eBay had a big day on Wednesday - it announced fourth-quarter earnings for 2005; announced changes to fees; and said it would change the way Store items show up in eBay.com search results (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m01/i19/s01).
Sellers had been wondering what kind of fee increases to expect after last year's kick in the wallet by eBay. Many were relieved to find the fees impacted higher ASP (average selling price) items. Effective February 22, all items with a selling price of more than $25 will incur higher commission fees. The higher the selling price, the greater the impact; a $50 item will incur a final value fee of $2.06 instead of $2, while a $1500 item will incur a final value fee of $38.06 instead of $35.62.
But the news that really had people buzzing was the new eBay Express site to be launched in the Spring. eBay Express will contain Store and fixed-price listings from U.S.-based sellers on eBay.com that can be purchased right away. eBay Express will contain a shopping cart, and buyers will be required to use PayPal or a credit card to make a purchase. Only sellers with a 98 percent positive feedback score of at least 100 will be eligible to sell on eBay Express.
Some sellers are thrilled that there will be a differentiation between sellers on eBay Express and eBay.com, feeling there are many "bad" sellers that hurt eBay's reputation.
Initial reactions to eBay Express are positive overall, but the devil is in the details, and eBay has been known to fumble in the execution stage. Sellers who want their fixed-price and Store listings to appear on eBay Express must accept PayPal, and they must have PayPal global settings set to either ship to unconfirmed addresses or make sale-by-sale decisions. Shipping to unconfirmed addresses means there is no seller protection, so it works better in some categories and with some products than others.
eBay Express is not for every seller. I would venture to guess that sellers who deal in high-cost items and those who don't accept refunds may not be good candidates. We'll know more when we hear details of the eBay Express Purchase Protection. Those sellers whose items qualify but don't want to participate must opt-out of the program.
More information about eBay Express can be found online (http://pages.ebay.com/sell/announcement/overview/express.html) - scroll to the bottom for seller requirements. eBay President - North America Bill Cobb will likely answer questions about eBay Express in the next Town Hall event on Thursday (http://pages.ebay.com/townhall). And I'll be reporting on eBay Express in the AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the online-payment survey. We're analyzing the results and will make a full report in the next issue.
The AuctionBytes.TV News in Review program for January 15, 2006, is now online at (http://www.auctionbytes.tv). We're always looking for video to include in the news program, please contact David if you have any newsworthy footage.
I was very excited this week - a segment that aired on CNN told viewers to go to AuctionBytes.com for information about selling online, and even included a visual of the AuctionBytes URL. The text version, which is different than the on-air version is online: (http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/19/pf/saving/wilis_tips/index.htm). I'm waiting to hear back to see if I can get a clip to run on AuctionBytes.TV.
Kathy Greer, Editor of UnRavel The Gavel, just alerted me to the resurfacing of California's AB 1178, an assembly bill attempting to regulate (or clarify the regulation of) eBay drop-off stores (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/updates/Jan21,2006/asm_Jan.21.2006.html). I'll track this down for Newsflash.
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
