eBay Watch: Mixed Reaction to Fee, Feedback News By Michelle Megna
January 30, 2008
Seller reaction to eBay's fee cuts and feedback changes appears to be mixed, with some feeling that the new fee structure favors bigger sellers and that the company no longer cares about the smaller sellers and those who sell low-priced items.
eBay's commissions will increase next month on items auctioned for less than $1,000 or sold at fixed prices lower than $100, while its take on more expensive auction items remains at 1.5 percent. eBay will take less from higher-end fixed-price sales, two percent or four percent, rather than three percent or five percent.
Skip McGrath, veteran eBay PowerSeller and author, said, "There is a mixture of welcome
news combined with disappointment and worry about some of the
new changes.
The listing fee discount is less than many sellers hoped for,
but when you combine it with the free gallery (formerly
35-cents), it's not too bad. But wow, the final value fees
really jumped. I knew eBay would have to increase those to make
up for the listing fees, but was not expecting that big a jump.
"The discounts for good sellers with high detailed seller ratings are a big help for
most sellers. But media sellers who typically have lower
feedback will be hurt."
The new fee structure is aimed at boosting listings, which have flagged recently, and at matching pricing more closely to sales rather than inventory listed, eBay says.
However, some sellers say the fee cuts aren't large enough to spur massive change at the auction site. Frank Fortunato, veteran eBay bookseller and Ecommerce-Guide contributor, said, "The auction listing fee rate cuts are so minuscule I doubt they'll compel anyone except the biggest mega-sellers to increase their listings. I mean in the popular range of up to a $25 starting price, the decrease is a nickel."
He suggests eBay offer more bargain days for sellers. "What sellers, myself included, jump on are 10 to 20 cent listing days. These afford sellers the opportunity to save $4 or $5 and more on $50- $200 items cross-listed in two categories. I know they are touted as good news in bookseller chatrooms. I use them to relist previously failed sales with good results, as I'm sure many others do. If eBay ran these deep discount listing days on a regular basis, I am sure they would increase their flagging listings and add to their bottom line with the closing fees."
Feedback Fiasco
In regard to feedback changes, the news that sellers are no longer allowed to leave negative feedback is perhaps causing even more concern among vendors than even fee changes.
Many believe it severely limits the leverage they have should a buyer with bad intentions come their way. For instance, buyers can threaten to leave negative feedback for minor infractions, or even if the seller did nothing inappropriate at all, and vendors will have no recourse.
eBay claims the move is to address the fact that sellers were abusing the system, leaving eight times more negative feedback than buyers. The company also believes sellers who conduct business properly will have nothing to fear. Still, many are worried.
"The change that sellers can only leave
positive feedback, is huge," said McGrath. "I have had 100 percent positive feedback
for nine years. That will probably be unsustainable. If a buyer
has no negative consequence for leaving negative feedback, they
will not hesitate to do so even for the most minor service
issues."
Some sellers are saying that they will start to look for alternatives to eBay. ECommerce-Guide.com regularly reviews smaller eBay competitors. For information on just a few of our recent articles on eBay competitors, visit the following eBay column links:
Selling by the Dashboard Light
In other news, eBay this week also outlined some tools for sellers that will be out later this year.
These include increased monitoring of suspect buyers, as well as a new dashboard that will provide sellers with the same information about their transactions that eBay's customer support staff sees.
The personalized seller dashboards will be out in May and will include the following information for sellers: PowerSeller status; account billing status; final value fee discount qualification; policy violations and risk of restrictions and buyer satisfaction, based on feedback, detailed seller ratings and complaints.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
Do you have a comment or question about this
article or other e-commerce topics in general?
Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum.
Join the discussion today!
Tools:
Add ecommerce-guide.com to your favorites Add ecommerce-guide.com to your browser search box IE 7 | Firefox 2.0 | Firefox 1.5.xReceive news via our XML/RSS feed
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
