eBay jacks up fees for Store listings
eBay has been wrestling with an important issue -- whether its Store listings should carry relatively low fees, yet appear in regular eBay search results.
Well apparently eBay decided today -- that it will increase fees on Store listings effective August 21, while its "core" listing formats, including Auction-style, Auction-style with Buy It Now, and Fixed Price, remain unchanged.
Here's the new fees. Will eBay will return Store listings to its regular search results? Stay tuned.
And here's the confusing, long-winded explanation from eBay's Bill Cobb, which he calls "Resetting the Balance of the eBay Marketplace."
The timing on this announcement is interesting, to say the least. The ad campaigns for eBay's Express fixed-price marketplace are just starting to run. Is Cobb admitting that Express was a blunder? Or is this just a smokescreen for sellers?
My hunch is that ads touting Express will continue straight through Christmastime -- on TV, in magazines, on billboards, atop taxicabs, and in cereal boxes. ChexMate!
The news isn't going over well with booksellers who've recently opened eBay Stores.
On the other hand, Cobb's announcement goes on to talk about the "unique challenges" these changes will mean for booksellers -- and that Half.com listings are going to be restored to eBay search results.
Wow! And I thought Half.com was toast...
posted by Steve Weber at 7/19/2006
11 Comments:
I plan to close my store. For a part time seller like myself it is really pointless to keep it open. I barely make any money.
I speculate that Ebay has lost faith in its Store format. Rather than close the program outright, they have decided to raise the fees and grab a short term gain from anyone who still thinks they can make a go of it. I further speculate that the Stores will all eventually be folded in Half.com.
Amazon on the other hand has been very good to me. It has most of the traffic and now charges less. Also, it is a heck of alot easier and faster to post a book for sale on Amazon.
Ebay still has the advantage with its picture services, so I plan to sell my collectable items via auction there. If an item doesn't sell via auction, I will post it to Half. If Ebay merchandises Half items this may be a good way to go for collectable books.
Ebay seems to really like shooting itself in the foot lately.
I will be closing my store as well. That’s just going to cost me too much. I will be lowering my prices hoping everything will sell by August 21st. It was difficult enough to use ebay to sell books. Now I see absolutely know reason to continue with ebay and I do believe this is going to hurt them in the long run. I have also been trying to use ebay express and so far that is just a complete joke.
“While eBay.com core listings typically sell in about two weeks, Store Inventory listings on average take 14 times longer to sell. In some media categories, Store Inventory listings take more than 40 times longer to sell than core listings.”
Then why not try to find ways to help them sell faster??
“And, when you compare our operations costs for an average Store Inventory listing and an average core listing – factoring in the duration of each – our cost to host a Store Inventory listing is more than 50% higher than for a core listing. In fact, current Store Inventory insertion fees don't cover eBay's costs for hosting them.”
You are basically storing electrons on a server somewhere, increase the size of the server.
Dave
I considered opening an eBay store recently. With Bill Cobb's announcement of increased fees, I reconsidered that choice very quickly.
I sell books on both Half.com and Alibris. I also sell stamps for collectors, old picture postcards and ephemera. Finding a buyer for such items on eBay requires patience and constant relisting. Any profits you can make on such items will evaporate very quickly if you have to go through several rounds of relisting before an item sells. Unfortunately there are precious few options for people like myself who have these items to sell.
I sell stuff on Ebay through auctions and a store. I don't sell books. I'll continue even with the increased fees. Translation for Bill Cobb's pathetic convoluted explanation for the increases: "We are greedy, and we want more of your money". Who's he trying to kid.
If you have 500 or less items in your store you are already paying over five cents a listing per month. 500 listings per month at two cents cost $10.00 per month plus basic store fee of $15.95 a month. Lets see $25.95 divided by 500 listings equals 5.2 cents per listing! The reason I opened a store and paid the monthly fee was so I could list items for 2 cents! Under the new format my cost per listing will rise to 450 items at .05 cents per month and 50 listings at .10 cents per month plus basic store fee. After doing some math my new cost per item listed is $22.50 (5c listings) plus $5.00 (10c listings) plus $15.95 store fee per month. Thats $43.45 divided by 500 listings equals 8.7 cents per listing or about a 60% increase in fees not to mention the additional 2% I will lose once the items sells! Take the other 2% into account that I will be losing on the other side of the equation (final value fees increasing) the actual increase is probalbly over 70%!! All I can say is way to go ebay, watch you stock plummet, already noticed a mass exit of store listings, any other bright ideas ebay? No sellers equals no buyers equals less money in your big wigs pocket!
Well ebay has done it again, they must not respect there buyers or sellers, They think everyone is a fool. You would have to be a idiot not to think that prices of things rise, they do but at the same time there is a limit. When you are a company that is going down hill with drooping revenues the last thing you want to do is raise your prices. As a seller I have a choice pass the increase onto the customer or close the store. There are way to many choices on the net today that were not around in 1995 to sell, they may be specialized such as books or music and not general like ebay, but I have had to pass way to many increases onto my customers, this time the looser is ebay my store will close on Aug 21, 2006 and will not re-open until ebay lowers it’s prices, they don’t lower them I keep the store closed, simple as that by my math that’s a lost for ebay. I make my money elsewhere and give my fees elsewhere. Ebay has to realize when you created a business biased on selling junk, what do you expect.
being a seller on half.com, this news makes me quite happy that half.com listings are going to be visable on ebay searches starting August. I think that will really help out my sales.
Don't you think Half.Com will be initiating a monthly fee very soon, i.e., as soon as the migration from eBay stores to HC is completed?
A monthly fee at Half.com? They've got a long, long way before they can justify charging a monthly fee. Sales volume there is probably 20 percent of what it was three or four years ago.
There's nothing I'd rather see than a serious competitor to Amazon. Then a fee would be worth paying, but not until then.
In hindsight, eBay should have integrated half.com more with eBay. This Express thing has been the biggest fiasco imaginable.
Isn't going over well is an understatement. As a ten year ebay seller, powerseller, I feel COMPLETLY betrayed by ebay. The fee hike is bad enough by itself for media sellers. But ebay has ALWAYS had a rule that you don't mess with the site from August to December, the all important christmas selling season where most of us generate our revenue. This was the ultimate slap in the face to loyal ebay sellers.
The claim that they want quick turnover of merchandise is a crock. eBay has, at BEST, a 40% sell-thru rate. They aren't interested in selling, they are interested in LISTING. They make $$ whether or not the items sell. If they wanted sell through rates, simply put stores BACK INTO MAIN EBAY SEARCH. Sales SKYROCKETED when they were in search. Instead, they are now lowering store exposure even more, by downgrading exposure in Ebay Express to under BINS and Fixed Price Auctions.
Ebay doesn't care about sales. They only care about listings. And the only way for them to get the message is for sellers to stop listing there and start listing elsewhere. I'm lucky--I diversified my venues in March, so ebay only accounts for 20% of my revenues. (otherwise i might be jumping out a window right now).
And the half-baked suggestion that we all go list on half.com is a huge joke. As a seller, many ISBNs are not in their catalog, nor are any pre-ISBNs. You cannot put your items there because, unlike Amazon, you cannot create a page for the catalog. and as half.com buyer, I am furious with the site, because I am still trying to get a refund for a non-delivered book i ordered MAY 28th (it's now July 22nd). Two MONTHS and I still don't have my money back (a direct violation of FTC law that states a seller has 30 days to cough up the goods or the money unless you agree to wait longer, and I most assuredly DID NOT agree to that). And when I suggested to half that I was going to do a chargeback if I don't get my $$ soon, they told me they have a corporate policy of suspending users who do chargebacks from buying or selling. (Hmmm, maybe Mastercard and Visa would like to know that they are threatening people who choose to excercise their consumer rights). It will be a cold day in hell before i buy on half.com again, so I certainly am not going to tell my customers to go buy over there.
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