eBay Australia Raises Fees and Wants Fewer Auctions

eBay sellers in Australia will pay higher final value fees beginning September 22, and eBay is bringing its Top Rated Seller program to its Australian website. eBay Australia told sellers the fee changes are aimed at encouraging professional and business sellers to list more Buy It Now items in Stores. "The changes will also enable eBay to better differentiate and incentivise professional, business and consumer sellers."

In explaining its changes, eBay said that future growth in ecommerce would come primarily from Fixed Price formats.

eBay also said consumer sellers have asked it to reduce the upfront risk when selling on eBay.com.au by removing insertion fees. "Through their higher engagement with the site, consumer sellers are among eBay's best buyers, therefore encouraging them to sell more keeps them actively engaged and buying on the site which benefits other sellers."

Changes to non-Store fees

• Eligible sellers will be able to list up to 30 single quantity listings per month in any format with zero insertion fees (excludes Powersellers, Stores or sellers registered as a business on eBay)
• Final value fees will increase from 5.25% to 7.9%, capped at $49.95 for each of the first 30 listings per month
• Insertion fees remain as they are today for sellers who have exceeded the monthly 30 free insertion fee limit as well as PowerSellers, Store holders and sellers registered as a business on eBay, with no cap or sliding scale on the new final value fee of 7.9%

Changes to Store fees

• Final value fees for Auctions will be the same as Buy It Now, to encourage more fixed price items on eBay.com.au consistent with customer demand
• eBay is trialling free insertion fees for fixed price Anchored Store listings
• For Basic and Featured store holders, media category pricing will remain unchanged. Anchored store holders will receive free insertion fees as part of the above trial

In addition to fee changes and the Top Rated Seller program, eBay Australia will require sellers who wish to list multiple items in one listing to open an eBay Store, be a PowerSeller or be registered as a business on eBay.

eBay Australia will raise the price of Featured Plus to $49.95 for all listings up to a 14-day duration and will also raise Good Til Cancelled and 30 day listings to $149.95. Sellers with a store will continue to pay $59.95. Eventually, Featured Plus will be removed as an option for all sellers, "as Best Match is eBay's preferred mechanism for enabling more relevant and popular items to appear at the top of search results," eBay explained.

Update 7/26/11: A spokesperson from eBay Australia said the announcement has been updated. The section on Featured Plus was edited to remove the line, "Sellers with a store will continue to pay $59.95."