Even EBay is feeling the heat. With consumer spending down and many young new e-commerce companies successfully gaining ground, the auction giant is slashing its listing fees in order to boost listings and remain competitive.
EBay announced today that listing fees will be cut up to 50 percent. The company hopes the reduced fees will encourage more people to use the service to sell their goods. Lately, EBay has been suffering from stagnant growth and fewer listed items. But hold on, before you comb through the attic for Great Aunt Talula’s doll collection or Grandpa’s commemorative baseball cap, know that there is something else you should now about the fee changes. EBay plans to charge more of a commission for items that do sell.
The commission increase is highest for items that sell for less than $25. Fees for those items will rise 67 percent higher, or 8.75 percent of the total sale amount. The changes will go into effect on February 20th for listers in the United States. Other pricing changes will come soon after for the United Kingdom and Germany.
One of the e-commerce sites that is not so new but still giving EBay a run for its money is Amazon.com. Users can list books and other items, and no listing fee is charged.
EBay will also make a change to how items show up in a search function. Sellers who have a high rate of customer dissatisfaction will find that their listing have dropped down in a search, giving those items less exposure to potential customers.
What do you think of this announcement? Would it encourage you to give EBay a try as a seller? If you already sell on EBay, will the changes make you list more items? Are there other e-commerce sites that you would more rather recommend?
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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