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

• 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

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).

Fee Changes

i. Featured Plus listings – which give your listing a stand-out placement in category lists and search results

Featured Plus Listings	Current Fee	New Fee
Consumer Electronics (CatID:293) and Camera and Accessories (CatID:625)	AU$19.95	AU$24.95
Cars, Motorcycles and Parts (CatID:9800)	AU$19.95	AU$29.95
Computers (CatID:160)	AU$19.95	AU$39.95

The fees for Featured Plus listings in all other categories are not changing at this time.

ii. Basic Stores Subscription and Store Inventory Format

A seller’s Core listings will continue to appear in their Store and Core listing fees remain unchanged, except for Featured Plus in certain categories.

Changes to how Store Inventory Format listings are displayed on eBay
In February this year we expanded item search results to include all Store Inventory Format listings. Since doing so buyers have told us searches are producing too many results and creating a confusing buyer experience. Therefore, starting 2 August 2006, we will be reducing the number of Store Inventory Format listings which are shown in Core search results.

Starting 2 August 2006, when less than 10 Core listings appear in the search results we will now only include up to 10 relevant Store Inventory Format listings.

To help sellers maximise the success of their Stores and Store Inventory Format listings we will be doing the following:

• In response to many requests from sellers, we are changing the maximum number of listings for identical items that sellers may concurrently have from 10 to 20, effective 22 August 2006
• In August and September we will host online workshops to educate sellers on how to optimise their Stores and use them more effectively and to educate buyers on the benefits of purchasing from sellers with a Store
• In August we are launching new onsite education on Stores
• We will continue to include all relevant Store Inventory Format listings after all matching Core listings when the buyer clicks the Buy It Now listings tab at the top of any search results page

If you sell internationally, we recommend you visit the Announcement Board for the site that you sell on to learn about any fee changes for that site.

These changes will benefit our Community as a whole and by balancing the needs of our buyers and sellers will continue to sustain and develop a thriving marketplace in Australia and around the world.