eBay has made an important announcement regarding changes to pricing, shipping and seller standards. More details can be found here.

Here are the key highlights of the changes:

Listing fixed price items is more affordable than ever
We are changing our pricing to reduce your upfront cost to sell and align with your success. On September 16, the listing fee for all items sold via the Fixed Price format will be lowered to a flat fee of only 35 cents, for up to 30 day duration. This represents a 70 percent reduction in listing fees on Fixed Price items. There will also be a special rate of only 5 cents for Buy It Now™ Fixed Price listings in the Media category (Books, DVDs & Movies, Music and Video Games) running till end of year.

There will be no changes to Auction-style listings, which, when combined with a low start price, remain the most cost-efficient way to offer many kinds of items.

Free shipping incentives in all categories, plus shipping charge limits in Media
From October 1 till year end, sellers who offer free shipping will receive the option to use the Subtitle feature for free. Eligible PowerSellers will also stand to receive double Final Value Fee discounts.

In addition to shipping incentives, there will be limits to shipping and handling charges for the Media category. Media sellers will need to offer at least one shipping option within the specified limit. With this move, we are ensuring that buyers encounter fewer excessive shipping charges, which is the number one reason they leave the site.

Updated seller standards – minimum DSRs
There will be a new minimum Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) requirement to further improve the customer experience for everyone on eBay. From November 1, sellers will need to have a minimum 4.3 across all four DSR categories, over the prior 30 day or 12 month period depending on volume, in order to continue selling on the site.

Today, only a small fraction of sellers fall below this threshold, yet they are responsible for a high percentage of customer complaints, which hurts you and our marketplace overall. We encourage all sellers, whose scores fall below the 4.3 threshold, to adjust their business models and/or work on improving their DSR scores in the next 2 months.

Please note that changes announced on eBay.com, eBay.co.uk and eBay.de vary. Find out more about what is being announced on other sites here:
UK Announcement
Germany Announcement

Should you have any enquiries about the changes made, please contact Customer Support via Live Help.