Ebay Ditches Listing Fees, Lowers Rates To Compete With Amazon Marketplace
Online selling platform Ebay has announced a new fee structure aimed at competing with Amazon and its burgeoning sellers market.
For the first time in its history, Ebay will offer free listings for its non-stores and stores platforms. The company has also lowered its fees structure while making those fees easier for sellers to understand.
Under Ebay’s old system non-stores were charged $0.50 for fixed-price listings and then were forced to pay into “tranches” which charged final value fees based on the price of the item. Those tranches did not include a cap, which meant sellers were forced to pay higher fees for very expensive items.
Under the new setup, non-store pricing involves only a flat rate of 10 percent, which is capped at $250. Non-store sellers can list up to 50 items with no insertion fees if they list those items as auction-only or buy-in-now items. Non-store users are charged a $.30 per listing fee after reaching their 50 listings limit.
Merchants, in the meantime, will now receive a discount on their yearly subscription fees and will be allowed to list up to 2,500 items per month with no insertion fees. Free listings for buy it now or auction type listings are now based on store level. Ebay’s past system did not allow for any free listenings via store members.
Rather than relying on tranches for final valuations, Ebay has announced a chart of simple percentages based on item type and Plus discounts. The full fee structure can be seen here.
In announcing its new fee structure, Ebay posted a chart that compares its own fee structure against that of the Amazon seller’s market:
Ebay’s marketplace business posted a record $2 billion in revenue in Q4 2012, and active user growth increased after Ebay improved its mobile platform. This newest push toward lower seller pricing, and no listing fees appears to be a pre-emptive strike on behalf of eBay.
Will you sell more items on Ebay now that the websites fees have been lowered?
