eBay moving towards free insertion fees!

StaffsSW · 21 April 2008 at 7:37PM

In a workshop at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst, Jody Ford from eBay has just announced that they are heading towards FREE insertion fees.

They are working to offer great economics linked to sellers success and are working to reduce insertion fees. Having already reduced them in January this year they are looking towards a pricing structure which would include free insertion fees to enable sellers to list all of their inventory on the site.

There are no timescales, but free insertion fees are definately on the agenda for some products / catagories / listing formats.

Source

This echos comments made earlier in the day at the same event by Mark Lewis, eBay UK MD, who promised lower fees, and serious consideration to rolling out the free gallery as a permanent change, and suggested that by Christmas 2008, there will be "no reason not to hold your entire inventory on eBay"

Nothing comes for free, but this latter comment indicates that eBay are chasing the Amazon/Play business method, and strengthens the argument that eBay are moving away from the private seller.

charlottevwa · 21 April 2008 at 7:42PM

Well that's some good news then. Although does that mean a further rise in FVF's?

Brooker_Dave · 21 April 2008 at 7:50PM

stevew8975 wrote: »

Source

This echos comments made earlier in the day at the same event by Mark Lewis, eBay UK MD, who promised lower fees, and serious consideration to rolling out the free gallery as a permanent change, and suggested that by Christmas 2008, there will be "no reason not to hold your entire inventory on eBay"

Nothing comes for free, but this latter comment indicates that eBay are chasing the Amazon/Play business method, and strengthens the argument that eBay are moving away from the private seller.

Smacks of ebay following amazon, rather than sticking to their previous, very sucessful model.

StaffsSW · 21 April 2008 at 8:35PM

charlottevwa wrote: »

Well that's some good news then. Although does that mean a further rise in FVF's?

I think we know eBay well enough to recognise that they went to the Gordon Brown school of generosity...

What worries me more though is just how many listings will buyers have to trawl through, and if the private sellers are driven away, true bargains will be few and far between.

soolin · 21 April 2008 at 8:52PM

Personally I think free listings will be a huge mistake, it just tempts people to list rubbish and means the real gems get hidden in the dross.

I have been around long enough to remember freeserve auctions that had the free listing model, in some categories you can search a dozen pages of completed listings before you found any with a bid. I find that to be the problem as well with some of the ebay rivals.

Obviiously I hate having to pay to list my items, but in all honesty if they were free I would list any old rubbish. At the moment I consider my listings carefully and if I think something is really rubbish I save it for the free listing days!

I also wonder where this would leave other auction sites that trade on the idea of free listings if you pay a membership fee, I can't see them being too happy at the idea of ebay taking away the last bit of uniqueness (is that a real word?) that they have.

pinkgem · 21 April 2008 at 8:58PM

as a seller i think it's a great idea... although i'm guessing fvf will go up to more like plays 10% and amazons 15%, but i think i would be happier to only pay fees for items that sell

as a buyer i think it's a bad idea as you will have to trawl through so much rubbish to find what you want

papito · 21 April 2008 at 9:02PM

pinkgem wrote: »

as a buyer i think it's a bad idea as you will have to trawl through so much rubbish to find what you want

If for buyers is BAD, then it is worst for Sellers :eek:

pinkgem · 21 April 2008 at 9:30PM

hmm actually no it's not good for sellers either as it will be harder for buyers to find your stuff

ok so it's bad for buyers and sellers then as buyers will buy less and sellers will sell less

madnlooney · 22 April 2008 at 6:24AM

i think it will just be a case of people listing more items then the fees will go out so it will work out ebay will get more money from the increase of fees coming in

brightonman123 · 22 April 2008 at 6:54AM

fees may be free for big turnover sellers, as they will get more back on their paypal skimoff?

soolin · 22 April 2008 at 7:25AM

brightonman123 wrote: »

fees may be free for big turnover sellers, as they will get more back on their paypal skimoff?

I was thinking about this after I logged off last night and I wonder if they will use a tier system as well. The large volume sellers already pay less FVFs than the smaller seller and have additional paypal protection so it is quite possible that ebay will once again favour the large seller with free insertions and maybe make the rest of us pay.

I suppose until the full announcement with roll out details is announced we shan't know what ebay actually intend. I would like to think that this could be years away, but in the past these 'hint' annnouncements have been acted on very quickly.

Personally although I am worried as I'm not sure this is the way to go I would be more worried if I ran an alternative site, who (apart from those banned on ebay) would bother with a rival if they can let their goods sit on ebay for free ?

eBay moving towards free insertion fees!

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