eBay further reduce unpaid item incidents

In their September 2023 Seller Release, eBay announced changes to reduce unpaid item incidents. They have upped the price threshold for Buy It Now items that require immediate payment. This update allows you to sell higher-priced Buy It Now items, and ensures that buyers are required to provide a payment method during checkout to secure their item.

In the coming months eBay will also require buyers to add a payment method when making offers on Best Offer listings. After you accept the offer, we’ll automatically charge the buyer’s chosen payment method so they won’t have to return to eBay to complete their purchase.

These changes will be automatically applied to buyer offers, so you don’t need to update or make changes to your Best Offer listings. eBay also plan to launch similar changes for: send offer to buyers, buyer counter offers, and auctions to further improve the experience for sellers.

The Cons

Essentially, there’s a small road bump coming, adding some friction to the Best Offer buying process which will force them to add payment details in advance of making a offer. For many who already shop on eBay, this will be a single click to say they want to be charged via a stored card or perhaps via PayPal.

The other disadvantage is that sellers will be unable to offer combined shipping on multiple items. eBay say that they are working on a solution for this, but in the meantime sellers can refund excess postage if needed (although you won’t get a refund on fees for a partial refund!)

The Big Pro

For Sellers, this is a massive benefit as when you receive an offer it will come with a green tick assuring you that the moment you accept you’ll get paid. This means you can immediately prepare the item for shipping, get it out of the door and have the money banked ready to reinvest in your business.

Send offers in bulk

Now you know you’re going to get paid for best offers, you’ll be pleased to hear that eBay have enabled you to send offers to buyers for multiple listings at the same time on the eBay app. In the past, you could only send offers for your listings one by one. Now, you can save time on the go, target interested buyers, and boost your conversion rate by quickly sending offers for multiple listings.

Auctions

eBay are currently testing similar solutions in auctions that require buyers to provide payment information before they submit bids on your listings. eBay will then attempt to charge the winning bidder’s payment at the completion of the auction, and you can expect fewer unpaid items on items sold through auctions as they scale the programme.