I'm wondering if eBay is making an attempt to remove low-margin products off of their screen estate and make a play in higher margin listings.
EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
11–20 of 101 posts
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#12Here's a great comparison of the old and new fee structures: http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/2013/03/part...
While it does probably amount to an increase overall, there are certainly plenty of situations where the fees will be lower. And without doubt, they are now far simpler than before, which is important. Being able to quickly determine what it will cost to sell an item on eBay may well make casual sellers more likely to do so, even if they end up paying slightly more on average than with the complex rules.
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#13Headline is disturbingly inaccurate
Don't you know that this is a simplification of the fees for casual sellers, where before, there were multiple tranches for listing an item, and if it sold successfully, you also paid a final value fee.
The new fees represent a simpler and better to understand system, where the first 50 items per month for casual sellers are free to list, and easy to understand final value fee.
This is in fact a decline in % of what you would pay!
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#14If you were looking to dirupt eBay's business model, you couldn't pick a better time. While considering a price adjustment on a high-value item I'm selling, I went to their fee calculator to explore some other price points. I was mystified to see not only the fee I expected of ~$55, but a 'New Fee' of $123. Thinking I'd made a mistake, I explored further, and noticed that as of April 16, casual sellers who don't have…
Interesting to see this move by eBay - we've found that high fees for casual sellers is a huge pain point. By focusing their fee structure towards power-sellers they also happen to be alienating a large group of casual sellers. We're trying to solve this problem (among others) with our product SellSimple. Free app, free postings, and 5% if it sells. Check it out, would love to know what you think: http://sellsimple.c…
High fees are bad, but so is low sell-through. How do you drive traffic to listings?
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good find. I'm surprised they haven't been disrupted already. The only real secret sauce they've got is a huge amount of traffic. How could you ever compete with a household name where success is determined by traffic and volume?
I wonder if Craigslist could just suddenly decide to violently weld auctions into its listings?
You really think Craigslist is able to disrupt this vertical.
When was the last time you saw something innovating coming out of Craigslist?
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting to see this move by eBay - we've found that high fees for casual sellers is a huge pain point. By focusing their fee structure towards power-sellers they also happen to be alienating a large group of casual sellers. We're trying to solve this problem (among others) with our product SellSimple. Free app, free postings, and 5% if it sells. Check it out, would love to know what you think: http://sellsimple.c…
High fees are bad, but so is low sell-through. How do you drive traffic to listings?
Few ways currently, and more to come in the next few months. Basically:
1. Sharing your listing on social networks (good, not great for driving traffic).
2. Ability to list on multiple marketplaces, so you don't NEED to sell it through SellSimple - you can still list it on ebay, craigslist, etsy, etc. If it sells on one of those marketplaces, we'll auto-delete your item from SellSimple and all the other marketplaces. You're also not charged any SellSimple fee if it sells somewhere else.
3. Retention features on iOS - can't compare to eBays network, but downloads are growing quickly and users are buying items.
This is more a long-term strategy help to help us overcome chicken - egg. If we can exist long enough for that to happen through a free posting tool - we'll be able to (eventually) have enough traffic on our own listings to generate a high sell-through rate.
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#17If you were looking to dirupt eBay's business model, you couldn't pick a better time. While considering a price adjustment on a high-value item I'm selling, I went to their fee calculator to explore some other price points. I was mystified to see not only the fee I expected of ~$55, but a 'New Fee' of $123. Thinking I'd made a mistake, I explored further, and noticed that as of April 16, casual sellers who don't have…
Why is this a good time? User acquisition in this space is expensive, and I don't think eBay raising their sell side fees makes a huge difference in bringing in consumer traffic. Sellers still have to list on eBay due to sheer volume. eBay may lose some sellers who no longer have a profitable margin, but I don't think you lose an equivalent amount of buyers in the process.
Drive a niche wedge in. Easier/cheaper to gain traffic in a niche, but they're still going to be potentially disgruntled if fees are frustrating them.
If there is a real issue with high value items, that might be a way to select a niche.
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#18Well, they just continue to make their services less appealing to the average user. What else is new?
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#19If you were looking to dirupt eBay's business model, you couldn't pick a better time. While considering a price adjustment on a high-value item I'm selling, I went to their fee calculator to explore some other price points. I was mystified to see not only the fee I expected of ~$55, but a 'New Fee' of $123. Thinking I'd made a mistake, I explored further, and noticed that as of April 16, casual sellers who don't have…
Why is this a good time? User acquisition in this space is expensive, and I don't think eBay raising their sell side fees makes a huge difference in bringing in consumer traffic. Sellers still have to list on eBay due to sheer volume. eBay may lose some sellers who no longer have a profitable margin, but I don't think you lose an equivalent amount of buyers in the process.
Well, that's sort of a rhetorical flourish, but I expect this to result in a fair degree of backlash. I trade synthesizers and high-ticket audio gear fairly regularly, and I feel comfortable calling myself an expert on that market. It's not a business for me, but I make my living working with pro audio so it does have a professional dimension. I think a lot about pricing strategies, and incline towards building listing and shipping fees into my price - I make a bit less, but my trades move quickly and a single all-inclusive price creates goodwill with buyers.
But there is no way that I'm going to just silently eat fees of 12-13% (including Paypal transaction charges), when I also pay shipping, insurance, and signature confirmation fees to minimize the risks of chargebacks on items costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. I have other markets I can sell in, of people who I've known for years on pro audio forums and a moderately active electronic music scene where I live. I liked selling on eBay because I could usually get a 10% premium or so over a local sale, but now that margin has disappeared. bulk dealers will just treat it as a cost of doing business, but traders in specialty markets like myself will just raise their prices or sell in informal markets. As a buyer I'm also much less inclined to subsidize ebay.
User acquisition of auction customers is indeed expensive, but I bet there are opportunities in peer to peer trust arrangements similar to escrow transactions.
Re: EBay is about to increase its seller fees to 10%
#20Headline is disturbingly inaccurate Don't you know that this is a simplification of the fees for casual sellers, where before, there were multiple tranches for listing an item, and if it sold successfully, you also paid a final value fee. The new fees represent a simpler and better to understand system, where the first 50 items per month for casual sellers are free to list, and easy to understand final value fee. Thi…
That's absolutely not true. It's simpler but the final value fee is quite a bit higher. Yesterday I listed an item for $1200, which would have a total fee of about $56. Four weeks from now that would rise to $123. I assure you that I checked my facts and figures carefully before choosing to post here.