eBay's Raising Fees for its Store Owners

[Griking]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - It has been clear to investors for some time that eBay Inc. (EBAY) has been losing the luster that turned the online auctioneer into an e-commerce bellwether. Now, CEO Meg Whitman is finally acknowledging things have been off kilter and is hoping to set things right by raising fees on the online stores that had been diverting traffic from eBay's auctions.

LINK (http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060720/D8IVKK9G7.html)

[jonjandran]

In the U.S.A. Today it was reported that Ebay was down like 15% from last year and they will be raising fees across the board to make up for that. :/

Looks like the greedy big business gets greedier.

[unwinddesign]

As if Store fees aren't enough already. $50 a month (for a good store) + 7%. 5% after $25. Who the hell would open a Store? No one buys shit from a store either. Those people who have big ass stores are wasting their time.

Just my opinion, I'm sure some have got it to work, but the fee hikes are coming to rape 'em in the ass and screw up their business plans.

[Darth Sensei]

I was planning on opening a store on August 1st. I have all the inventory. :roll:

The other problem is that apparently stores aren't coming up on ebay searches anyway, so the stuff just sits.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out a different way to sell my NES games.

[Griking]

store items do show up on searches, they just show up separately from auction listings and are on the bottom of the page. I guess they are easily ignorable though.

[Darth Sensei]

Apparently www.wagglepop.com was created by a previous ebay store owner. They look like they've completely copied ebay, but there doesn't seem to be much traffic.

I just wish there was a viable alternative.

[ryborg]

store items do show up on searches, they just show up separately from auction listings and are on the bottom of the page. I guess they are easily ignorable though.

They only show up when there are fewer than 30 results to the search. If there are more than 30 results, you need to click an inconspicuous link at the bottom of the page to see the store listing results.

The fee hike is going to KILL store sellers who sell a ton of very cheap items, like $.20 baseball cards, common video games, and anything that regularly sells for under $2. A friend of a friend who sells sports cards is going to have to pay an extra $300/month just to keep his store open. No way he is making enough money to cover that. Time to get a real job, I guess.

I was actually planning on opening a store in August, but with this news, they can forget it. I'll just have to stick with the methodical auction style I've been doing for so long.
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[PapaStu]

The other problem is that apparently stores aren't coming up on ebay searches anyway, so the stuff just sits.


They come up on my searches, right under the regluarly posted ebay items, under an eBay Store header. Click me for an example (http://attr-search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&pfmode=2&alist=a14&pfid=1413&a14=24225&gcs=1135&from=R10&satitle=Ready+2+Rumble&sacat=62053%26catref%3DC6%26curcat%3Dtrue&bs=Search&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=60194&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=)

[Nes]

The item you searched for however has less than 30 results. Hence, the store results show up as well.

[Griking]

I got this email today from eBay concerning the fee increases for store items



I'm writing today to let you know about changes we're making to eBay.com that are intended to rebalance the overall eBay marketplace by further distinguishing the roles of core listing formats (auction-style, auction-style with Buy It Now, and Fixed Price) and the Store Inventory listing format (used to display large amounts of product in eBay Stores).

Beginning August 22, insertion and final value fees for Store Inventory listings will be increased and will follow a tiered structure based on price--as they do for core listings. For complete details of these changes, please see my Announcement Board post and our Fee Changes Overview.

As one of the vast majority of eBay sellers who use only core listing formats, you are not likely to be impacted by these changes. Core listing fees will NOT be increased at this time. In fact, we're taking steps to boost their exposure on eBay and eBay Express.

I'm confident the actions we're taking are the right thing to do for the overall eBay Community. Auction-style listings have made eBay what it is today. In short, they provide the signature shopping experience millions of buyers have come to expect and provide the fastest way for you sell on the Internet. Look for even more exciting incentives for core listing formats coming soon!

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President
eBay North America


Also, HERE's (http://pages.ebay.com/sell/announcement200607/overview/fees.html) a link to the actual fee changes. The increases may not be a lot of money individually, a few cents each but another way of looking at it is that some of the insetion fees are double and triple what they used to be. This is gonna kill people who generally have a large inventory listed.

[Japan-Games.com]

It's bullshit. over the last 6-8 months ebay has done a lot of marketing and increased the visibility of it's stores in order to increase store listings. Now that people are listing in stores they say they have to raise the fees to create more auctions? Um, sure....sorry for buying into the store concept that you sold to me...?

For example, eBay has:

* Added new features to stores such as 300 cateogries, newsletters, windows, etc.

* Allowed searches to show store items (since rolled back)

* Bought ProStores, a web based store that is used in conjunction with your eBay store.

For a company who is concerned about the number of store listings they have, they sure have gone all out to get as many store listings as possible.

Am I to believe that this imbalance of auction items and store items was just recently discovered? Or can one perhaps guess that your goal was to increase store items right before increasing fees?

Was eBay really caught off guard by all the store listings or was it done by deisgn?

[dunkoff]

Who the hell would open a Store? No one buys shit from a store either. Those people who have big ass stores are wasting their time.

Wrong. Stores actually work really well. I currently have about 450 items listed and sell roughly 5 or so a day (weekends being more). I also quite often buy from stores, just because of the convenience.



Just my opinion, I'm sure some have got it to work, but the fee hikes are coming to rape 'em in the ass and screw up their business plans.

Right and wrong. Because the fees are SO much less than regular auctions and the listings last much longer, even a triple in fees is a drop in the bucket compared to trying to sell items at auction. As irritating as a rate increase is, if sellers can't continue to make a decent profit, they are doing something seriously wrong.

Honestly, even though it may make hippies weep, eBay is still the best thing since sliced bread - conglomerate or not. Anyone try to sell at a real auction? 20-25% commission with a fraction of the customer base.

Whether they are greedy or not, the only stores they'll lose are the ones who list 10,000 items at rock bottom prices to make a 5% profit.

[Kejoriv]

dunkoff - What are some of the negatives of having an Ebay Store? I was thinking about starting one up

How many items do you have to sell each month to make it worth while? I was thinking about having the cheapest one.

[16-bit]

eBay has made a ton of improvements over the past few years and I think they deservingly get a rate hike to some extent. However, I think they should offer lower fees or fee rebates for sellers who have outstanding sales and feedback/

If not that, then they need something to keep their high volume sellers that offer good customer service, because while eBay may be some of the best real estate on the web, dishonesty is driving many potential buyers away.

Great to hear that eBay is advertising to get new customers, but they need to focus on retention...there are far too many ex-eBay users out there now,.

[unwinddesign]

Who the hell would open a Store? No one buys shit from a store either. Those people who have big ass stores are wasting their time.

Wrong. Stores actually work really well. I currently have about 450 items listed and sell roughly 5 or so a day (weekends being more). I also quite often buy from stores, just because of the convenience.



Just my opinion, I'm sure some have got it to work, but the fee hikes are coming to rape 'em in the ass and screw up their business plans.

Right and wrong. Because the fees are SO much less than regular auctions and the listings last much longer, even a triple in fees is a drop in the bucket compared to trying to sell items at auction. As irritating as a rate increase is, if sellers can't continue to make a decent profit, they are doing something seriously wrong.

Honestly, even though it may make hippies weep, eBay is still the best thing since sliced bread - conglomerate or not. Anyone try to sell at a real auction? 20-25% commission with a fraction of the customer base.

Whether they are greedy or not, the only stores they'll lose are the ones who list 10,000 items at rock bottom prices to make a 5% profit.

Maybe you have stuff you don't have to turn quickly. 5 things a day doesn't cut it for me. I sell 5 things in a day when I have 20 up as regular buy-it-nows. When I have 70 or so up, I sell about 10 - 15 things the first few days. It beats the living crap out of waiting for a store, and stores end up costing more in the end anyway.

For the amount of work they take (driving people to your store et al), it's just not worth it to me. I tried it for a month, and my sales went down. And the fees coupled with the price of the store ($50) were more than it would normally cost me to list a fixed price item.

[wrldstrman]

Theres a disscusion on this subject at AA Myself I dont care for most ebay stores there are a few stores that are fair and the owners of the store do a good job but most arent ,reasons i dont like the ebay stores

1.most of the prices in ebay stores are out of reality to what the games are worth

2.the ones that do list items at a reasonable price charge 4 to 5 times more for shipping than the actual cost so even if the game is reasonably priced the shipping charge makes the game to expensive

3.on top of the overpriced shipping charges they usally send items poorly packed and by media mail

4.most of the store owners get attitudes and wont even respond when you get a bad game.they have so much feedback getting a dozen negs doesnt really effect there feedback score.

I can see ebays point if a non store owners lists a item they have to pay 35 cents or more if you start the bid higher than its more than 35 cents..if you run the auction for 10 days it costs more..if you list the item at a price like a lot of stores that it will never sell than ebay will make listing fees every 10 days..store items sit for months and never sell so ebay makes no money.


I dont knock anyone for trying to make a few dollars and there are a few good stores on ebay but the majority are so far out of touch with reality that they are a waste of space .

I sell a little on ebay and dont own a store but I know I wont be getting 25.00 dollars for a combat cart so I wouldnt bother wasting my and ebays time listing it at such a price but to many stores seem to miss this concept