Over the years eBay has modified its policies towards listing fees.
Once upon a time, back in the last century!, about half the fees we paid were at time of listing (listing fees, picture (gallery) fees, etc...) Now, listing fees account for a very small percentage of the overall fees paid by sellers to eBay.
For sellers like yourself who prefer to list at fixed price (and most sellers agree with you as more than 85% of all listings on eBay are at fixed price, not auction) the best option is to open an eBay store ($20 month; cheaper if you commit for a year).
Take a look: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/storefees.html
With an eBay store, you get more "free" listings but, more importantly, you pay lower FVF. That saving alone may pay for your monthly store fee.
This change was coming 14 months ago. They want all sellers to have a store and pay a monthly fee.
That is one way of thinking. I find that store is a lot less work. Hours a week less work.
$20 buys you 200 listings a month with features. You should still get promos for auctions on top of that.
My store keeps my listings in front of people 24/7. One sale a month pays for my store.
I pay 20% less FVF fees because of my store.
$20 buys you 200 listings a month with features. You should still get promos for auctions on top of that.
My store keeps my listings in front of people 24/7. One sale a month pays for my store.
I pay 20% less FVF fees because of my store.
You will need to do the calculation yourself based on the categories you use. As you can see from the fee page, fees vary depending on the category.
For example, if you sell coins or postage stamps to collectors, you pay 10% selling at fixed price without a store. If you have a store, FVF drop to 6% only. It does not take very long to pay for the store monthly fees, does it?
Plus, my store prices are 50-100% higher than any auction price I can ever get.
In addition, keep in mind that you get a lot of extra tools when you have a store. I could not go without the Markdown Manager or the email marketing tool, the ability to put your listings "on vacation" for a few days or weeks, traffic reports, etc...
"force me to take a ebay store"
???
Not really, nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. It is a business decision. eBay simply removed the incentive (free listings) available to sellers of fixed price listings without a store and gave extra incentive to those willing to list at auction.
There is no question in my mind that anyone with more than 50 fixed price listings every month will benefit from having an eBay store. It is not just the "free listings" but the lower FVF and tools you can use.
eBay does not want small sellers like you. For that, there is Kijiji. That is their opinion.
Their business model is changing. When they announced the store pricing changes in March 2013, that was the same as announcing this change. eBay announces changes a year ahead, ya just need to read between the lines and follow the changes.
Mark this down, they are going to further marginalize non-store owners, over time. Maybe with the fall announcement, but, certainly with nest spring's announcements.
"who have less than 50 fixed price listings per month"
I see 73 completed listings in the last month. As such a store is well worth it.
For casual sellers with fewer than 50 listings a month, "pay as you go" may be the correct approach.
At $0.05 to $0.30 per fixed price listing (depending on category), it may cost the casual seller $6.00 a month to list 20 items on eBay. That is a lot of exposure for $6.00; a lot cheaper than the local newspaper or a table at the flea market.
The math is wrong. In my category FVF is 10% I believe. With a store it drops to 8%. That is a twenty (20%) decline, not 2.
If I did not have a store, my volume would be 1/10th of what it is, at prices half of what they are.
What will continue to change, is that non-store sellers will see fewer and fewer promos, categories will be restricted, possibly an increase in fees.
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