New Ebay policies.....Sigh

[carcrawfordfan]

These next 3 posts are some new ebay polices. My 2 cents is RIP Ebay and let's get something else going. I can not believe the no paper payments.

 

eBay Changes Search, Bans Checks & Money Orders

 

By Ina Steiner

AuctionBytes.com

 

August 20, 2008

 

eBay made major announcements overnight, including major fee changes to its Buy-It-Now Fixed Price listing format effective September 16, 2008 (see today's other news stories in AuctionBytes.com for details). eBay said it would also make changes to Finding (search), Shipping and Seller Standards. And in a move that was expected by many, it will move to an electronic checkout system, banning checks and money orders.

 

Finding

 

eBay is making two major changes to Finding (also called Search). First, it will change the mix of inventory on the site and will score fixed-price and auction listings separately in Best Match, but display them together on the search results pages. eBay's Jeff King of the Finding Team said this allows it to give greater weight to Time Ending Soonest to auction formats, which would be irrelevant to fixed-price listings.

 

In addition, eBay will expose auction or fixed-price listings more heavily in search results, depending on the category. For example, it would likely show more auction listings than fixed-price listings in collectibles categories. The changes are designed to ensure that auction listings are not buried underneath Fixed-Price listings.

 

eBay will also create a new factor for its Best Match search algorithm for fixed-price listings only, called "Recent Sales." This will reward multiple-quantity listings that have had recent sales over single- and multiple-quantity listings with fewer or no recent sales. eBay will continue to use factors such as DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings) and shipping, in its Best Match algorithm. In addition, factors will be given different weights in different categories, as is done today. King said, "We let buyers tell us what's relevant," with eBay mining data based on buyer behavior.

 

Changes to finding will go into effect on September 16, 2008.

 

Seller Standards

 

Beginning November 1, 2008, eBay will require sellers to have a minimum DSR of 4.3 across the board. eBay's Dinesh Lathi said this will affect a very small percentage of sellers.

 

Payments

 

eBay is moving to an electronic Checkout system, banning checks, money orders and postal orders. Accepted payment methods will include merchant credit card accounts, ProPay, and PayPal, effective late October.

 

Shipping

 

Lathi said eBay is "actively looking to bring shipping costs into the realm of the reasonable," stating that shipping is important to buyers, who will go elsewhere if shipping is high, and will draw in buyers if shipping costs are reasonable. In the Media category only, eBay will put limits on Shipping & Handling charges, effective mid-October. It will vary by specific subcategories.

 

In certain "edge cases," Lathi said, such as an 80-pack DVD, there will be a safety valve: sellers will have the option of using the shipping calculator if the caps are not appropriate. The shipping caps will apply to the first shipping service. eBay did not have details about the caps available to reporters on Tuesday.

 

Where shipping caps apply only to the Media category, eBay will give incentives to sellers to offer free shipping in all categories. It will give items with free shipping more exposure in search, and will offer additional discounts on FVFs (Final Value Fees). The discount will apply to individual listings, so sellers can choose which listings, if any, on which to offer free shipping.

 

[carcrawfordfan]

#2

 

Wed Aug 20, 2008 12:56am EDT

 

By Alexandria Sage

 

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc is cutting the fees U.S. sellers on its site pay for fixed-price items, in one of the company's boldest moves this year to boost merchandise for sale, lure new buyers and take on competitors.

 

Total sellers' fees will decrease in most cases under eBay's plan to improve the balance between buyers and sellers on the world's largest online auction site, and thereby reduce customer defections to rivals such as Amazon.com Inc.

 

"I'd say this is the most fundamental change we've made, ever, to the marketplace," Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplace operations, told Reuters. "It's a huge shift from where we've been."

 

Instead of charging sellers to list each item separately, eBay will charge 35 cents to list any number of the same types of fixed-price items. Similar changes will be made in Germany and Britain, eBay's second- and third-largest auction markets.

 

The move, effective September 16, is a bid to reduce the clutter of similar items on eBay -- 100 pairs of white socks will now be sold as a group, for example. The change is timed to boost business heading into the crucial holiday season.

 

Such items will remain listed for 30 days instead of seven, helping sellers avoid the time-consuming process of re-listing unsold items and lowering the risk of inventory going unsold.

 

Fixed-price items, which made up 43 percent of merchandise sales on eBay last quarter, often attract newer or less-sophisticated online buyers who don't want to wait for a multi-day auction to close. EBay says fixed-price sales are popular because they bring in newer, more in-season goods, whether its plasma televisions or the latest video game.

 

EBay has been trying to attract more buyers as its main auction site has experienced slowing growth in recent years. The novelty of online auctions has waned and rivals like Amazon have muscled in on its turf with strong fixed-price offerings.

 

"Consumers are voting with their wallets and saying, 'Auctions aren't really the way I want to buy cosmetics,' or something like that," said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, a sales consulting firm that advises online merchants who sell through eBay and other sites.

 

He called eBay's move a "relatively big change" to make before the holidays that also shows eBay's new management is willing to look beyond the traditional auction format.

 

Patti Freeman Evans, research director at Jupiter Research, said given the fast-growing nature of fixed-price sales, eBay's move is "very opportunistic, but also in line with what their customers are telling them they want."

 

MOST COMPETITIVE?

 

EBay's fixed-price focus reflects a shift in e-commerce. Consumers are now more comfortable with Web shopping and barraged with choices, whether it's auctioneers, retailers or classified sites like craigslist.com promoting bargains online or in stores. Also, sellers often post wares on many sites.

 

EBay, a San Jose, California-based company with 84 million active users worldwide, said lower listing fees, together with rejiggered back-end fees that will vary according to category, will make it the most competitive fixed-price player.

 

EBay said an "average" fixed-price seller that once spent $5,000 in eBay fees each year would now spend 11 percent less under the new fee system.

 

A revamped search engine, which is now being tested and will be introduced in September, will give buyers looking for a specific item options to buy at a fixed price or via auction.

 

This year, eBay has been taking steps to reward its best sellers and give new incentives to buyers, including coupons.

 

Fraud protections have been enhanced and upfront listing fees have been cut in favor of fees for successful sales. Sellers with high customer service ratings have won discounts and their goods featured more prominently than other sellers.

 

Further changes eBay said it would make include a maximum shipping price for sellers in media and electronics categories, with incentives to offer free shipping, and requiring sellers to include at least one electronic payment method.

 

The latter may irritate some small, but vocal, sellers who have objected to recent eBay changes.

 

"This will be viewed as 'eBay continues to push PayPal down everyone's throat,'" Wingo said.

 

Besides its main auction business, eBay also owns online payments service PayPal and Web-based call service Skype.

[carcrawfordfan]

#3

 

eBay Makes Major Announcement, Creates Core-Store Hybrid

 

By Ina Steiner

 

AuctionBytes.com

 

August 20, 2008

 

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.

 

 

[joe_collector]

Wow, it looks like that employee memo I posted about awhile back was spot-on.

 

I am now accepting apologies...

[MMurdock]

One thing I will say as a buyer is that shipping charges do need to be brought under control. I'd have to see the new rates of seller fees to see my reaction as a seller. But making it paypal only (or so it appears) is that the paypal fee will be mandated.

[awe4one]

You'd think forcing Paypal only payment fees on users would violate some anti-trust law since it's the same company...

 

Jim

[Ares]

You'd think forcing Paypal only payment fees on users would violate some anti-trust law since it's the same company...

 

Jim

I thought they allready Said they wernt doing that, but it says they wil l accept propay which technically means its not paypal only

[Schmakt]

You'd think forcing Paypal only payment fees on users would violate some anti-trust law since it's the same company...

 

Jim

that's what I keep thinking about... While they aren't saying "you MUST use paypal," that is, in effect, what is happening. That sucks. I haven't received a money order or whatever in a long long time, but it still seems pretty messed up that they are doing this...

[kahml]

Here's what it comes down to:

 

Is eBay planning to eliminate third-party checkout?

Yes. We realize that checkout services offered by eBay Certified Solution Providers are valuable services to our sellers. Our plan is not to disrupt these services but to work closely with these providers to integrate them into eBay checkout in 2009. Ultimately, it's eBay's goal to have buyers always pay for their purchases within the secure confines of eBay.

(emphasis mine)

 

Larry

[joe_collector]

Oh yeah, ProPay is a real secure method of paying, you need to send the seller your credit card information.

[nik]

No matter what Ebay does, or whatever changes they make, unless someone starts an alternative place to dump thousands upon thousand POS that belongs in the transfer station, they will be alive and kicking.

[joe_collector]

Of course EBay will be alive, but these bizarro policies are *intended* to increase the number of items for sale and the number of buyers.

 

How can offering *fewer* payment options do that?

 

If this goes through, what EBay needs to do is officially limit NPBs (easily trackable now) from affecting any seller rating and stop them from leaving feedback.

[BronzeBruce13]

Maybe more sellers will make a move to accept credit cards directly. How much more costly is that as opposed to accepting paypal? I would imagine they would have slightly firmer ground to stand on in disputes since they are the CC Co's client.

 

Since sellers that make a certain amount are now more likely to be legit (anyway) with a tax ID and such due to Ebay/Paypal making everyone's business available to the IRS wouldn't this move make sense?

[FlyingDonut]

Of the approximately 3500 items I sold on eBay in the past 12 months, I'd guess that less than 2% were paid for by methods other than Paypal. This change will have almost no effect on my business, and will make my life easier.

 

BTW, they aren't messing around: you better follow the rules.

[joe_collector]

Donut, do you think EBay is actually going to start enforcing NPBs once this comes into effect?

[mschmidt]

One thing I will say as a buyer is that shipping charges do need to be brought under control. I'd have to see the new rates of seller fees to see my reaction as a seller. But making it paypal only (or so it appears) is that the paypal fee will be mandated.

 

What? If the shipping charge in an auction is too high for your liking, don't bid on the friggin' auction.

[JvR11]

banning checks and money orders. .

 

Can they really do this? Wow, this is bad for people who really want to pay by MO. I guess just another way to scam fees.

[FlyingDonut]

Donut, do you think EBay is actually going to start enforcing NPBs once this comes into effect?

 

Yes. They do now, actually. A NPB is the only way to fight a neg, so the seller has to hit back hard instantly upon not getting paid. They're taking it much more seriously than they used to.

[joe_collector]

If the shipping charge in an auction is too high for your liking, don't bid on the friggin' auction.

 

That's a lame answer that totally disregards how many potential buyers see insane S&H prices on EBay and never come back.

 

Shipping profiteers get zero respect from me.

[joe_collector]

 Originally Posted By: joe_collector

Donut, do you think EBay is actually going to start enforcing NPBs once this comes into effect?

 

Yes. They do now, actually. A NPB is the only way to fight a neg, so the seller has to hit back hard instantly upon not getting paid. They're taking it much more seriously than they used to.

No, what I meant is use the payment system to verify if the bidder is a NPB, as under the current flawed system, all the buyer needs to do is to reply to the email and the Neg sticks. And buyers know this. EBay's excuse has always been that the buyer *may* send the payment in via check or MO, but they cannot use that anymore.