Hi. I have just read my EBay newsletter, where they outline changes to their fees and other structures, commencing 24th September 2008.
Their basic shop monthly fee is going up from £6.00 ($12) to a staggering £14.99 ($30). Yep that's right, a 150 percent increase. The buy it now fees have effectively been doubled, the final sale fee is going up from 7.5 percent to to 8.75 percent and they are removing the shop inventory format listings.
To have a feature shop, not only is the monthly fee going up from £30 ($60) to £49.99 ($100), but they are now stating you have to be registered as a business user, be PayPal verified and maintain a detailed seller rating of at least 4.4 in all four of the feedback categories.
Bearing in mind that much of the world is in an economic downturn at the moment and sellers are already leaving EBay in large numbers, the question has to be asked, 'have EBay finally lost the plot'.
Whilst these fees will be applying to EBay UK, changes made in one country, are nearly always mirrored in other countries.
Could it perhaps be that EBay have discovered a new business model that the rest of us are oblivious to. Maybe we could all dramatically raise our prices and make other demands on our existing customer base.
Your comments are welcome.
Last edited by CUSTOM UK; August 25th, 2008 at 10:06 AM.
Reason: typo
If those type of changes come here...I will be dropping my store. Not that it generates much in sales..which will make it even more NOT WORTH IT!
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The increase in fees are outrageous. Just read the community forum pages on ebay & next to everyone is against this move. Whether this pressure amounts to ebay halting or reducing these increases we are yet to find out but i for one will be closing my shop. This doesn't mean i will stop selling on ebay, but I don't actually know if having a shop has benefited me!
I sell only a small amount of goods...there maybe only ever between 30-40 goods in my shop. I was looking to really kick start my t-shirts sales as i have about 10 designs that i think might sell well. However i don't understand the concept of a shop & how you promote your stock...do you list some inventory & some as auctions to get interest & people to come into your shop to view?
I have never really understood this, but this is what i was doing with my other bits & sales were very dry. However if shop inventory listings are a thing of the past with the new shop structure system then what is the point of having a shop? I'm slightly lost & very confused??? Can anyone explain what will happen with basic shops?
However, at this moment in time, before i even start selling my t-shirts, I think it's time for my shop doors to close & i will just sell via auctions & Buy It Now over 10 days...unless there is any better & more reasonable way to sell.
I'm just hoping that something positive might result out of this & a new competitor comes onto the market thats more customer orientated & doesn't try to rip it's customers off!
Unfortunately its all about greed, this company has the monopoly on the net. But with people not being happy with them and paypal. It can only go downhill.
But its probably good for some of the sites that want to be them.
No listing or final value fees & you have the option of either Paypal or Google Checkout (which is 2% + .20)
I debated whether to just dump the Paypal option, but some people just feel more comfortable paying from their Paypal account instead of a credit card.
I just put all my items up there yesterday and I'm already getting hits!
Typo Gordon. But still a massively outrageous and totally unjustified increase. I really don't know what planet those people that run EBay live on. I would suggest that it certainly isn't this one!!
The way they have repeatedly attempted to manipulate the very sellers that generate their income over the last twelve months, has been nothing short of underhanded.
If we treated our own customers like that, I know exactly how long we'd remain in business for.
I have been dealing with a couple of stateside EBay traders for years. Anything that Ebay puts on trial in the UK appears stateside about three months later and vice versa. Major changes like this, they always apply globally, with no exceptions.
I used to have an EBay store myself, but they introduced so many petty changes and regulations, that many shop owners felt they were being treated like potential naughty children, than adults with their own commercial enterprises. Every significant price rise EBay have introduced over the last five years, has been masked as some sort of 'benefit' to the sellers.
The majority of sellers on EBay will have to reflect these new changes in the prices of the items they sell. It is not a minor fee increase that can easily be absorbed into existing prices. Even if you don't sell on EBay, it is highly likely that you will end up paying more for anything you buy off there.
If I upgrade to a featured shop, I will actually be making a small saving on what I'm paying now, plus increased visibility for my listings. I realise this is going to hit those that list low price items and those that only list a few items at a time why have a shop anyway.
If someone has a basic shop at the moment, with say 100 listings, then they would pay £6.00 plus 5p for each listing on a 30 day shop inventory, making a total basic cost (excluding sales fees) of £11.00 ($22.00). Under the new fees they will pay £14.99 plus 20p per listing, making a total of £34.99 ($70.00). That's more than triple what they would have paid before, that is a 318% increase.
If they upgrade to a featured shop at £49.99 to get their listing fees back down to the 5p they already pay, then that brings the cost up to £54.99 ($110.00), which is a 500% increase.
All the low value items, badges, stickers, craft goods, jewellery components, etc will effectively cease to exist under these new fee structures. Assuming someone is selling a non shop item at £1.00, they will have a listing fee of 40p, a final sale fee of 9.9p, on top of that with PayPal now compulsory in listings, there will likely be a 20p basic PayPal fee and 3.4p transaction fee, which will give them a total gross profit of around 27p (minus the cost of the item from this 27p)? Many people go on EBay to buy these numerous low priced items, which will effectively mean reduced traffic to the EBay site, in the long term?
Maybe it's just me, but is seems like someone at EBay is sitting on a self destruct button??
*UPDATE* The final value fee for 'buy it now' items, is going up from 7.5% to 9.9%, not the 8.75% mentioned earlier.
Last edited by CUSTOM UK; August 26th, 2008 at 05:10 AM.
Reason: addition
This is a discussion about Have EBay finally LOST the plot altogether?? that was posted in the General T-Shirt Selling Discussion section of the forums.
Have EBay finally LOST the plot altogether?? 
But still a massively outrageous and totally unjustified increase. I really don't know what planet those people that run EBay live on. I would suggest that it certainly isn't this one!!
