Because it’s not just about the UK and the US…
eBay Switzerland yesterday announced changes to their pricing structure. From 20th February, insertion fees for all auctions, no matter what the start price, will be CHF0,10. For start prices of CHF15 and above, this is a cut in price; the higher your start price, the more you’re now going to save in listing fees. Gallery is also halved in price from CHF0,20 to CHF0,10. Insertion fees for fixed price listings have not changed; these remain tiered according to BIN price.
The Motors section of the site, which has its own price structure, will abolish insertion fees altogether.
eBay Switzerland therefore becomes (AFAIK) the only national site which has two different price structures for auctions, and for fixed price listings. eBay in general last year put a lot of effort into encouraging and promoting auction listings, which they called the core of their brand; more recently, however, JD has talked of the importance of buy it now, which represents nearly half of all eBay purchases. So it’s interesting to see Switzerland promoting auctions like this.
A French, Swiss-resident friend of mine commented to me recently, “eBay are wasting their time in Switzerland. We don’t need to sell our old stuff, we’re all too rich”, and there may be something in that. Perhaps pushing for auctions on higher-priced items will create a market for bargain-priced luxuries on eBay.ch?
What also probably isn’t helping eBay in Switzerland is that they insist on running the site in German: more than 27% of the Swiss population doesn’t have German for a first language, and non-German speakers would often prefer English if they can’t have their own language. eBay have managed dual-language sites in Belgium and Canada, so why they can’t do the same in Switzerland, I really don’t understand.
CHF1 is approximately £0.46 or €0,61.
