Additional monthly zero insertion fee listings for most sellers

[coffeebean832]

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/We-re-increasing-monthly-zero-insertion-fee-listings-for...

Effective August 1, 2020, we are updating our selling fees with additional permanent zero monthly insertion fee listings so that you can continue to introduce, test, and sell new inventory. These changes will be available to all eBay sellers, and you don’t need to take any action.

This Spring, we announced free listings promotions, which proved to be a powerful and effective tool in the challenging COVID-19 environment. We want to help you keep this positive momentum going.

The number of additional monthly zero insertion fee listings sellers will receive are determined by their eBay Store subscription levels. Sellers who have been invited and signed up for managed payments will receive additional monthly zero insertion fee listings in select categories.

For all of the details on this change, please visit the Seller Center.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/insertion-fees-update.html

 

  

[chapeau-noir]

This is great news for we little starter stores! 

(I'm also seeing how the new format works since it seems to be fixed now)

[coffeebean832]

I hate to complain, but the list of "select categories" doesn't include some major categories- and there's no change to the number of fixed listings for a premium store except in those select categories.

Premium is the level that's always neglected because it doesn't come with enough listings and the leap to Anchor is financially huge.

I'm grateful to eBay for making some increases on the number of listings- but sadly it won't help sellers like me.

[nobody*s_perfect]

As the chart shows, a Starter Store subscription will still get you only 50 more free insertions compared to not having a store at all.  If 200 free insertions is enough, you could consider dropping the subscription (unless the other benefits make it worthwhile).

[coffeebean832]

This is eBay's posted reason for restricting the categories:

We carefully evaluated seller feedback to our recent listings promotions and saw an overwhelming positive response in these categories. Our  sellers brought relevant inventory that buyers were searching for in these categories. We want to make it easy for sellers to continue to bring the inventory that our buyers are searching for and we've decided to make these changes permanent. We'll continue to monitor the response and make adjustments as we identify new opportunities to improve the monthly listings benefit.

[debbe4ever]

Yep, for Premium stores who sell primarily in Toys & Hobbies but NOT that "select category". it's pretty much a big ho hum.

I still fail to understand why they absolutely refuse to change the stores auctions to ANY category.

[coffeebean832]

@Anonymous- I’m not typically the person that complains when we get more bang for our buck- but the newly announced listing increases have neglected Premium store subscribers.

I don’t list much in the select categories seeing increases- and the number of fixed Premium listings is unchanged. The financial jump from Premium to Anchor is massive and it’s frustrating to see all of these big increases and almost none of them will apply to me.

Having said that- and I hope you’ll escalate that feedback- I have a question.

When a seller lists something in one of the select categories that saw an increase- will that come from the “additional” allotment or will it come from the base fixed price allotment?

For example- a Premium store seller has 1,600 listings. 100 are in one of the select categories, but those listings renew early in the month before the 1,000 limit is reached. Will those 100 listings come off the 1,000 fixed limit or will they come off the additional allotment?

[shellhut]

I haven't gotten any promotions with the 200 Free and didn't get this one.  I don't understand why they eliminate a seller that has been here since 2005 and with 100% feedback.  Certainly unfair!

[debbe4ever]

The 200 free were for ALL non stores. It wasn't a normal "promotion" where only certain sellers got it. Same as this new free insertions line up is for all sellers, based purely on their store levels (or no store).

There would be no way you didn't get the free extra 200 per month.

[chapeau-noir]

I use other store benefits and like to have the categories (I have a lot of repeat buyers who like to shop my store).  If by some miracle I manage to find enough inventory to keep a larger amount seasonally I'll probably go to a basic store.

The extra listings do not cover fashion, but I also sell computer peripherals, bike parts and media.

[shellhut]

Trenton@ebay Yes Trenton I have all of my Communications Promotions and survey's checked.  I haven't gotten any promotions in the last year. 

[shellhut]

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@debbe4ever wrote:

The 200 free were for ALL non stores. It wasn't a normal "promotion" where only certain sellers got it. Same as this new free insertions line up is for all sellers, based purely on their store levels (or no store).

There would be no way you didn't get the free extra 200 per month.

---

I didn't get it.  NO emails, no messages to get it.  Nothing!  I didn't get the last 3 months of 200 free either.

[slippinjimmy]

ALL sellers without a Store got the 200 extra for April, May, June & July, there were absolutely no exceptions that I know over (maybe Below Standard?). There were notices, pop ups, announcements and it appeared in the Promotion area of the Seller Hub. The April one had to be activated, the May, June & July extension needed a single activation.

[moo*cow*corner]

The gods of Ebay givith, and the gods of ebay taketh away.

I may have missed this earlier, but according to this link in the original announcement... 

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/run-your-store/subscriptions-and-fees.html#m22_tb_a2__2

Under the discounts section...as of July 18, all MP sellers with store subscriptions below Anchor level will lose the $30 per quarter promoted listings credit. Anchor and Enterprise store level MP sellers will get a measly $25/quarter credit.

I think I'd have rather had that credit continue than to get extra listings in categories I don't even sell in, yanno?

After the new listing qtys. go into effect in August, maybe they will bother to update the page. Maybe.

[wastingtime101]

Don’t worry about promoted listings credits. Those aren’t changing yet - Anchor/Enterprise are the only stores that ever got a $25 credit. The $30 credit is tied to TRS status, not store level (link).

I can see these massive listing increases for media and sports card categories, and even stamps, because they rely on volume and often sell for pennies profit margin - and media has higher fees, too. Giving this to sellers in Managed Payments is (in my opinion) eBay's response to those sellers losing the option of PayPal's micropayments plan. They get a break on listing fees and store fees since many will be able to downgrade. That offsets some of the fee increase they'll see switching to MP.

What I don’t understand is why some other categories were included like Collectibles? I'm happy for Collectibles sellers, but confused nonetheless. If eBay’s reason for the category list is really about what performed well the past few months then why are party supplies included when people were supposed to be distancing - and why were toys/games not included when people went nuts buying up all the puzzles, board games and toys for their kids? I don't buy the reason in the FAQ for the reason they chose these categories.

Premium store level is like the middle class, always getting the raw end of the deal. The jump to Anchor is huge and every level below Premium saw increases on their standard allotment of fixed listings. This was promoted as a great change and increase for most sellers, but I think it sticks out like a sore thumb that Premium was totally neglected and didn’t get any kind of increase. Give Premiums 200 additional fixed and make it balanced.