
05-27-2014 10:36 AM
Ebay will change rules on June 1st 2014 : http://announcements.ebay.ca/2014/04/30/7598/
Auctions are not the good way for me to sell on ebay.
As seller, but also as a buyer I much prefer the fixed price items.
Am I the only one who is not happy by this change of rules that do not correspond at all to my needs as ebay member ?
I am very demotivated by this change.
05-27-2014 10:45 AM
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.
05-27-2014 10:45 AM
05-27-2014 11:00 AM
05-27-2014 11:06 AM
05-27-2014 11:07 AM
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?
05-27-2014 11:09 AM
05-27-2014 11:10 AM
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...
05-27-2014 12:05 PM
05-27-2014 12:12 PM
If you keep TRS, you'd need $2500/month sales for the FVF savings to pay for the monthly store subscription. Little less if you commit to a year, but the early cancellation penalty is severe. If you keep listing the same as you have now, it looks like about a wash to go with a store, or not if have to pay for each listing. Of course we don't know what if anything will happen to the frequent promos
At your size you are really hurt by this change. I doubt you'd want to do .99 start auctions, don't know if high start price auctions would work. You could try having a store sometimes. Subscribe for the first partial month and next month. Just before it ends end and relist everything and cancel the store so it stay listed for the next month without a store fee.
05-27-2014 12:37 PM
"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.
05-27-2014 01:04 PM
05-27-2014 01:13 PM
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.
05-27-2014 01:18 PM
"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.
05-27-2014 02:26 PM - edited 05-27-2014 02:27 PM
@martinw819 wrote:
Pierre, what does your mind say for the small seller like me who have less than 50 fixed price listings per month ?
With a store on a yearly base, it'll cost me $ 191 additional fee per year.
I must make a profit to be interested in selling.
I think toby**bleep**zu understands my situation.
I believe the $191 yearly you mention above is the 15.95 basic store plan on a year subscription.
Non-store FVF rate is a flat 10%. A store FVF rate is 9% or less (to 4%) depending on the eBay category you list in.
You must remember that each sale saves at least 1% in FVF rates for a store owner. So if you have $500 in sales (+ shipping costs) monthly with 1% FVF savings, you saved $5 in FVFs which offsets the store monthly fee cost. So the $15.95 costs you $10.95.
Please note that eBay charges FVF on the item price and the listing shipping cost used by eBay (complicated rules for the amount charged for shipping FVF but assume they are the same as the category FVF rate).
The store monthly fee is paid for in part by the amount of sales.
The break point for when the store monthly FVF saving of 1% is fully paid paid for is $1995 sales (+ shipping) at $19.95 monthly and $1595 sales (+ shipping) at $15.95 monthly store fee (year plan). It is less if you save more than 1%.
PS I do not know where toby got the $2500 figure. I get must less for break points for store to pay for monthly fee in FVF savings. Can someone confirm which is correct?
05-27-2014 02:33 PM - edited 05-27-2014 02:36 PM
I have been thinking about a store for awhile. Just have had some concerns
How does my items get displayed?
Does the buyer actually have to go to my store to find my items?
Does my listing still show up on searches , just the same as if I didnt have a store?
I already recieve 20% discount without the store. Do I lose this if I decide to now go to a store?
05-27-2014 02:41 PM
Op is top rated so the discount for a store is only 0.8%
05-27-2014 02:44 PM
Browsing customers see your items exactly as they do without a store.
You can however move your browsers more easily to your other items. You can also organize those items in up to 300 categories.
The 20% is your TRS discount? That won't change, but as explained above you will have other discounts as well, particularly on FVF.
05-27-2014 02:54 PM
05-27-2014 03:02 PM
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.