eBay Australia Stores get screwed too! Less exposure! A$0.50 (US$0.38) fees!

[regic]

eBay Australia sellers suffering the steepest fee hikes with monthly store subscription prices rising and listing fees on some items raised to A$0.50 (US $0.38) and 10% FVFs on items below A$75.00 (US $56.40).  Store inventory items are also being removed from the core site search.

Featured plus listings raised from A$19.95 to A$24.95-$39.95
Basic store subscriptions raised from A$9.95 to A$14.95
Listing insertion prices raised from A$0.10 to A$0.10-$0.50
Final Value Fees raised from 1.5%-5.25% to 2.5%-10%

full new fee schedule: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200607200804312.html

***Changes to Fees for Selected Features and Store Inventory Format Listings*** 

20 July 2006 | 08:04AM EST


eBay strives to manage our marketplace to deliver the best overall value for buyers and to maximise profitable sales volume for sellers. To support buyers and sellers it is important to maintain a healthy balance between listing formats on the eBay marketplace, such as Auction and Store listings.

Therefore, today we are announcing increases to fees for Featured Plus, Basic Stores subscription and Store Inventory Format listings on eBay.com.au along with a change in the way Store Inventory Format listings are displayed in search results. We have carefully assessed these changes and believe they are necessary to improve the buyer experience, which should ultimately improve business for sellers.

The fee changes will come into effect at 23:59:59pm AEST on Monday 21 August 2006 and will only affect sellers who use Featured Plus in certain categories, Basic Stores subscribers and sellers who list using Store Inventory Format.

The changes to the way Store Inventory Format listings are displayed in search results will start to come into effect on Wednesday 2 August 2006.

eBay has two listing formats:

    * Core listings including online Auction and Fixed Price (Buy It Now) deliver the signature eBay buying experience: great prices and an exciting experience for buyers; fast turnover and strong cash flow for sellers. Listings in this format will not be affected by these fee changes, except those that use Featured Plus in certain categories

    * Store Inventory Format listings allow sellers who subscribe to Stores to list stock which may take longer to sell. These listings act as a complement to Core listings. However, since expanding the visibility of these listings in February, the volume has increased dramatically as has the price of the items listed. This change has negatively impacted members' buying experience

Buyers have expressed a number of concerns to us regarding the large quantity of Store Inventory Format listings and the over-use of Featured Plus listings which have led to:

    * searches producing too many results and creating a confusing buyer experience
    * searches being less relevant, making it difficult for buyers to find what they are looking for

These changes are necessary to ensure buying on eBay remains easy and fun for everyday Australians by limiting exposure of Store Inventory Format listings and encouraging greater use of Core listings format, thereby rebalancing the marketplace.

We are confident that eBay will continue to provide a great value marketplace for sellers, with the changes intended to increase purchases among the over four million Australians who visit eBay each month (Nielsen/NetRatings Netview).

***eBay Australia: A Business Update *** 

A Word from Simon Smith…

Hi everyone,

I would like to take some time to update you on the progress of the eBay Australia Community.

With more than three million members in Australia - or over one in five of the adult population, and around four million unique visitors coming to the site every month*, eBay has evolved into a marketplace where Australians can buy and sell practically anything. On eBay in Australia, a car is sold every 12 minutes, a laptop is sold every 11 minutes, a baby item is sold every 38 seconds and a toy is sold every 21 seconds.

eBay.com.au is committed to ensuring there is a healthy balance of buyers and sellers in the eBay marketplace. That is why decisions have been made regarding pricing and the exposure of Store Inventory Format listings, as announced earlier today. I am very confident that the decisions made will have a positive impact on the eBay Australia Community as a whole.

To ensure buying on eBay remains fun and easy for Australians which will ultimately improve business for sellers, eBay invests in advertising, public relations, promotions and site enhancements.

What has eBay done to attract buyers?
eBay is one of the largest online advertisers in Australia. eBay advertises on some of the largest websites including NineMSN, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo. Our advertising drives a large volume of potential buyers to the site on a daily basis.

This year eBay launched an advertising campaign in some of Australia’s most popular magazines and newspapers. I hope you have seen these ads which feature a range of Australians showing off a wide variety of items they have purchased on eBay.

Another effective way to tell the eBay story is in the media and we’ve had great success in doing this. So far this year, our media team has generated almost 1500 positive stories in newspapers, magazines, radio and television across Australia.

eBay also regularly invests in buyer promotions including offering PayPal coupons to encourage further spending on eBay.

Improvements to the eBay site
On the site, eBay has introduced a host of improvements to make listing even easier, such as the new Sell Your Item form and for larger sellers the new Turbo Lister. For Store sellers, eBay has expanded the number of Store categories from 20 to 300 with the option of adding sub-categories.

eBay is now becoming a top choice for buying or selling a car with over one million unique visitors to the Motors site in June*. To improve confidence when buying a car on eBay Motors, eBay has recently introduced Vehicle Purchase Protection which may provide coverage of up to $20,000 in the unlikely event something goes wrong.

eBay will always support our sellers with a range of initiatives to ensure their ongoing success selling on Australia’s leading online marketplace. eBay continually evaluates the site and makes changes to grow the eBay community.

We value your feedback and suggestions and have started a chat thread on the Round Table where you can ask questions or provide feedback about today’s announcement.

More information about the price changes can be found on the Announcement Board.

Simon Smith
Managing Director eBay Australia and New Zealand

[amy]

There has been speculation in a few blogs that since eBay often uses Australia as a test market, that if the huge Australian fee increase is successful (i.e. store closings don't exceed eBay expectations), eBay could raise US SIF listing fees a second time in January.

[maggie777]

38 cents is boinking insane.  :

[mandy]

For Brisbane-based Starcom Laptops – which sells about $40,000 worth of stock on eBay each month – it will mean an extra $2500 a month in costs and even losses on some sales.

About 30 per cent of business came from eBay, but it was considering alternative websites with less visitors.

"We operate on such delicate margins and I just don't know any other company who doubles their fees overnight," said general manager Andrew Somes.

"eBay was always designed as a starter for home businesses, but now they have completely smashed that."...

full article: http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story...53,00.html

[iron_chick]

Does anyone have the numbers on store closings on the au site?  It seems, from what I've heard, that a bunch of Aussie store sellers have gone to other "venues" in that country.    My bet is that the Bay may loose more than the 15% it anticipated down under.

[BellisimaJ.]

[quote author=iron_chick link=topic=4475.msg18777#msg18777 date=1154004301]
Does anyone have the numbers on store closings on the au site?  It seems, from what I've heard, that a bunch of Aussie store sellers have gone to other "venues" in that country.    My bet is that the Bay may loose more than the 15% it anticipated down under.
[/quote]

I don't have the numbers, but one of the Aussies told me that they will not put up with that carp there. He also sent me some alternative sites in AU, if anyone is interested.

Alot of the Brits are also closing their shops.

I hope this goes way beyond the 15% projection, so it makes Meg and Bill look like the bloody idiots they are!!! 8)


MODIFIED TO ADD:
I was just at the AU site, and they are saying that over 600 stores on their site have now closed in protest.

http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?th...=500024740&start=2160

[amy]

The OP in this thread must be SRG Sooshi's Australian clone:

Selfish store owners
http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?th...=600024457&tstart=0

[xppman]

Or LieWorld gone global??? 

[cranky_hippie]

Sounds like Sooshi to me. We are all SO selfish for saying we will no longer buy on eBay. Her children will starve and it will be MY fault. I am so bad.

[mandy]

A small concession from eBay Australia:

****** Reminder: Fee Changes Effective on Monday 21 August ******

18 August 2006 | 04:35PM EST

Fee changes for Selected Features and Store Inventory Format listings outlined by eBay on 20 July will go into effect at 23:59:59pm AEST on Monday 21 August 2006.

Details about the new fee structure are available here.

Please note the 20 July announcement stated that the insertion fee tier for a multiple item listing using the Store Inventory Format was to be determined by multiplying the asking price by quantity of your items.

Upon further analysis we have decided to reverse this decision and in a few months Insertion Fees for Multiple Item Listings will again cover any quantity of items within a single listing in Store Inventory Format. We regret any inconvenience and will be issuing credits for the difference within billing in the interim. Any applicable refund will appear in your regular statement.

Regards,
eBay International AG