eBay have a not so loving Valentines Day treat for their Australian sellers – A pricing update comes into effect on the 14th of February 2017.
eBay Australia disincentivise Auction Style Format
eBay Australia are jacking the insertion fee for an auction up from $1 to $3 for items with a start price of up to $100. Tripling the fee for low value items is tempered with a 50c reduction down from $3.50 to $3 for items with start prices over $100. The exception is for items listed in the collectibles category where fees won’t change.
eBay say “We have worked hard to streamline the pricing structure of auctions for our store sellers so that there is one rather than two prices, especially for categories that convert better using the Buy It Now function”.
Whilst changes in Australia don’t always make their way to Europe or the US, this is a very clear message that auctions don’t work very well for most product categories. If you run auctions in categories other than the collectibles category you should take this as a clear sign from eBay that it’s worth experimenting with fixed price listings instead.
eBay Australia Final Value Fee Cap Raised
The cap on Final Value Fees per item will increase from $250 to $400. This will only affect you if some of the items you sell realise final values of $2,630 or higher. Still it’s a price increase for some sellers which is never a welcome change.
eBay Australia Final Value Fee increases
If you have a Basic Store on eBay Australia then after the 14th of February your Final Value Fees will remain at the same level as today. However those with Featured or Anchor Stores will see Final Value Fees rise and will pay between an additional 0.2% and 0.8% depending on the category items are sold in.
eBay Australia Free Fixed Price Listing Entitlements
eBay have upped the number of free listings for Australian Store subscribers. Basic shops will now get 600 free listings (up from 200) and Featured Store subscribers will have 1,500 free listings (up from 500). Anchor stores already came with unlimited free Fixed Price Listings and that remains in place.
What should we expect in the UK Spring Seller Release?
It’s worth remembering two things: eBay Australia is a very different market to eBay UK and but eBay have just seen eBay Australia carry on the marketplace’s policy of encouraging a change in seller behaviour by changing their fees.
If eBay don’t like what you’re doing they’ll penalise you with higher fees as they’ve just done for eBay Australia Auctions. Equally if eBay want you to do something differently they’ll offer an inducement for you to change your business practices which we’ve just seen with an increase in the number of free fixed price listing insertions available each month.
We don’t know what eBay’s plans are for the Northern hemisphere, but last year they announced their Spring Seller Release relatively late on the 5th of April, we’d expect an eBay Seller Update by then at the latest.
