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Fri May 5 2017 22:59:37

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

By: Ina Steiner

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If you sell on Tradesy (often compared to Poshmark), you'll want to pull your low-cost listings before Wednesday. The fashion marketplace is changing its selling fees effective May 10th. 

The company is instituting a minimum a flat-rate commission fee of $7.50 for all items sold for $50 or less and is requiring a minimum selling price of $10. 

A reader who did the math said that in her case, $30 was the break-even point with the new fees - anything selling for under $30 would end up costing her more than she made. (Note that $7.50 for a $30 sale equals a 25% commission.)

It seems Tradesy only want luxury items, the reader said. "eBay doesn't want the little seller; Amazon doesn't want us. Where are we to go?"

A spokesperson confirmed the new fee structure. She would not disclose what percentage of items sold through Tradesy were priced under $50, but told EcommerceBytes it comprised "a very small percentage."

The new policy comes after a 66% commission fee increase in mid-November to 14.9%.

Here's the letter Tradesy sent users this week:

Thank you so much for being a valued part of the Tradesy community. We’re writing to tell you about our new minimum commission policy.
 
Starting at 12 AM PDT on May 10th, 2017, all sold items less than $50 will incur a flat commission fee of $7.50. Sold items more than $50 will remain at our existing 14.9% commission rate. This change will not affect any sales prior to May 10th.
 
As a result, Tradesy will now require a minimum selling price of $10 for all new listings. Please note, any listings you currently have under $10 will remain at our existing commission rate and will not be impacted by the $7.50 minimum commission fee.
 
This change will allow our fully dedicated Selling Team to bring you new benefits to help you earn faster, including:

- Listing suggestions so that your items appear in search results and are easier to purchase

- Insights to help you understand how often shoppers see your listings - plus tips on improving your sales

- Selling experience improvements to give you better listings, faster - and with less work

- App upgrades so you can effortlessly manage sales and buyer communications, plus see your earnings breakdown right from your mobile device 
 
It will also allow us to continue bringing you the services you’ve come to know and love on lower-priced items, including friendly phone and email support, plus expert image cleaning to increase sales by up to 25%.
 
Questions? Feel free to reply to this email and we'd be happy to help.

Where's the best place to sell new, used, and vintage clothing online? Let us know!

Comments (21) | Permalink

Readers Comments

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Sat May 6 10:27:22 2017

I'm back on Bonanza (ugh!) and they have a ton of fees for your booth to "be seen".  The gold plan, the silver plan and on and on.
I absolutely hate Ecrater because they never show up in the searches.  I'm in the process - very long - of designing my own webstore through Wix.com but it's taking a long long time to do it.

If Ecrater was smart it would put some money into the site and promo and pickup every single seller from EB and AMZ.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

This user has validated their user name. by: iheartjacksparrow

Sat May 6 11:57:08 2017

@Chicago48 - I still don't understand your lack of success on eCrater. I don't know what sort of clothing you sell, but have you tried contacting other sellers on eCrater who sell the same type of items to find out what they do to get sales? Did you try opening a Facebook page to send buyers to your eCrater store? I know from reading their posts that Moonwishes and Rexford love selling on eCrater, as I do, so there are successful sellers on that site.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: DingDong This user has validated their user name.

Sat May 6 12:36:23 2017

Bonanza wants you to pay for their Freedom February. (The work vacation on some island for all the employees and their family. Nice benefit)

eCrater: I am still building traffic. I still have to do some other things to that site, but it is starting to gain. I only have Pinterest.

Tictail: another great site and I do have sales there. Nice looking site and easy to work with.

I did closed and deleted accounts from Addoway, Bonanza, Etsy, Zibbet.

I am keeping accounts, but nothing for sale on eBid, Unisquare and Webstore. These sites started to do some upgrading. Keeping just in case, but my account is established.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Sat May 6 16:33:12 2017

I still don't understand your lack of success on eCrater. I don't know what sort of clothing you sell, but have you tried contacting other sellers on eCrater who sell the same type of items to find out what they do to get sales? Did you try opening a Facebook page to send buyers to your eCrater store? I know from reading their posts that Moonwishes and Rexford love selling on eCrater, as I do, so there are successful sellers on that site.
^^ I guess it depends on what you're selling; right?

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

This user has validated their user name. by: eXtinctBay

Sat May 6 23:06:07 2017

Wow. Another company raising fees. Even those who do not have anywhere remotely close to the traffic of an eBay or Amazon.

Why doesn't Google jump in and let everyone have a website where their items can be seen with a simple search? And a seller can set their own sales terms and policies without the interference of an eCommerce company.

I occasionally sell vintage t-shirts, and a good site to look at is defunkd.com. Problem is that many of their buyers are from small Asian countries, where fraud runs rampant. So I cannot offer my merchandise there.

These companies are going for the quick money grab before Google or someone else steps in and controls online sales. And does it where there is an equal playing field for both buyer and seller, and all items can be seen 24/7/365.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: aim04744 This user has validated their user name.

Sun May 7 17:35:18 2017

I have been selling on Tradesy since the beginning and this blew me away. They have recently raised fees to 14.9%, implemented a possible (probable?) 21 days hold on seller funds and now this.

They are out of money and desperate. This topic is going around the chat groups and LOTS of sellers have ended every listing over there. Tradesy is headed to it's end IMO.  

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Moonwishes This user has validated their user name.
Web Site

Mon May 8 01:11:09 2017

That kind of commission is nuts. Even Amazon with all it's eyeballs doesn't have fees anywhere near that from what I know, nor does ebay. For a site that many have not probably heard of, it is crazy and I can understand why everyone would pull all their items from it. I just did a search for a simple classic dress and found a lot of listings on Google Shopping, but not one from Tradesy. I added the word pattern to the search and did find my eCRATER store listed. So contrary to what Chicago48 says, eCRATER listings do show up in google shopping as long as you include the google attributes that are required. You also need to do a lot of your own promotions, but for the minimal fees you pay on eCRATER, I have no problem with that. I did my own promotions when I sold on ebay and I also promote some of my Amazon listings as well. I'm not about to sit back and whine that I have no sales, until I have done everything humanly possible to get them. Then maybe I have a right to complain.

I 'like' that little mention of sellers sales on Tradesy should go up 25% because of this new fee. For that I would say, Prove It! Are they meaning the amount of orders goes up 25% or the income coming in is 25%? For that it could just be the sellers having to jack up a $7.50 listing to $10 and they have made an instant 25% more, but then they will be paying $7.50 of it to Tradesy. Since I don't sell there, I don't know what the difference in fees would be from a $10 sale now and what it will be in a few days. Who is going to go to all that work to sell anything at all for $2.50 less payment processing fees, shipping costs, etc. Doesn't seem worth it unless you have 50+ of the same thing that will fly out the window and you would be happy to make $2.50 each on them.

These venues are getting way too greedy and it is to their detriment. Tradesy may have just killed their business with this new announcement.


Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: handmedownheaven This user has validated their user name.
Web Site

Mon May 8 01:47:08 2017

I have tried every wanna be eBay site that has sprung up with absolutely no sales.  The best results I have had is my own IP on another site PLUS Shopify for Facebook.  My page has almost 19,000 likes and my shopify for facebook store has only been open 2 weeks with 7 sales.  I haven't had a sale on eBay in almost 3 weeks.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

This user has validated their user name. by: tanzi

Mon May 8 03:00:44 2017

I actually have more luck on Bonanza lately than anyplace else. I gave up on ebay....Loved Tradesy in the beginning about 2 years ago,  now they just went insane like most of the other sites, Pulled all my lower cost items out and I may pull everything out at this point.....Ecrater is terrible...I sell very nice higher end designer clothing many NWT, and I dont sell for crazy prices and I had ONE as in 1 sale in 2 years AND that was for a pair of drapes Lol so i gave up on them.....Mercari believe it or not is where i have had the most sales in the past year, only problem with them is everyone wants a ''deal'' and they try to get you down in price  and now there is a commission where there never used to be, but most of my sales from there have been outright sales not offers, so i still have items there but if you dont list everyday it slows down, and i would much rather sell from my desktop than a phone.  

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 07:45:12 2017

They are out of money and desperate. This topic is going around the chat groups and LOTS of sellers have ended every listing over there. Tradesy is headed to it's end IMO.  
^^
Last year they bought Shop-Hers - that cost a ton of money; and then they got an infusion of $30Million investment.  All that adds up, so yeh, they need money to cover those acquisions and pay back the investors.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: quovadis12345 This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 07:56:25 2017

we sell luxury pre-owned bags on Tradesy ranging from $99 to $200.
Since February 2017, sales have come to a grinding halt. Something is wrong.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: mcposty This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 10:49:46 2017

That's insane. It is also bad for buyers who will not find some anything cheaper then 20 dollars. With that kinda take plus shipping..everything will be expensive on there

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: val2525 This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 12:05:04 2017

Tradesy's last capital venture infusion was May 2016. None since. They keep saying they expect to "be profitable within the year". Except that "year" keeps getting extended, and extended, and extended. I think they're running out of money and no new VC partners seem to be on the horizon.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: mcposty This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 14:01:56 2017

Its this whole philospohy of companies that you shouldn't make profits you just just keep buying more ventures..well that works when you buy the right things such as Amazon, its disastrous when you buy things that tank you.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: dander This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 15:54:40 2017

I sold a few items on tradesy, but what are they thinking with this fee?  Why keep people from seeing your site. Sure small sales are a pain, but the idea is to build a business. Must be some MBA's with no real world experience running it

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: fifilapew This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 17:05:54 2017

perhaps Tradesy believes they will soon have a captive audience due to all the BS vero antics going on over at ebay on pricy high end designer items and they can't afford to waste the server space on lower end items??? just a thought

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: aim04744 This user has validated their user name.

Mon May 8 18:12:31 2017

by: Chicago48 This user has validated their user name.
     
Mon May 8 07:45:12 2017
They are out of money and desperate. This topic is going around the chat groups and LOTS of sellers have ended every listing over there. Tradesy is headed to it's end IMO.  
^^
"Last year they bought Shop-Hers - that cost a ton of money; and then they got an infusion of $30Million investment.  All that adds up, so yeh, they need money to cover those acquisions and pay back the investors."

I understand that. But IMO the way they are going about it is not going to work out well for them. Sad really because I liked Tradesy and did fairly well there.  

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Moonwishes This user has validated their user name.
Web Site

Mon May 8 20:28:29 2017

>>Must be some MBA's with no real world experience running it <<

Or MBAs that are used to making so much money that they are used to their wives spending hundreds of dollars on purses, shoes and clothing. They figure that no one wants $10 clothes or even $30-40 pieces. Can you imagine what JD, of late from ebay, how much his wife got to spend on clothes when he was making what, a 1/4 - 1/2 million dollars a day! If they had pets, they probably spent more on them than most of us can spend on ourselves in a year. The rich really are different and for these companies to succeed they have to have the non-rich at the helm so they have a closer understanding of their buyer base.

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

This user has validated their user name. by: Rexford

Wed May 10 06:49:24 2017

iheartjacksparrow, not just love.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!  :)

Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing   Tradesy Raises Fees for Selling Low-Cost Clothing

by: Barbbie This user has validated their user name.

Sun May 14 09:22:28 2017

I put absolutely no effort on ecrater; however, I still have sales there so I know they are being seen. If I had the time to devote to it, it would be much better.  I think ecrater can be what you make of it.

Do not, under any circumstances, give Bonanza more money for their higher subscriptions, that's just a ripoff, they do nothing for you.  When I did that, my sales stopped completely for 9 months until I ended the subscription with turbo  and went back to the lowest one, then the sales started again although never what they once were. I begged them to find out what was wrong for months and they ignored every request.  It was obvious from the site info that they were not advertising under turbo or anything else so it seemed a simple thing to fix. I had previously sold up to 3000 a month there.  As it is now, most of my sales there are very high sales fees even though I choose a low percentage, I often have nearly 17% fees plus the payment processor. Most of the times I have sales there now are on those "free" turbo days when they are trying to convince me to sign up for a higher subscription again. I may sell 100 a month now.  Don't  waste your time on Bonanza!

Boy am I glad I didn't have the time to list on tradesy!!

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