The news a few weeks back that eBay will be ditching Paypal as its default payments processor raised plenty of questions. It opens up the marketplace to a whole host of new options including Apple Pay and perhaps, even, Amazon payments. But there are key unanswered questions about how sellers might now receive their eBay payment disbursements.
The new payments processor Adyen is well respected and as we’ve reported before the new eBay payments service will be entirely “intermediated”. That means that it will be entirely within the eBay system and within their purview. You won’t even likely know that Adyen is involved.
PayPal isn’t perfect. It can be strict on holding funds on occasion and is certainly expensive. It is also not transparent about its fees structure and the discounts you can get if you sell in volume. (Have you applied for your Paypal Merchant Rate?)
But is does offer the benefit of instant funds. If you so choose, the money paid to PayPal can be transferred to your bank account every day so you can draw on those funds instantly and spend them accordingly. That’s a tremendous boost to cash flow and a very welcome feature for merchants. And from a private seller point of view as well it seems entirely correct, if you’re selling a few bits and pieces, that you can get your hands on the wedge as soon as you are paid.
But such instantaneous disbursements aren’t an industry standard. Indeed with Amazon, for instance, you can wait for weeks until you receive payment. And that’s not unusual with other marketplaces either.
So how will eBay payment disbursements be dealt with under the new regime? The answer is we simply just don’t know. Tamebay hope that instant disbursement of funds will be standard as stands with PayPal at the moment but there is no guarantee there.
What would you like to see?
23 Responses
Wait for weeks with Amazon? I hit withdraw and it’s in the bank the next day.
It used to be disbursed fortnightly, but any account that’s gone through verification should now have daily withdrawals enabled.
This move by Ebay is not without risk for them.
If they go down the delayed disbursement route they risk losing sellers.
It also remains to be seem whether Ebay buyers will sign up for the new payment system. Paypal has been the main payment option on Ebay for years and is free for buyers, relatively hassle free and offers additional protection (up to 300 days in some cases).
The only beneficiaries here are Ebay.
They and the stock market think this will boost their profits. It probably will. But if might see more sellers turn their backs and, worse still, could put buyers off.
With paypal we have the option of deciding when to withdraw funds. We get charged by our bank for transactions so we normally withdraw once a week, unless its peak season in which it can be 2 or 3 times. However if ebay were to go down the root of say instant payments, this could mean hundreds of transactions a day! Even once a days is a bit excessive for us, so a system where you could chose the frequency would good, but it still has to have flexibilty to change quickly in it as sometimes the business will need access to fund in out paypal account or what will become our ebay account very quickly without warning.
My fear is that ebay will hold funds for a period of a few weeks etc or until the buyer confirms they are happy, with a default over ride period as we all know that some buyers dont return to ebay for months! Not ideal if that money is needed by the business.
At the moment there are far too many questions and knowing ebay they won’t be answered until the system is up and running…. while they iron out the quirks and issues that could have been identified before if they had been proactive…. which sia term they have no clue about.
This move is only designed to benefit eBay, no company undertakes this much upheaval for the user, lets be realistic here.
As a UK seller, I have issues (despite best efforts and not requiring immediate payment) with overseas buyers being unable to use “add to basket” or find the request invoice link, so they over pay on postage and of course expect a refund once the combined postage is applied.
PayPal refund their fees to me on the refunded amount.
Ebay currently charge fees on the total, including the overpaid postage, and keep all their fees despite the refunded amount.
I am wondering if Adyen will:-
a) refund fees to me on refunded postage as Paypal do?
or
b) if the use of Adyen will see eBay start to refund fees on refunded postage too?
I am guessing fees on overpaid postage, despite it being an issue for many, will no longer be refunded by anyone after the change and eBay / Adyen will keep it all.
And if this is to be the case, eBay should start to make it easier for buyers to request combined postage instead of nigh on demanding that a buyer pays immediately………of course knowing that they keep the fees on any postage I refund
The glass is sadly half empty when dealing with eBay, never half full anymore.
Would like to see instant disbursements, if we get that I do not think many people will miss PayPal.
Some markets pay out every week, some every two weeks. Sometimes we need ready cash so it does effect the cash-flow, it is the one advantage of having to use PayPal.
Amazon Payments which are being used more and more on our site, is decent they have disbursements now in 24 hours.
Am wondering how it will effect eBay sales however, a lot of people will actually use the funds in their Paypal to buy again on eBay without it ever touching their bank accounts.
Anything with lower fees than PayPal has got to be better. If eBay hold onto your funds for weeks on end again I think they may shoot themselves in the already bullet ridden foot again.
Like Toby we withdraw Paypal funds once a week which suits our operation but can on occasions require funds sooner so a flexible system would be the preferred choice.
As you say Paypal is not perfect – we applied for the Merchant Rate back in October last year, after contacting them on a few subsequent occasions we were told they had problems with the system & were waiting for a fix but the rate applied would be backdated once fixed – we are still waiting ……..
We hope eBays approach will be flexible but only time will tell.
It occurs to me that Ebay sellers who use auctions could wait several days for tardy buyers to pay. And then with intermediation would have to wait another two weeks to be paid back by Ebay. I can’t see many casual sellers wanting this set-up.
But perhaps, knowing Ebay, they’d just bully the buyer into paying fast and thus alienate some buyers. Or drop auctions and insist on BINs all the way. And thus alienate other buyers.
Am not convinced this idea Ebay has stolen from Amazon will pan out in the way it thinks.
I know MANY casual and professional sellers in the antique and collectibles categories who use eBay and PayPal for quick turnover cash. NONE will wait for eBay “intermediation” payments, looks like Facebook and other social online sites will become the place to sell.
eBay is in real danger,,,,,, from eBay it’s self.
we will happily wait if the profits high enough or the fee is low enough
Like northumbrian, I am happy to wait, although that would depend on how long.
Fortunately we are in a position that we do not struggle with cash flow, but I would prefer access to my money when I want, should I need it.
I have experienced what it is like to run a business week by week trying to juggle cash flow, so fully understand some people do need quick access to funds..
I think I will wait to see what will actually happen.
crikey april fools day is near
the bugger almost agreed with me
Will “Johnny in the street” wait for his “intermediated payment” after just selling the contents of his tool box or grandma’s old clock?
What may seem inevitable to many online traders will seem alien and at worst money grabbing by some of the public.
Furthermore I know a few sellers who sell, on eBay only to fund a passion of buying. For instance a friend sells Lego and vintage toys he finds at car boots in order for him to fund his ever more expensive stamp collecting. With PayPal he has instant funds,,,,,, if he stops buying on ebay then stamp sellers have one customer less. Imagine this scenario across the global eBay platform in many various shapes and sizes.
We will stick with it until it doesn’t work for us, which is a day that seems to be approaching with ever increasing speed.
we recently had to open a case in our paypal account,
as shutl billed our paypal account for shipping ordered via ebay that we never ordered and had no knowledge of,
paypal refunded the payment with little hassle, even though shutl tried to blag their way out of it and insisted we had used the service
we wonder how ebay or adyen will perform in this situation
@alan Paterson
Apart from the petty schoolboy jibe at my name Alan, youve answered your own question my friend.
“What are SO MANY people……. being negative about eBay?”
Possibly due to the fact of what has gone on before Alan. It’s hardly rocket science, go figure.