Is eBay going to reduce their selling fees?

[jhm99]

I am wondering how eBay will respond to the fact that a competitor has gotten rid of all their selling fees.  Seems like at the very least a reduction is in order...

[luckythewinner]

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@jhm99 wrote:

 I asked how people thought eBay would respond to the strategy. 

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No you actually didn't. 

Your title asks specifically whether eBay would reduce their fees, not "how they would respond".

Then your post says you are "wondering" how eBay would respond, but does not actually ask a question.

That aside ...

To answer your specific question - no, I do not think eBay will reduce their fees.

To answer your followup question - I do not think eBay will respond to Mercari's change. Especially if they suspect that Mercari's move was made out of desperation.

[heckofagame]

eBay will probably make a lowball offer to buy Mercari. They like to absorb stuff. 

[jhm99]

@luckythewinner I am not sure why you feel the need to pick apart my post.  If you can't figure out how obvious it is that my question had nothing to do with the competitor's actions, and everything to do with eBay's response, then maybe this forum isn't elementary enough for you.

[inhawaii]

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@jhm99 wrote:

I'm glad people are willing to share their opinions, but I didn't ask what people thought of said competitor's strategy.  I asked how people thought eBay would respond to the strategy. 

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They wont do a darn thing.

[lonebuck-books]

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@solidguitar1961 wrote:

We will see how that works out for Mercari . I don't think the buyers are going to be happy with all those fees dumped on them.

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Actually buyers won't be happy seeing the fees that will be dumped on them.  They have always been paying them, they just didn't see them.  Kind like how free shipping isn't free.  Buyers don't like seeing the costs involved in selling, they just like seeing a single number and thinking that sellers are just eating those fees and not passing them on.

[ulfesharpe]

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@jhm99 wrote:

I don't think I'm allowed to mention competitor's names

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Why not? Competition is a good thing for customers, isn't it? In our case, we get multiple competitors on the listings pages we've paid for.

[crazystuff4sale]

Ebay has a history of adjusting seller fees in certain categories to compete with other marketplaces when there is a real competition to hold a market share of the sellers. Example: In the the musical instrument/guitars category ebay significantly reduced fees then later raised fees a little in response to a competing marketplace.

However I don't think this one will have enough impact on the market to get an ebay response.

Also I'm surprised nobody mentioned ebay doing away with private seller fees on some of their European sites.

Forgot to mention ebay's return policy requirement for TRS+ in some categories and the MBG policy for trading cards appear to be influenced by competing marketplaces.

[ckimodog]

@jhm99 

I seriously doubt it, but it's a good thought to hold & hope for.

Happy Selling. 

[powell-memorabilia]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

 Companies rise and fall as it happens all the time.

Just a matter of time for this competitor to start charging or go bust.

This competitor is trying to attract new sellers and buyers. 

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Just sellers, I think. The average quality quality of listings on Mercari is pretty low. Sure, I think that a lot of sellers will sign up to sell on Mercari. But there will be a painful. Where there are less sales as sellers that they will need to lower their prices to be competitive. I don’t expect it to work well, but, theoretically, sellers would make on Mercari what they make on eBay, commensurate with the traffic.  Basically, Mercari is trying to steal sellers from other venues, and Hoping that sales follow.

[lakefor94]

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@jhm99 wrote:

I am wondering how eBay will respond to the fact that a competitor has gotten rid of all their selling fees.  Seems like at the very least a reduction is in order...

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No, eBay will not reduce selling fees.

[yuzuha]

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@powell-memorabilia wrote:

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 Basically, Mercari is trying to steal sellers from other venues, and Hoping that sales follow.

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The irony is that a whole bunch of people I know who used to sell on Mercari have actually packed up and moved over here.

[1786davycrockett]

@jhm99 

Sure, eBay will reduce their selling fees. . ..

When James Dean is elected President of the United States, with Amelia Earhart as his Vice President.

[dbfolks166mt]

     The competitor did not get rid of the fees they just shifted the burden. You can be pretty sure that if eBay were to make a change such as a fee reduction they would find some other way to maintain, or increase, their revenue. The whole implementation of promoted listings probably staved off an across the board fee increase for the last several years. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@jhm99 wrote:

I am wondering how eBay will respond to the fact that a competitor has gotten rid of all their selling fees.  Seems like at the very least a reduction is in order...

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@jhm99  here's a thread where we have already been discussing the changes Mercari made, including seller thoughts on both how it might impact Mercari and how eBay might respond.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Another-Competitor-Makes-Some-Big-Changes/m-p/34373213/highlig...

Depop also did the same thing in the UK about a week before Mercari, also passing some of the fees on to buyers directly.

As far as how eBay might respond - they've already started to by introducing fee-free selling for clothing for private (non-business) sellers in the UK - notably without passing fees on to buyers.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-UK-Goes-Permanently-Fee-Free-For-Private-Clothing-Sellers...

As discussed there, eBay has for the last few months been pivoting their strategy back to include the broader consumer-seller (C2C) base, not doing away with all efforts for verticals like sneakers, watches, handbags, trading cards, and car parts, but just widening the focus.

eBay got rid of selling fees for private sellers in Germany across all categories last year, again without passing fees on to buyers and the UK announcement shows they are working on finding ways to adapt what is working in some place to other markets.

While it may not end up being the same as what they have done in UK and Germany, I expect we will see some kind of similar C2C initiatives for the US later this year, as several recent eBay job postings make it clear it's a global strategy shift and they are looking for people/ideas for the US market as well.

Targeting the fee-free offerings to private sellers allows eBay to limit their financial exposure/risk so they don't have to pass fees on to buyers and I expect if something similar comes to the US, it will also similarly be limited in some way.

[kelekt]

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@lonebuck-books wrote:

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Actually buyers won't be happy seeing the fees that will be dumped on them.  They have always been paying them, they just didn't see them.  Kind like how free shipping isn't free.  Buyers don't like seeing the costs involved in selling, they just like seeing a single number and thinking that sellers are just eating those fees and not passing them on.

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I prefer buyers see the fees and pay Ebay directly for those fees...that way they can be p*ss*d off at Ebay about prices (as they should be in most cases) instead of sellers. Truth hurts but I'd rather it hurt the fat cats at the top than those of us working our fingers to the bone to scrape by 😉