eBay is introducing a host of changes it hopes will improve the site in time for the holiday shopping season. Most significantly, eBay will change its Buy It Now (BIN) fixed-price format, making it more like eBay Store-inventory, but with exposure in the main eBay.com core search results. It will also make changes to Finding (search), Shipping and Seller Standards. And in a move that was expected by many, it will change to an electronic checkout system, banning checks and money orders.

Like its eBay Store cousin, the BIN fixed-price format will be expanded to a 30-day duration. eBay will change Final Value Fees (FVFs) on a category-by-category basis, making them more in line with the current 12 percent FVF for Store inventory listings (but significantly higher than the current FVFs of the BIN Fixed-Price format). Two categories - Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, and Parts & Accessories - appear to be the hardest hit in terms of higher FVFs.

Unlike Store inventory format, which has very limited exposure in core, BIN fixed-price listings will remain in "core," meaning the listings will continue show up on eBay's main search results.

The insertion fee for BIN fixed-price listings will be a flat rate of 35 cents. The new fee is generally lower than the current 7-day fee for the same format, which ranged from 25 cents to $4, and is higher than Store fees. (There is special pricing in the media category, see other story in AuctionBytes.com.) Sellers may now also list multiple quantities of the same item for a single 35-cent listing fee; previously, multiple quantities resulted in higher listing fees.

eBay will make no changes to the fee structure for auctions and Store inventory format. Sellers may continue to list auction format listings with an optional BIN price for the same fee structure as exists today.

eBay's new BIN fixed-price format changes take effect September 16, 2008.

Dinesh Lathi of eBay's Selling Team said, "As a company, we're moving to success-based pricing, we are increasingly aligning our outcomes and our incentives with those of our sellers."

For items that sell for $25 or less, the FVFs decrease for items listed in the Computers & Networking; Cameras & Photos; and Electronics and Video Game Systems categories. However, once the pricing goes up to a certain level above $25, the FVFs actually increase in these categories due to higher percentage fees in the next tranche, and due to a restructuring of the tranches.

In all other categories, the FVFs are higher across each tranche, making for significantly higher commission fees in the BIN Fixed Price format, with FVFs in the Clothing, Shoes & Accessories and Parts & Accessories categories are the highest of all.

eBay will also make changes to Finding (search), Shipping and Seller Standards. And in a move that was expected by many, it will change to an electronic checkout system, banning checks and money orders. See today's other news stories in AuctionBytes.com for details.

eBay will host a Town Hall meeting on Friday, August 22, 2008, from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm Pacific time.

Update 8/20/08: eBay posted an Announcement Board post outlining the changes. eBay said it was making changes in UK (see UK Announcement Board for more information) and on Germany's site, also.