From September 2011, eBay will make a number of changes on eBay.com.au that will impact sellers, including changes to fees. In recognition of the changing Australian retail landscape, the fee changes are aimed at encouraging professional and business sellers to list more Buy It Now items in Stores. The changes will also enable eBay to better differentiate and incentivise professional, business and consumer sellers.

Why the change to pricing?
Retail in Australia is evolving rapidly with more consumers than ever before looking to purchase items online. With increased exposure to a variety of online shopping options, both locally and overseas, the format in which consumers purchase those items is dominated by fixed price. Future growth in ecommerce will primarily come from Fixed Price formats, such as Buy It Now which is already the most common way to shop on and offline and accounts for the majority of sales on eBay.com.au today.

eBay needs to continue evolving to stay ahead of the trends in ecommerce and remain a valuable marketplace for all of its sellers. To do this, eBay needs to better differentiate between professional, business and consumer sellers. The price changes outlined below are therefore designed to help encourage professional and business sellers to list items primarily in the Fixed Price, Buy It Now format using eBay Stores.

In addition, consumer sellers have asked us to reduce the upfront risk when selling on eBay.com.au by removing insertion fees. Through their higher engagement with the site, consumer sellers are among eBay’s best buyers, therefore encouraging them to sell more keeps them actively engaged and buying on the site which benefits other sellers. For consumer sellers, auctions will remain an engaging way to sell and for buyers, an exciting way to buy second hand items or items of undetermined  value on eBay.com.au.

Changes to fees on eBay.com.au – from September 22

Changes to non-Store fees

• Eligible sellers will be able to list up to 30 single quantity listings per month in any format with zero insertion fees (excludes Powersellers, Stores or sellers registered as a business on eBay)

• Final value fees will increase from 5.25% to 7.9%, capped at $49.95 for each of the first 30 listings per month

• Insertion fees remain as they are today for sellers who have exceeded the monthly 30 free insertion fee limit as well as PowerSellers, Store holders and sellers registered as a business on eBay, with no cap or sliding scale on the new final value fee of 7.9%

Read more about the changes to non-store fees.

 
Changes to Store fees

• Final value fees for Auctions will be the same as Buy It Now, to encourage more fixed price items on eBay.com.au consistent with customer demand

• eBay is trialling free insertion fees for fixed price Anchored Store listings

• For Basic and Featured store holders, media category pricing will remain unchanged. Anchored store holders will receive free insertion fees as part of the above trial

Read more about changes to Basic or Featured store fees.

Read more about changes to Anchored store fees.

Read more information on stores, including whether they’re right for you and how to upgrade your account.

Additional changes coming to eBay.com.au

Introducing eBay Top Rated Seller
From September 2011, we will introduce eBay Top Rated Sellers on eBay.com.au to recognise and reward PowerSellers who consistently provide their customers with excellent service.

How it works

• Sellers who qualify for eBay Top Rated Seller status will get increased visibility with a boost in search results and a prominent badge, which could help to increase sales.

• Even if you don’t sell in large volumes, as long as you meet the requirements of the program, you may qualify as an eBay Top Rated Seller.

Read more about the eBay Top Rated Seller program

Multi-quantity listings
From 22 September, you will need to open an eBay Store, be a PowerSeller or be registered as a business on eBay to be able to list multiple items in one listing.

Featured Plus! to retire
From  22 September 2011, the price of Featured Plus! will be $49.95 for all listings up to a 14 day duration and will be $149.95 for Good Til Cancelled and 30 day listings. Eventually, Featured Plus! will be removed as an option for all sellers as  Best Match is eBay’s preferred mechanism for enabling  more relevant and popular items to appear at the top of search results.

Increasing listing titles on eBay.com

From the first week in September 2011, listing titles on eBay.com will increase from 55 characters to 80. A good title is key to establishing the relevance of your listing to a buyer’s search—and some products require more words than others to get in front of the right buyers.

For more information on this change, as well as other site changes which may affect sellers based in Australia who list directly on eBay.com, please visit the eBay.com announcement board.

Understanding exactly what the changes outlined above may mean for you could take some time. You should consider your current selling practices and potentially make some adjustments.

Regards,

The eBay team

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The labour dispute between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has come to an end and we have been notified that any residual delays have now cleared.

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	***Previous update: Original: Canada Post suspends operations***
	17 June 2011 | 11:20AM EST Due to an ongoing labour dispute between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canada Post has announced that mail will not be accepted or delivered across Canada until further notice. The suspended service impacts all shipments to and from Canada handled by Canada Post, as well as shipments into Canada via other postal carriers. As a result there is likely to be a delay in the delivery of items to Canadian buyers or from Canadian sellers. eBay would encourage any affected seller to notify affected customers of the likely delay to their purchases arriving and for buyers to please be patient during this time. Regards, The eBay Team
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eBay and Australia Post have teamed up to bring you the flat-rate box – a postage and packaging solution that gives you a flat postage rate to anywhere in Australia.

The new flat-rate boxes are available for items weighing up to 15kgs and come in three sizes:

• Small (Bx1) – 220mm x 160mm x 77mm (suits A5)
• Medium (Bx2) – 310mm x 225mm x 102mm (suits A4)
• Large (Bx4) – 430mm x 305mm x 140mm (suits A3)

The flat-rate boxes are available at any Australia Post retail outlet and discounts apply for boxes purchased in bulk lots of 20+, 100+, and 200+.

Find out more about the flat rate box and postage pricing

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eBay has recently launched a new customer support portal to make it much easier for you to access help and have your questions answered more quickly. As part of this upgrade eBay has also enhanced the customer experience by making phone support available for all Australian customers.

Through the new portal you will be able to:

• Use the ‘Contact us’ button to telephone, email or chat with the customer support team
• Get an immediate answer to a question by asking your question in the search field or choosing from one of the top 5 most frequently asked questions
• Live chat with eBay’s virtual agent, Emma

To access the new customer support portal, simply click the ‘Customer Support’ link at the top right hand corner of your eBay screen.

Hopefully you’ll find that it provides you with a much faster resolution to your queries.

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