MSE News: eBay sellers beware - its fees now eat into postage costs

Saveit

Yes Campdave, but doing this can only drive good sellers away altogether and profits will eventually go down, and this is what is hard to understand? I know business is all about profit for a service or product and 10% of the item sale is fine but what service do they provide to justify 10% of the postage too? I've never been a rocket scientist:)

campdave

They've been charging fees on inclusive postage since that was introduced, now they're charging them on postage as well.

The service they provide is getting my items listing in an arena with millions of users daily.

I might not like the charges, but if I disagree with them, I can remove my items from their site and sell them elsewhere.

Ultimately I want to make as much money as I can from my customers, ebay are no different. If they lose sellers and revenue, they may revise these changes. However, as they have been in place in the US for some time now, it looks likely that ebay are happy with them.

Saveit

campdave wrote: »

They've been charging fees on inclusive postage since that was introduced, now they're charging them on postage as well.

The service they provide is getting my items listing in an arena with millions of users daily.

I might not like the charges, but if I disagree with them, I can remove my items from their site and sell them elsewhere.

Ultimately I want to make as much money as I can from my customers, ebay are no different. If they lose sellers and revenue, they may revise these changes. However, as they have been in place in the US for some time now, it looks likely that ebay are happy with them.

I agree its the largest selling platform around and I am happy to pay 10% fees on the item sale, I don't have a problem with that at all, I do gripe at the 3.9% I am charged by pay pal but even that I can digest a little. We all want to make a profit but charging 10% of the postage is bad move in my opinion. Time will tell .

Rotti

campdave wrote: »

There's plenty of scope for the 18p fees in the extra 55p you're adding to the cd postage as it is.

I am not getting 55p. The actual cost is £1.20 and fees for eBay and Paypal are 19p so I am actually getting 36p to cover my costs - Jiffy bag or CD mailer and diesel to the Post Office which is a distance away. Not unreasonable and certainly not excessive.

And for a boxed set I am selling that is over 8cm deep I have to load the price or end up out of pocket by quite a bit as it will cost (cheapest) £4.20 with Hermes (nothing for packaging). Cap on CDs is £3 of which I will get £2.67, leaving me £1.53 down on the deal - and all to line eBay's pockets. It would cover anything that ended up a small parcel by Royal Mail @ £2.60 but does not make allowances for anything larger.

My biggest bugbear as an international seller is that it is really unfair to load the percentages onto already high airmail or courier costs. It would not be difficult to adjust the system to exempt overseas buyers and not take the 10% from anything going outside the UK.

Rotti

Saveit wrote: »

I can't understand why Ebay have introduced this other than make more profit. If you add your postage to the cost and offer the so called free postage, the buyer loses out if they want to order more than one item, if they are all free postage then this is a disadvantage to the buyer. I am a top rated seller and have tried to do as they say adding the postage to the item and my sales dropped sharply, reverting them back to standard postage and a combined price for buying more than one , sales increased. Either way if you add the postage cost or do it separately you are charged 10%. Sellers have to add the fee costs in so they can continue selling and make a little profit , or why bother? If you don't add it to the cost you will not get a discount on your FVF , if you do then the buyer is not getting the best deal. For years I have jumped through hoops and did what they asked but this just doesn't make any sense at all other than Ebay profit. If I do add the postage to the cost of the item and a buyer wants two, they will be paying double the postage when some items can go for the same or a few pence more. This for me personally is a step too far, and if Ebay wanted to stop the sellers with high postage costs then I am sure they could have found a better way other than penalise good sellers too. I have decided to do a mix of listings and see how they go over the next 2 months and try and figure out what's best for customers not Ebay. I sell internationally too and that is a nightmare because the postage is high how can I justify charging 10% more ? I sold an item to the USA in the last couple of days , the item price is £7.50 , the postage was £11.95 the actual cost for the postage was £10.95 allowing for the packaging costs but out of that £11.95 Ebay charged me £1.19 and for what? I can't see that this is a good move for anyone, buyers and sellers, only Ebay.

Couldn't agree more but remember in order to recoup that 10% you have to add 12% or you will still be out of pocket. Many sellers are still unaware of the changes as eBay have not gone out of their way to let people know, and if they don't scrutinize their fees bill or read in detail the print at the end of each listing where it now states that the FVF now includes postage, they will be undercharging and losing out without even knowing. I am willing to bet that a huge percentage of smaller sellers don't even check the announcements except to look for free listing dates - I do check occasionally and still missed it - found out from a friend! If they are being up front and open about it how hard would it be to put a bulk message into everyone's message box advising them?

RFW

Rotti wrote: »

If they are being up front and open about it how hard would it be to put a bulk message into everyone's message box advising them?

There's been loads of emails and log in pages about this. Not to mention the press it's had. I'm sick of getting emails about the upcoming picture requirements, there will still be people on here complaining that they didn't know about it when they get their listings pulled for non compliance.
You could quite easily list your CDs on Amazon, the fees are much the same as Ebay's though, charging a fee on postage and payment.

Some sellers will inevitably drop off as will certain items, they probably need thinning out anyway. I've scaled back a lot on Ebay over the last year, the recent fee changes have actually brought me back a little. I now have lower listing fees, a larger discount and a level playing field having had inclusive postage for a few months.

Saveit

Rotti wrote: »

Couldn't agree more but remember in order to recoup that 10% you have to add 12% or you will still be out of pocket. Many sellers are still unaware of the changes as eBay have not gone out of their way to let people know, and if they don't scrutinize their fees bill or read in detail the print at the end of each listing where it now states that the FVF now includes postage, they will be undercharging and losing out without even knowing. I am willing to bet that a huge percentage of smaller sellers don't even check the announcements except to look for free listing dates - I do check occasionally and still missed it - found out from a friend! If they are being up front and open about it how hard would it be to put a bulk message into everyone's message box advising them?

Yes unfortunately I will have to raise it around 12% to be viable and I agree a huge amount of sellers will be oblivious to this until they get their bill to pay from Ebay ,their notices aren't very big. At least on the account page they have taken the two payments separately FVF on postage and the FVF on the item sold.

Saveit

RFW wrote: »

There's been loads of emails and log in pages about this. Not to mention the press it's had. I'm sick of getting emails about the upcoming picture requirements, there will still be people on here complaining that they didn't know about it when they get their listings pulled for non compliance.
You could quite easily list your CDs on Amazon, the fees are much the same as Ebay's though, charging a fee on postage and payment.

Some sellers will inevitably drop off as will certain items, they probably need thinning out anyway. I've scaled back a lot on Ebay over the last year, the recent fee changes have actually brought me back a little. I now have lower listing fees, a larger discount and a level playing field having had inclusive postage for a few months.

I agree on the inclusive postage, I've tried this on several items but the point is how fair is this to buyers who want to buy more than one which many of my customers do, items are matching ie in a range, they can all be sent in the same parcel and the offer of combined postage is a plus in many sales. Why should they have to pay the free postage as they call it on each item? I get orders for 10 or more on some listings they will end up paying £30 instead of £3, makes no sense.

RFW

Saveit wrote: »

I agree on the inclusive postage, I've tried this on several items but the point is how fair is this to buyers who want to buy more than one which many of my customers do, items are matching ie in a range, they can all be sent in the same parcel and the offer of combined postage is a plus in many sales. Why should they have to pay the free postage as they call it on each item? I get orders for 10 or more on some listings they will end up paying £30 instead of £3, makes no sense.

It is unfair. You can list a multi variation listing offering a 'mixed' selection where buyers choose what they want and pay a lower price for multiples.
I've got several like that now that are doing better than before. As I've said many times before it would have been a lot better if Ebay would have had a discount system in place before this was introduced so sellers could offer a percentage or flat discount on multiple purchases. There's a simple system on Amazon to do that, although buyers tend to never spot it there!
The odd thing is, the majority think free/inclusive postage is a better deal, it makes no sense but then most people aren't sensible;)

Saveit

RFW wrote: »

It is unfair. You can list a multi variation listing offering a 'mixed' selection where buyers choose what they want and pay a lower price for multiples.
I've got several like that now that are doing better than before. As I've said many times before it would have been a lot better if Ebay would have had a discount system in place before this was introduced so sellers could offer a percentage or flat discount on multiple purchases. There's a simple system on Amazon to do that, although buyers tend to never spot it there!
The odd thing is, the majority think free/inclusive postage is a better deal, it makes no sense but then most people aren't sensible;)

Thanks for this I could try this on the flowers I sell which would make sense to add buy one at X two at x 3 and so on. . I already state in my listings the extra few pence it costs to buy more than one and this is added to their invoice automatically. Listing them with free postage and adding the box at the top with the prices for the quantities should work the same I expect . I list now with the postage for one and the price for each additional and they pay accordingly which is fair for them. I can see my weekend full of editing rearranging now aghhh