

[digital*ghost]

Most sellers will probably wake up to the email, but since I'm up I thought I'd mention part 2 of the reduced fees and other changes introduced recently...

Featured store $49.95 per month (no more basic store, so that's the minimum your store will cost) - from September 15.

I'm figuring that's going to get the most attention, but there's a few other bits and pieces worthy of attention - new standards for TRS, variant format introduced to more categories... An Item Condition clarification field...formerly know as the description (I wonder if the option to create an HTML description page will eventually be gone?)

Interesting stuff, to say the least.

[syrupsmummy]

It's like Coles put some products on special for a week or two and when the special period ends the price will become higher than the used to be.

eBay should have told us the featured store price is reduced for certain period when the change came.

I think I can manage the price change but the advantage in the search with free posting, 0-1 day handling time and offering express post will be difficult.

Free postage on all items will be difficult because I'm selling low price items.

About handling time, it doesn't say 0-1 business day. it says 0-1 day.

The change seems to be made to get rid of small sellers like me 😞

We may not pay a lot of fee like big businesses but sum of fees small sellers pay should be quite a lot.

[sparkes9669]

OMG EBAY JUST DONT GET IT!

just looked at the link in syrups post.

"2. Why are we making this change?

Effective 15 September, the monthly subscription fee for Basic / Featured stores will increase to $49.95. This has become necessary as the fee changes made earlier this year incentivised more sellers than expected to take advantage of Stores pricing. Buyers have different expectations about the service they receive when dealing with businesses compared to individual sellers, and Stores on eBay have become the easiest way for buyers to identify a business.

This new subscription fee is aimed at allowing the more serious businesses on eBay to continue operating a store, while individual sellers should consider taking advantage of the 30 free listings* available every month."

So ebay are basicly saying we have to many sellers that buyers want to buy from. If they have more sellers than surely in time the profits would flow through from FVF and increased traffic.

madness! someone please take the crack pipe away from the  check the business credentials of the ebay executive who thought that this would be the way to get better sellers onto ebay.

[willy-bees]

I think this has 'incentivised' lots of small sellers to consider closing up shop next month. 😞

[digital*ghost]

OMG EBAY JUST DONT GET IT!

just looked at the link in syrups post.

"2. Why are we making this change?

Effective 15 September, the monthly subscription fee for Basic / Featured stores will increase to $49.95. This has become necessary as the fee changes made earlier this year incentivised more sellers than expected to take advantage of Stores pricing. Buyers have different expectations about the service they receive when dealing with businesses compared to individual sellers, and Stores on eBay have become the easiest way for buyers to identify a business.

This new subscription fee is aimed at allowing the more serious businesses on eBay to continue operating a store, while individual sellers should consider taking advantage of the 30 free listings* available every month."

So ebay are basicly saying we have to many sellers that buyers want to buy from. If they have more sellers than surely in time the profits would flow through from FVF and increased traffic.

It's almost funny... On previous occasions when fees were increased, there was inevitably some attempt to spin it as though it were for the greater good (higher fees mean simpler fees - or vice versa - or we have to charge more (and more) for X and Y so we can provde Z for free...) Last time when they tried to put it as though fee increases were what sellers had asked for, I thought... their PR guy is either not very good or they just don't actually care about certain aspects of their public image.

This time they've basically just said "yeah, we decided to charge more for stores so smaller sellers hopefully can't afford to have them".

At least they're being honest about it, I suppose.

[purplespoilz_au*]

The other issue is the change in picture policy, what's up with that? Creating unique pictures differentiates from other listers, they just want bland generic pictures of everything.

Also by including postage in the price they get the FVF on the postage as well!

[*bad*angel*]

Agree with all points made so far. Very disappointing, but hey this is eBay and we should expect to be shafted eventually with any changes they bring in.

This part bothers me too....

Listings from Top-rated sellers that provide these buyer experiences - including 0-1 day handling time, free postage with an express postage option and 30-day money back returns, will receive higher rankings within best match.

....since normal express post is not sufficient for Paypal requirements.

[extra-keen]

Yes on further reading of the new era, it would appear that the middle ground sellers, those who list between 30 and say 150 items per month will miss out and be potentially worse off.

I wonder if enough of us went to the suggestion box and asked for that limit of 30  free listed items per month for casual sellers now be raised to 50 to 100 per month, especially for those who don't want a store - and that has got to be many hundreds of thousands of sellers I should think.

Unless we tell ebay what we think and what we need, there certainly won't be any change for the better. If we don't ask, we certainly won't get.

So get onto that suggestion box, don't be angry, be factual - remember the person on the end of that suggestion box is not management, but they can pass on any information and if there is enough folks make a noise, often you'll get your way, just so you can be "shut-up"! Hope that makes sense.

[syrupsmummy]

One bright side on the change.

Multi-variations listing feature - coming soon to more categories

This is not much. But it's better than nothing.

[superscanner4]

I certainly can't afford that price rise, I just sell a handful of things and barely cover my costs anyway.  What a kick in the teeth for small sellers.  Ebay would have to be one of the worst run businesses in the country.  They have completely moved away from being a unique place for individuals to sell used items and unique things, it is now just a shopfront for massed produced rubbish and counterfeits from China.  I will try to sell what I've got then close my store, put up an occasional auction item and investigate another site.  Ebay have treated their sellers very badly, what a load of rubbish about "buyer experience" and all that marketing-speak.  I'm pretty miffed after putting so much effort into doing everything properly, building up feedback and abiding by all the rules.  Wasted effort.  They were dishonest in not warning us about these changes.  It's pretty obvious they don't want the hobby sellers.

[auction_assassin]

So when all the small sellers close down and Featured store owners are paying $49.95 will it then increase to $99.95 to cover the loss of fees from an exodus of small store owners?

😮