Changes coming soon to eBay.com.au (14/03/2011)

[CmtyGuide-Mary@ebay.com]

Changes coming soon to eBay.com.au

This thread is to discuss the ***Changes coming soon to eBay.com.au*** announcement made on 14/03/2012.

These changes include:

FREE pictures and listing upgrade changes

Simplified Fees

Updates to eBay’s Feedback and seller standards

Zero day handling time option for same day dispatch

Custom settings for payment, postage & returns information

Electronics: List using eBay catalogues in more categories

Changes to the Classifieds listing format

April 2012 category changes

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

[digital*ghost]

No dramas - thanks for clarifying.

Believe it or not, I actually understand where you're coming from with the point you're making. To me, no communication (whether deemed necessary of not) shouldn't really qualify for auto-5 stars, and if eBay want to prevent unfair ratings when communication wasn't necessary, it would make more sense to me to block a rating from being left at all if no communication took place.

The description a seller writes can be deemed as communication, but that's rated separately, even though it's quite often used to communicate information about transactions in general rather than the item specifically, so perhaps that's what they're basing the auto-5 stars on (which is in turn how I can understand your point - the communication is there, but not being read), but more importantly, I also don't think it's necessary for eBay to incentivise sellers to operate in a certain way, or provide a specific type of customer service.

The DSRs are there for sellers (and other buyers) to see whether or not buyers have appreciated the way a seller conducts their business, and quite frankly I make a little effort to not be just like every other seller. At the same time, though, I ultimately don't really care much either way about doing or changing anything to take DSR ratings out of the hands of my buyers, be it for postage cost, time or communication.

[mesonquark]

It would seem that not many sellers have actually done the calculations on what this "Simplified Fees" change will mean to them.

Most responses to the changes are concentrating on the peripheral issues to do with 5 star auto ratings and picture upgrades etc. All well and good as these things should be discussed, but they are just smokescreens to hide the truth of this "package deal".

The crux of the changes is that the FVFs (Final Value Fees) better known as "commissions" that Ebay will now charge are increasing dramatically, no matter what type of listing, whether non-store or store, you may decide to use.

We are a small family business and use the" Featured Store" facility and to date we've been paying around $3500 to sometimes $4500 per month in FVFs. This is a lot of money to us and the reason we chose the "Featured Store" was that it gave us reduced percentage rates based upon the closing price and that brought down our FVFs to 5.5% overall. We sell between 300 and 350 items per month and the closing prices have been going down and down as everyone is trying to save a few dollars.

We have been paying 5.5% in FVFs now for more than a year. Now with the new "Simplified Fees" we will be paying an additional $1000 minimum per month with no tangible benefits whatsoever. That's $12000 extra minimum per year that Ebay will receive just from us with this new "Simplified Fees" structure.

Our average closing price is around $190 per item and up until now that's meant an FVF of $10.15. Under the new "Simplified Fees" structure, we will be paying $13.30 and that is a huge increase in anyones language. The net effect is around a 30% increase in fees that we simply can't absorb.

For Ebay Australia by my estimation, this means a windfall in the TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS by just changing to flat rate commissions.

A flat rate of 7% for Featured Store owners will seriously hurt and the only way it can be recouped is by sellers putting item prices up to cover these newly created losses. Anchored Store owners will also be seriously impacted as their flat rate will go to 6% when their average FVFs would be around 5% presently.

Please note that Ebay, with all its dissemmination of information, fails to state anywhere that you will be paying up to 30% or even more for the same thing you have been paying for up until now. It all depends on your final item price and the higher it goes, up to around $1430 for a Featured Store owner (commissions are capped at $100 max) the more you'll be paying in commissions compared to what you pay currently.

When a few more sellers do the maths, no matter whether they are occassional casual sellers, small to medium business sellers or dedicated professional sellers, they will be in for a big surpise.

[isheds_iracks]

You have hit the nail on the head and it seems that most have fallen into the trap.

It seems that most of the discussions are based on the minor issues (as you say "smokescreen").

Let look at the big issue... FVF's

Most of my sales are between $300 - $600 which means the FVF's that I will be paying will be SUBSTANTIALLY more than now.

I will prefer to place some coin on to Adwords and some SEO and try to get more sales off eBay to avoid the fees.

I have kept most of my prices on my website and eBay the same for simplicity sake and forsaken margins for sales through eBay - no more.

My eBay prices will now be substantially more and the smart buyers our there who do their homework and research before buying will soon realise this with many eBay sellers who also have their own online stores.

Shame - I have enjoyed seeing my business gorw over the last two years with the help of eBay.

[found-in-australia]

The gallery fees being waived will help many of my Australian listing fees, dropping from about 4 times that of the rest of the world, to about 2 times, but it is still a substantial saving at the point of listing.

Every link I follow to "Simplified Fees" states:

"Reduced number of insertion fee tiers for auction-style formats – down from six to three"

However, I can not find the actual changes when I follow various links, and thus I do not know how this simplification actually affects me. Since no one else has asked on this thread, I assume that I am just following the wrong links, so can someone point me at the actual changes, so I know how my auctions are going to be affected.

===============

What I can find that doesn't appear to have been discussed elsewhere includes:

Subtitles have a small fourfold increase from 49 cents to $2.00 ! (The same software costs 50 cents on the US site)

Scheduled listing jumps from 20 to 40 cents..... (The same software costs 10 cents on the US site)

I still do not understand why the same application of the same software should cost two to four times as much when Australian users are using it.

=======================

Good to see that Ebay still knows how to do sellers big favours, the final value fees may increase, but they are apparently easier to "predict", which helps out the innumerate very much.....

"Many sellers have told us that predicting their ‘cost of sale’ on eBay is made complex because of the current tiered final value fee structure. Removing this complexity and applying a flat final value fee will help sellers forecast more accurately and efficiently."

[surf-skate-running]

We have only just become a Power Seller an i have been calculating fee structures and no matter which way i turn it seems that eBay grabs you for fees.

I have absolutely no problem what so ever paying eBay fees, as its important that they be both profitable and provide us with customers and the best platform possible to sell within.

Bu the problem i have is that they dont listen to thier sellers - in my opinion.

1. They are not listening about the massive jump in selleres commission, that these changes impose, and this imposition is on some of eBays best customers, ie its power sellers. . It appears to me in some areas fees will jump almost 30%.

2. They are stilll not listening to the sellers about -

A. negative feedback provided by inexperienced and unthoughtful buyers, - and thier should be an appeal area for that problem

B. That eBay imposes lower stars for unanswered questions or late postage, both which some times are not through the fault of the seller. Ive had things that take ages to post because the seller hasnt given me a proper address and then cannot be contacted. But as  a seller eBay punishes me and my ratings. How is this fair. And why if eBay is making serious changes have they still not listened to sellers.

I think the lesson eBay continually fail to learn  is that eBay needs to provide a safe and fair environment for both buyers and sellers. One where feedback is fair. It appears to have the protection of buyers sorted. But in doing so it often fails to protect sellers reputation which can be so terribly tarnished by a few terrible customers.

I block buyers that have been difficult to deal with, as i dont want a repeat experience with them, but i rarely give them negative feedback. I would like to see a buyer rating that somehow picks up the fact that 5 or 10 sellers have blocked a certain buyer.

[digital*ghost]

"Reduced number of insertion fee tiers for auction-style formats – down from six to three"

This is the link you want: http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees2.html

I've forgotten the exact table of fees for auctions, but I think it was 30c for a 99c or lower start, 50c for $1.00 - $19.99, 75c for $20 - $49.99, $1.50 for $50-$99.99 and so one..... or something like that.

It's changing to 50c for up to $19.99, $1.50 for $20.00 - $99.99 and $3.00 for a $100 or more start price.

Subtitles have a small fourfold increase from 49 cents to $2.00 ! (The same software costs 50 cents on the US site)

I used subtitle on two Good-Til-Cancelled listings in February, the cost was $1.49 because they're 30 day listings. I could only pay 49c for subtitle if my listings were 10-day or under duration, so it's a 33% increase from that perspective. Not saying that's something to celebrate, but before you make comparisons to fee tables in the US, first consider that they pay FVF on postage charges, and their FVF is higher than ours.

This is, IMHO, the biggest load of ...something in the whole thing - as in, how they chose to make the fee rise sound like something sellers wanted. Whoever wrote it really wasn't trying very hard! :^O

First of all, forecasting the potential cost only gets slightly compicated when you don't know what the end price is going to be, such as is the case with auctions. But it aint like you can't base some calculations on an average estimate and work that into start price. Secondly, a flat rate percentage FVF is still impossible to work out on an auction listing because you don't know what the end price will be until it ends.

Further to that, eBay fees were not difficult to calculate when there was a sliding scale. Secondly, the calculations were done for me every single time I listed something as a BIN, anyway! Right at the bottom of the page is - "Based on your Buy It Now price, you will be charged a Final Value Fee of $X.XX". Yep, that was really confusing me. 😐

eBay are not imposing lower star ratings for later delivery times or a delay in answering a buyer's question, you just don't get an auto-5 star and the ratings are left in the hands of your buyers, as it is now.

[auctionwarez]

No communication took place between the buyer and seller in the 14 days prior to the transaction and up until the point that Feedback was left. This includes messages within My eBay*.

I, for one, would love to know how ebay are going to police the no communication between buyers and sellers.  Are they going to be peeking on everybodies emails to determine if any emails have been exchanged.  Must be one hell of a great software program to be able to do this worldwide on the millions of sellers and buyers communications.

I will still communicate with my buyers regardless, and I certainly would not encourage no communication, as that is being rather unfriendly and a lot of buyers will not be appreciative of the robot status that ebay is trying to turn Sellers into.

That said, that is if I ever have buyers to communicate with...... character toys in Australia is the biggest joke, mostly filled up with chinese sellers pertaining to be from Australia, Australia, not many listings from actual Ozzie Sellers cause nobody knows how or where to list.  Same with buyers as they just cannot find any items here easily - maybe unaligning was intentional for Australia so that buyers have to buy from Overseas and not here from Australian Sellers.

I am still waiting to see what the Category changes are going to be that are being made on April 30th. Still no mention of what is changing, but surely if we are going to be aligned with other international sites, you are most definitely going to reinstate our character toy categories that ebay Australia took away in June 2010 JUST TO UNALIGN US I am sure.

Can't wait ebay to see what is in store for these category changes and if it will actually align us, or will it unalign more Australian categories. Please do let us know when we can view the changes.

[found-in-australia]

Thank you Digital Ghost,

That was the information I was looking for. I appreciate your help.

Kind Regards,  Kevin

[leader-of-the-band]

Can't wait ebay to see what is in store for these category changes and if it will actually align us, or will it unalign more Australian categories. Please do let us know when we can view the changes.

this might help http://pages2.ebay.com.au/Hub/May_2012_seller_changes/Making_it_easier_to_sell/Category_changes#about

[minimikimusic]

Seems ridiculous. I ALWAYS email my buyers thanking them for making payment and let them know when I have mailed it.

So, I guess by not sending these emails anymore will mean I automatically get a 5 star rating????????