eBay.com changes : we're no longer only a venue
20/08/2008 at 18:43
Rather late in the day on this side of the Atlantic, the US fee and other changes have been posted.
eBay.com fee changes
There is no change to auctions or SIF listings: unlike the UK, SIF remains. Insertion fees for BIN listings are 35c across the board. 30 BIN listings, with the option to automatically renew, are now available.
Final Value Fees have changed quite drastically on a per-category basis: I’ll spare you the breakdown here, as eBay have already posted it.
Free shipping incentives
From October to December, sellers who offer free shipping will get free subtitle on their listings, and double PowerSeller discount if they’re eligible for this.
Special deals for Media categories
Until the end of the year, IFs for listings in Media categories which utilise pre-filled information are just 5c. This should help off-set the pain of a 15% FVF for the under-$50 sale price tranche.
Likely to cause more anger amongst Media sellers, however, is the introduction of maximum shipping prices. Perhaps some US Media sellers would like to comment on this, but the prices set seem very low to me: $4 for an antiquarian book looks like an impossibility. Sellers will be required to offer at least one shipping option within the maximum permitted range: they will also be allowed to offer other more expensive options for expedited or international shipping.
Expect to see this in more categories soon: Germany has this in categories as diverse as jewellery and mobile phones, so sellers not affected yet should not assume this change isn’t coming to them too.
No more paper payments
Checks and money orders will no longer be permitted as a payment method. Sellers with merchant credit card accounts will be able to accept payments via eBay Checkout.
Minimum DSRs for sellers
Sellers will be required to maintain minimum DSRs of 4.3 across the board, as in the UK. eBay suggest that around 96% of sellers already achieve this: those who do not are advised to spend the next two months improving their service (or realistically, opening new seller accounts).
eBay.com have stopped short of the radical format changes we’ve seen today on eBay UK. SIF remains, Store subscription fees remain the same. What’s significant about the .com changes is not the new fees, it’s everything else. On eBay’s biggest marketplace, they’re asserting more control than ever over the way that sellers list and the way that buyers buy: limiting payments to electronic transfers only, and the carrot-and-stick approach over postage rates, says very strongly that eBay is no longer “only a venue”. eBay will be accused of Amazon-izing their site: I think frankly that this is irrelevent. The changes are about offering buyers a predictable, safe experience, so that they can arrive at eBay and know exactly what they’re going to get.
TekGems says
6:47 pm on 20/08/2008
Does anyone have details on what payment gateways will be supported in the future? Is it just ProPay? How about Authorize.Net?
Sue Bailey says
6:50 pm on 20/08/2008
TekGems, AFAIK it’s only ProPay. There’s no mention of Authorize.Net anywhere – though these kind of announcements do have a tendency to change and add in new providers, so if A.N is what you use now, hang on for a bit, you may get good news.
northumbrian says
7:21 pm on 20/08/2008
RICHARD@ EBAY
please please pleas pretty please with bells on Can we have Double Powerseller Discount for free shipping too
I
ebuyerfb says
10:45 pm on 20/08/2008
So from last September – March I basically sold internationally only. The major consequence was that my S&H DSR plummeted (back then nobody cared about DSRs for anything). Are they going to start banning people from the site because of something that happened 9 months ago?
implog says
12:07 am on 21/08/2008
“Are they going to start banning people from the site because of something that happened 9 months ago?”
Sadly it sounds as if they will.
A shipping DSR is a shipping DSR be it across town or across the planet.
And don’t forget, eBay buyers are STILL told that a “4″ DSR rating is good while they punish sellers who receive that same “4″ DSR.
Madness.
Dan Wilson says
10:27 am on 21/08/2008
I think it’s pretty interesting because it shows that the UK really has independence from the .com and is also willing to be more radical.
northumbrian says
10:31 am on 21/08/2008
I think its more like the UK are the Guinea pigs rather than independant