Is The eBay Fee Increase Actually Good For Business?
Fee Increase Leaves Some Sellers Angry, Others Thrilled Much of my email from readers this month concerned the recent announcement from eBay that it will increase many seller fees on February 18, 2005. Since many business people use eBay's online store system as their primary ecommerce point of sale, it's no surprise that most of the emails I received were of the angry variety. One email in particular caught my attention because it urged me to visit a website to sign an online petition protesting the fee hike. The email directed me to http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/petition.html and upon further investigation I found that 22,548 digital signatures had already been collected (as of this writing). Thank goodness not all of them had my email address. This will be the fifth rate hike in as many years for the auction giant and should really come as no surprise. Price hikes are a normal course of business. It was the size of the hike that has many sellers upset. The rate hike involved the following fees: · A basic eBay Store will now cost sellers $15.95 a month, a 60% increase from the current $9.95 a month. · Closing commissions on most items sold through eBay Stores will increase by 50 percent. · Gallery photo fees will increase from 25 to 35 cents. · The Buy It Now fee will jump from a flat fee of 5 cents to 10 cents for items priced over $10 and 25 cents for items over $50. · Final value fees will rise from 5.25% to 8%. Many of the emails I received pointed out that small sellers are making very little profit as it is so the increase in fees will only serve to drive these sellers completely out of the eBay business. Some sellers accuse eBay of purposefully trying to run them off, but I doubt that's the case. eBay has no reason to drive away the small sellers, but that realization never occurs to those who feel they are being priced out of the market. Not everyone is too concerned over the fee increase. Jim Cockrum, eBay Powerseller, publisher of "Creative eBay Selling News," the world's largest newsletter on creative eBay selling, and author of one of the best selling eBay books of all time "The Silent Sales Machines Hiding On eBay" has other opinions. "I don't see the eBay fee increase as a bad thing," Cockrum said in a phone interview. "I actually see it as just the opposite - it's a good thing because eBay is eliminating my competition for me. Who leaves eBay when eBay increases seller fees? It's not the customers (or shoppers). They don't go anywhere since they aren't affected. Only a handful of the weaker sellers leave eBay when fees go up." Cockrum recommends that sellers use eBay in non-traditional ways to build their online businesses so that future fee hikes will not have an affect on their e-business. "Selling on eBay continues to be one of the more popular ways to make money online, though very few people are getting rich with an eBay business alone," Cockrum said. "Many Powersellers don't make enough profit to cover their costs. The key to really making money with eBay is not in selling items at auction, but to use eBay to drive customers to your other online ventures. If you do that, the rate hikes do not affect your bottomline nearly as much." Not everyone shares Cockrum's enthusiasm. Many small sellers think the government or a regulatory board of some kind should get involved to help keep eBay fees in line. This probably won't come to pass anytime soon, but who knows. I can remember when a little company called Microsoft had free rein before they killed off all comers and came to monopolize their market. eBay seems to be headed in the same direction. The threat of regulation may be the reason eBay is now attempting to smooth the ruffled feathers of the miffed masses. eBay announced this week that they would give a one-time $15.95 credit to eBay store owners and reduce minimum listing fees for inexpensive items from 30 cents to 25 cents, effective immediately. Too little, too late? Could be. Many sellers believe that eBay may be writing its own obituary with such stringent price increases and such little thought for the smaller merchant. The online petition predicted the long term effects of the fee increase to be: · Smaller sellers will stop selling on eBay and try to sell somewhere else online. They will never have the chance to expand themselves on eBay. · Larger sellers may consider starting their own online store or sell elsewhere. · Prices of auctions will increase. Buyers will turn back to retail stores. The idea of eBay is that you can find things cheaper there, even when adding shipping and handling together. · Discourage new sellers, decreasing competition (which is what the eBay market thrives on for pricing). Only time will tell if the predictions come true, but for the short term many smaller sellers are closing down their eBay stores and moving up the street to Yahoo.com. Here's to your success! Tim Knox Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur
and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox.
Tim's latest books include "Small Business Success Secrets"
and "The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!"
Related Links:
http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net
Related News
India begins process to auction 3G airwaves - Sify
Pollution auction set for Maryland - Carroll County Times (subscription)
Pollution auction set for MarylandCarroll County Times (subscription), MD -3 hours ago25 auction, the first of its kind in the nation, is part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an agreement among the 10 states to reduce greenhouse ... |
Auction-Rate Bailouts Bypass Some Investors - Wall Street Journal
Chef John Ash helps kick off Wine Auction Weekend this month - Lake County News
Collectible cars offer nostalgia, quality - CTV.ca
Slice of Diana wedding cake sells for ￡1200 at UK auction 黛妃 ... - Taipei Times
SUSAN TOMPOR Auction-rate securities probed - Detroit Free Press
SUSAN TOMPOR Auction-rate securities probedDetroit Free Press, United States -12 hours agoBrokerages and other financial firms nationwide sold auction-rate securities to well-to-do investors, small companies and others as a higher-rate ... |
Pakistani puts kidney up for online auction - Times of India
Pakistani puts kidney up for online auctionTimes of India, India -1 hour agoISLAMABAD: Bizarre as it sounds, a Pakistani has put his kidney up for sale at a leading auction website of the country. In recent years, Pakistan has ... |
Auction scene brighter - NEWS.com.au
Auction scene brighterNEWS.com.au, Australia -6 hours agoBuyers yesterday seemed content to negotiate afterwards rather than bid at auction. Auctioneer Andrew Chisholm, of Buxton Real Estate agency's Bentleigh ... |
DoT starts 3G auction process; pre-bid conference tomorrow - Press Trust of India
|
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay
Artists, craftspeople and photographers are successfully selling their wares everyday on the online auction site, eBay. According to a recent analysis of eBay sales, a crafts-related item is sold every nine seconds, a scrapbook item is sold every minute, and 40 cross-stitch items sell in an hour on eBay. Sales of craft items on eBay have grown almost 60 percent in the past year, according to TheBidFloor.com.
Using Paypal for eBay Purchases
Paypal is the preferred payment choice for many buyers because Paypal allows buyers to pay instantly for eBay purchases. In this article, we will review using Paypal on eBay from the buyer's point of view.
Low Cost, High Profit Dream Products To Sell on eBay and Amazon
Finding quality products to sell is the key to continuing success. Keeping a pipeline of low cost, fast moving items to sell is also a must. Sometimes it takes weeks of searching to find a load of quality electronics or computer equipment that you can sell online at double your cost. I'm sure you agree that this is a very good rate of return. The problem is that you may have to outlay several thousand dollars to buy the inventory. If you are new to online selling and would like to pick up high quality, easy to ship products for pennies, read on.
How To Cut Your eBay Fees By More Than 90%
Now, are you ready for the REAL TRUTH about selling on eBay?
Be Realistic When Selling on eBay
As some of you know, I spent many years buying and selling both on and offline and several of my products are based upon my own experience in this area. I know that the vast majority of my customers and subscribers have an interest in trading whether it be on eBay or at the local market but more and more I am seeing people with completely unrealistic expectations of what they will be able to do. Most commonly these unrealistic expectations are in respect of how much it actually costs to purchase specific products and what they can then be sold on for.
Royal Memorabilia ? An eBay Prince or Pauper?
There has always been a fascination with royalty and as a niche area for collecting and auction trading, it is still a relatively accessible market. And it can also be extremely interesting.
eBay Listing Service : Make Managing Your Auctions Easy
Do you want to have a lot of auctions going but don't have time to keep track of them all? Trust me, you're not alone. With more and more people making significant portions - if not all - of their income from their eBay auction websites the need has arisen for many people to have someone manage the listing of their auctions for them.
5 Reasons Why Playing Music On Your Auctions Is A Bummer Of An Idea
There are 147 million registered users on eBay, and tens of millions of those are desperately fighting to make sales on eBay. When trying to make their auction listings as powerful as possible, many sellers use ill-advised tactics. They think that if they entertain buyers, they are more likely to get a sale. And as the Internet becomes more multi-media, there are many temptations thrown in our way, especially the use of sound.
From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: How To Learn New Tricks Without Spending
The Internet is the fastest-changing marketplace on
earth. Million-dollar ideas from one year ago might not
generate a single penny today. And the best search engine
optimization strategies from months ago may be completely
invalid now.
Selling through Auction Marketplaces
Consumers are increasingly feeling more comfortable in buying
products through the Internet. According to a report released
recently by the Department of Commerce first-quarter retail sales
rose 23.8 percent to US$ 19.8 billion in the United States from
US$ 16 billion a year ago. E-commerce sales during the first
quarter of 2005 rose 6.4 percent from the fourth quarter of last
year. Forrester Research estimated that 2005 online retail sales
will increase at a pace of 22 percent. Today, a third of all
households in US make at least one purchase online within a year,
a figure which will grow to almost 40 percent by 2009, predicts
Forrester. As a seller, this strong growth of online sales means
that you have to put considerable stress on your Internet sales
endeavor if you are not doing this as yet.
Auction and Its Benefits
An auction is basically a public sale wherein any object is
sold to the highest bidder. It can be defined as a process
of purchasing and selling things by offering them up for bid,
taking bids and selling the things out to the highest bidder.
This is what is generally the case. However, a sale to the
lowest bidder may also take place, in cases where land is
sold for non-payment of taxes to anyone willing to take it
for the shortest term; or where a contract is offered to an
individual or party willing to take it for the shortest term;
or where a contract is offered to an individual or party
willing to perform it at the lowest price. Such cases too
seem to fairly come under the purview of the term 'auction'.
Join the Home-Based Business Revolution
Greetings, Friend.
Maria?s New Lifestyle: Short Story About The Benefits Shopping On The Net Has Given
I've got this strange friend; her name is Maria. Maria's always been a little weird but now things have gotten unworldly altogether. You see, Maria's an artist; she's into sculpture in particular, of which she specializes in the manipulation of Perspex with a blowtorch. Lately I haven't seen too much of her as she's hooked up the Internet. Actually not many people at all have seen her recently; she says she's working on a big project.
The Secret Of The Ebay Money Machine And How To Get Your Share
If you have all the money you need, then this information
wont be of much use to you!
eBays Latest Fee Increases--Is this the beginning of the end?
On January 13, eBay sellers received an unwelcome announcement from eBay. Fees were going up.
Tips on How to Profit from eBay Buy It Now Auction Listings
eBay is an online auction site so it stands to reason that most users will tend to auction off their items aiming to get a high price.
eBay Gold
Internet auctions are relatively new having been around since the mid 1990's. There are several Internet auctions including Yahoo Auctions and UBid. But of course the undisputed king of Internet auctions is Ebay. Ebay has over 100 million registered users making it one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world.
Police Auctions & Government Auctions Professional Resource Information
Police Auctions Information:
How To Sell On Ebay: Pricing Strategy
Many new Ebay sellers make one of two mistakes: either
they overprice items to an unsellable extreme; or they
lose money on every transaction by setting low starting
prices with no restrictions.
So, Can You Really Sell EBooks On EBay And Make Cold Hard Cash?
Selling eBooks on eBay, and making any worthwhile profit from doing so, is becoming more and more difficult.
|
