eBay Germany Managed Payments launched

eBay have announced that eBay Germany Managed Payments have launched with the first few sellers going live in the past few days. eBay S.à r.l., has been authorized in Luxembourg as a payments institution and is providing the payment service in Germany.

Germany is only the second country that eBay Managed Payments have launched in, partly as the initial roll out has been a relatively slow test phase but mainly because the operating agreement agreed with PayPal when the two business units split limited the speed with which they could build a replacement. Up until July this year, eBay were limited to intermediating 5% of GMV in just one country. Now, until July 2020, eBay have a little more flexibility being able to intermediate up to 10% of GMV in two countries.

eBay expects to have transitioned a majority of sellers to managed payments by the end of 2021. In the US thousands of sellers are now enabled for managed payments and the end of the second quarter of 2019 $636M in GMV had been processed through the new system.

eBay are touting the normal benefits of managed payments – more flexibility and choice of payment options for buyers and (for the majority of sellers) lower fees and the ability to manage all of their finances on eBay in a single place. There is also the added benefit that sellers enrolled in eBay Managed Payments will never again be exposed to the eBay PayPal payment email hack through which sellers have reported losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“Managed payments will significantly simplify the customer experience for both buyers and sellers on eBay. This is particularly important in a market like Germany where customers place a high value on a convenient and seamless shopping experience, including a preference for a variety of payment options. Managed payments is one of the key pillars of our ongoing evolution to create a more managed marketplace – with the other two key pillars being the further expansion of the eBay catalogue to structure our data better and make it easier for buyers to find what they are looking for and the development of Managed Delivery to provide shoppers faster and more reliable delivery of items.”
– Eben Sermon, Vice President, eBay Germany

eBay Germany Managed Payments to include Direct Debit

It’s worth noting the eBay Germany Managed Payments is being viewed within the company not just as an extension of the US roll out, but also as a test bed with a view to a different regulatory environment and for expansion of the number of payment methods on offer.

“Bringing our managed payments experience to Germany will provide a diverse testing ground for more payment methods as we expand globally.”
– Alyssa Cutright, Vice President of Global Payments, Billing & Risk, eBay

eBay have already rolled out new payment options for buyers under their managed payments program in the US. Now in Germany, in addition to credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal, eBay Germany Managed Payments will also offer direct debit payments – a favourite method of payment by German consumers.

eBay Germany Managed Payments benefits

eBay have set out the benefits they see eBay Germany Managed Payments bringing to the marketplace for both buyers and sellers:

For buyers

• Greater choice and a more relevant set of payment options at checkout.eBay will offer buyers in Germany a variety of payment options, including credit card, direct debit, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal.
• A seamless checkout experience regardless of the way a buyer pays. By offering managed payments, eBay is able to deliver a more streamlined experience through the entire purchase and post-order process.
• Eligible purchases made in the new payments experience are covered by Buyer Protection, independent of payment method used.

For sellers

• A central place to manage their business. Sellers will experience easier account management with all information about their eBay business, inclusive of payments information, in one place so that sellers can easily track and manage all of their transactions and customer interactions on eBay.
• Lower costs and more control of their economics. Most sellers can expect their costs of payments processing to be reduced with the new payments experience. They will benefit from a simplified pricing structure.
• Fast, direct payouts. Sellers will no longer be paid from buyers. Instead, payouts will be sent from eBay directly to seller’ bank accounts.

Sign up for eBay Germany Managed Payments

eBay have initially hand selected sellers to invite to enrol in eBay Germany Managed Payments, picking sellers for whom they believe the program will be advantageous. If you sell on eBay Germany and would like to be considered as an early adopter, you can express you interest here.