Ditto on thanking everyone for the feedback you have provided. As a result everyone is a little smarter.
I am a new seller as of Jan 24th, 2020 and I do not have any degrees in accounting or financing. However, below are a few tidbits I have found to be true for eBay selling.
First, the disclosure on my sales breakdown:
Net selling: 21%
eBay fees: 11%
Paypal fees: 3%
Shipping fees: 8%
Note: The reason why my percentages do not add up is because eBay rounds up the percentage displayed as to where I have actually calculated my own percentage from the actual total fees.
As mentioned, I do not hold a degree in accounting or finance, but I am a spreadsheet geek. And from the onset of starting my eBay seller's account, I wanted to load my spreadsheet with every single nuance regarding fees. I often (and I must confess to the point of being obsessed) check to make sure my projected fees match those fees from eBay, even prior to eBay putting them out on an invoice. And thus far it has been 99.99% accurate, if not spot on. Every now and then I get a surprise charge and I strive to learn as much as I can about it and where it comes from.
Regarding the original post question, I'm sure you can improve your selling costs – depending on what you are selling and how you are selling it. One of the many examples I have in mind to illustrate such a point is that of Paypal fees.
When I started selling on eBay, I made the business decision to only sell and ship to the U.S. Market so that I can keep a tight grip on all the fees that are implemented on my sales. With such a business model, it would be logical to assume that one would only be subject to Paypal's 2.9% + $0.30 fee, right?
Wroooong! Thanks for playing, try again. Sometimes one gets charged 4.4% + Other nebulous cents amount. Not because Paypal wants to cheat you, but because your customers want to get the most value for their buck. And who can blame them it is fair and legal.
Here is how this works, do you recall I mentioned that I only sell and ship to the U.S. Market? Well, that doesn't stop a potential customer, from say...Canada (pretty smart looneys!), to purchase from you and have their purchased item shipped to a friend's address within the U.S.. Nothing wrong so far there – friends just helping out friends. However, the Canadian buyer paid with his Canadian denomination Paypay account. Now, you just incurred a new unexpected Paypal fee, a 4.4% fee for international sales PLUS a nebulous exchange rate fee that varies from country to country. I have now added more of a cost to my sales on Paypal fees as a result of friends helping friends. Now, imagine if a seller opens his inventory worldwide??? Yes, as they say, “your mileage may vary”!
How do you keep track and mitigate these additional fees with the type of inventory you are trying to unload? You either become fastidious keeping track of every meager fee being charged or you chalk it to just the cost of doing business. I choose the first option, because every single penny that doesn't make me rich, makes the other guy rich – eBay and Paypal.
The key is that you know your own product, how receptive your buyers are to it, and the amount of volume you have for any given item you are selling – that is the easy part, you are the expert there. The cost of doing business can potentially be managed and lowered as much as theoretically possible for a specific product. It is up to you how much time you want to spend tracking down the minutia – for some it is the hardest part, for some others is something to geek out about. So, when you compare selling costs with other sellers in this discussion board, be aware that it may not apply to your industry. BTW, I'm jealous of that 13% total cost of doing business (even though you didn't list shipping cost), you know who you are. Also, I may add that with a “chalk it to the cost of doing business” mentality, anything lower that 33% is good to stay on business in eBay, otherwise I would consider Amazon that you tend to have an equal 33% cost of doing business but your product gets exposed to a larger audience and you don't have to have to rent storage from your local Public Storage facility.
That's my two cents, I hope it helps. Now, on to do battle with eBay on other fees. If successful, it may just benefit every single seller on eBay. Wish me luck!
