eBay are testing a new payment system in Germany and Austria. Rather than as currently happens the buyer paying the seller direct, under the pilot scheme buyers will actually pay eBay for their purchases on the site.
With the Pilot once a purchase has been made eBay will request payment from the buyer and once eBay has the funds they’ll notify the seller that the item should be despatched. The seller then needs to ship the product and when they mark it as despatched this triggers the payment from eBay to the seller.
The big deal on this test is Buyer Protection. Currently buyers are protected for their purchases if they pay with PayPal. Under the pilot with eBay collecting the funds all acceptable payment methods will be covered under Buyer Protection. Buyers have the option to pay with Bank Transfer, PayPal, Skrill (the new name of Moneybookers) or credit card/debit card through either PayPal or Skrill.
As a side benefit the pilot will also ensure that a wider range of payment options are available to buyers on a consistent basis. All sellers participating in the pilot will have the same set of payment options offered on their items so buyers will always have the choice of using their favoured payment method.
All newly registered sellers on eBay.de and eBay.at will be included in the payments pilot. All of their items listed on eBay will have direct payment options to eBay which means buyers around the world buying from these sellers will see the range of eBay payment options.
Payments from eBay to the seller can be either through PayPal or bank transfer, and similar to current PayPal holds the frequency will be dependent on the seller status including if they are a business seller with an established trading history (immediate payout) or Business seller without a trading history or who are below standard (7 day payout) or Private sellers (14 day payout).
eBay say that it’s too early to say if the pilot will be rolled out to more sellers or in more eBay territories. They will of course thoroughly analyse the results of the pilot to determine if it has the desired effect of increasing trust on eBay, particularly for higher value purchases from newly registered sellers.
I do like the way the new payment model offers choice of payment methods to buyers and increases buyer protection. I’m not so sure that sellers with their own merchant banking facilities for accepting credit/debit cards or those who already accept bank transfer will welcome delays in receiving their funds.
However the most important data point from the pilot will be to see if it increase the frequency and value of purchases from buyers. If sales volume and value increase than any change in payment options is likely to be a secondary consideration and something we’ll all just have to live with.
15 Responses
We need traffic, not more hoops…
“The seller then needs to ship the product and when they mark it as despatched this triggers the payment from eBay to the seller.”
If this is all about increasing high value sales surely for BIG ticket items eBay would prefer to hang on to the money until the buyer marks the item as “received”. Unless of course payment is conditional on the seller entering a tracking number or other proof of posting that gives eBay the information and certainty they require.
Do UK’s Royal Mail come up to the mark in this respect?
And could this move increase seller shipping costs?
And less financial risk for eBay should mean lower fees on high value items maybe?
And whilst bank transfers are popular in Austria and Germany the good old fashioned cheque is still popular in France and the UK. How would this apply to non electronic payment methods or could they even be offered?
similar to amazon then
Judging by eBay previous performance with ‘Trust & safety’, VeRo, Customer Support and just about everything they do this is bound to go completely Pear shaped.
Ebay need to realise (and sooner than later) that sellers are actively looking at other channels because we are simply feed up jumping through hoops.
This will go wrong – and there will be no method, or (no fair method) of correcting eBay’s mistakes.
“The Emperor is naked and nobody within eBay knows because they all have their heads in the sand!”
Were suppose to trust Ebay with our $$$$? Theives,Crooks,Lies,disruptive innovations………..Screw Them!!!
What will happen to local pickups- cash on collection ?
Germans are (amongst) the most vocal objectors to PayPal so I’m not surprised it’s started there. If eBay do this for no fees that may help sweeten it, somehow I doubt it.
Another tilting of the playing field in favour of the heavyweights.
Private Sellers often seem to use the proceeds of their sales to fund their purchases from business sellers and other private sellers on ebay. So if they have to wait 14 days before they can access their proceeds of their sales this will obviously affect their purchases. Thinking about such as Christmas. The Private Sellers will need to be selling their items mid to end November to get their proceeds in time to make their purchases and of course get them delivered in time for Christmas(and just hope that Christmas Rush is not as bad as I am expecting(worse than Christmas 2010/11). I am not certain that it is going to do anything for Christmas Sales Totals.
God i can just see the ebay forums with hundreds of posts “ebay have kept my money” or “I have sent the item and not been paid”
The mess they are making of the DSR system just now with sellers getting restricted for nothing is an example of how pear shaped it could become
were paypal only so in effect were already part of this ebay scheme
we jump thru the ebay/paypal hoops now,
No mention of fees for this service?
It is not like eBay to do extra work and take on extra responsibility without some sort of fee being levied on the seller.
And does the payment eventually go to paypal or directly to the seller bank account?
And what about part refunds? How will this affect sales manager and other eBay systems?
And so on. There is a lot more to this than simply looking after the payment.
Have ebay thought it all through?
Paypal has never enjoyed dominance in DE. So this makes a lot of sense. But, yes, what are the fees? 😉
“But, yes, what are the fees?”
Lol? I think your missing entirely why ebay are doing this . Have you any concept of how much money ebay will be holding at ANY given time (especially if this moves worldwide) and all the time ebay will be earning a very nice interest rate on it. 1-2% interest p/a – on lets say….30 million held by ebay at any time… do the maths – its time for ebay management to buy themselves ferrari’s