From 21st of July, private sellers on eBay will pay a flat-rate 10% fee when using the ‘Buy It Now’ fixed price feature, reports the BBC. This means it is stopping the traditional tiered pricing structure, and the changes will affect all items except mobile phones sold under contract, motor vehicles and property.
Sellers received the following message from eBay UK on Monday:
“On 21 July 2011, the final value fee for fixed price listings (Buy It Now) will be changed to a flat rate of 10%, up to a maximum EUR50.00. This new flat fee replaces the current tiered structure, making it simpler and easier for you to calculate up-front the fees you’ll pay. As before, you won’t pay any final value fee if your items don’t sell. The new calculations only apply to items listed or scheduled to start on or after the 21 July 2011.”
The changes apparently will not affect small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on eBay.co.uk, as they are required by law to register as businesses, so they already have lower seller fees anyway.
An eBay spokesperson says:
“[These changes] will make working out the cost of selling on eBay much simpler across the board, and still very competitive compared with other marketplaces. It does not affect the 180,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs trading professionally on eBay.co.uk as they are required by law to be registered as businesses and benefit from lower overall seller fees as a result. This means that our business sellers will continue to pass on great deals to customers.”
The online auction site is shifting to a flat-rate percentage of the final value fee across most categories, in both auction and ‘Buy It Now’, and the rates will vary by category.
For example, Tech will be 3%, Collectables 10% and Clothing, Shoes & Accessories will be a whopping 12%. Details of the fee changes are available here.
eBay was founded in 1995 and today it has a global revenue of over nine billion dollars.
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