eBay have expanded the eBay Authenticate service, which launched officially launched in October 2017 after it’s announcement back in January of the same year. The service has been expanded to include the luxury watch category. The aim is to enable buyers to shop quickly and confidently knowing that their purchases will be as described and authentic items.
“eBay has the largest selection of luxury goods – from rare and designer handbags to fine wristwatches – and we know this community wants an added layer of trust and confidence when buying in these categories. We’re adding third-party authentication to this inventory because we know the importance buyers place on trust for high-value purchases.”
– James Hendy, Senior Director, eBay Authenticate
At launch, the service only catered for luxury handbags and the proposition is that a seller will ship their handbag to an expert (with free shipping). Industry experts verify the handbag’s authenticity, photograph, list, sell, and ship the handbag to its buyer at which point the seller receives 80% of the final selling price with the expert taking 20% commission.
Shoppers can browse an authenticated selection of over 30 luxury watch brands, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Breitling and Panerai, at eBay.com/authentic/watches. The watches are verified by third-party authentication experts and sourced through select, top-rated eBay sellers. Nearly 7,000 watches are available at launch globally, adding to the thousands of handbags currently listed through the service. With new styles added daily ranging in price from $500 to upwards of $50,000, the program is expected to grow to nearly 10,000 luxury watches in the coming weeks.
There are specific landing pages on eBay for both authenticated luxury handbags and for authenticated luxury watches.
The program isn’t limited to consumer sellers – business sellers have also been invited to participate. If you’re selling luxury handbags or watches on eBay.com it may be something to consider. On the plus side, once you item has been authenticated and sold you receive payment and keep it. If a buyer returns an item, independent experts will process the return and the item becomes their property. It’s a nice way of sidestepping returns, but what you lose control of is the selling price and you have to give up 20% of the revenue to the expert.
It would be nice to know if the ‘Authenticity verified’ badge increases selling prices to make the 20% fee worthwhile but we’ve not seen any statistics either way. It’s worth remembering that if you simply listed and sold the item yourself you’d be paying eBay fees of around 10% as well as PayPal fees.
