Online marketplace Bonanza is raising commission fees from 3.5% to 11%, and it’s imposing new fees on larger-volume shops (called booths). Currently, Bonanza charges a 25-cent transaction fee for sellers who don’t have an active membership subscription, plus a commission fee of 3.5% on the “Final Offer Value,” or FOV.
Beginning May 1st, Bonanza will charge a 25-cent transaction fee for non-members plus a commission fee of 11% on the Final Offer Value.
Bonanza explains on its website: “FOV is the amount that the buyer paid to you for the item sold, plus any portion of the shipping fee that exceeds $10,” and it provided the following example: “If your product sold for $15 and you charged $12 for shipping, your Final Value Fee (FVF) charge would be calculated based on an FOV of $17. $15 (cost of item) + $2 (portion of shipping fee that exceeded $10) = $17 FOV.”
In its letter to sellers announcing the changes, Bonanza also explained its new listing fee for higher-volume sellers. It will charge a listing fee of 3 cents per item/month on listings, with no charge for the first 50 active listings. “The maximum you can be charged is $20/month. If you hit the $20 listing fee cap in a given month, you’ll receive a $5 Bonanza Ads credit – our way of saying thanks for keeping your booth thriving!
Bonanza recommended that as sellers near 716 listings, they should consider exploring its Gold Membership plan for $25/month, which provides perks such as: Unlimited Listings; Google Analytics; and Waived Transaction Fees.
Bonanza also announced it is rolling out new ad technology: “Until now, advertising was managed at the marketplace level. But starting soon, we’re moving to a more advanced, booth-specific ad system. This change means more targeted traffic to your listings, giving your products better visibility with the right buyers.”
It also announced new buyer and seller protections in Thursday’s letter:
“We’re also rolling out a new protection program to help build trust with first-time buyers.
“At Bonanza, we want shopping to be a joy, not a risk. This program will give both sellers and buyers peace of mind, making it easier for customers to feel confident purchasing from your booth.
“If you use Bonanza Payments and Bonanza Shipping, your orders will automatically qualify for Seller Protection. That means less worry about chargebacks and more focus on making sales.”
Bonanza went on to say in its email, “Even with these updates, Bonanza remains one of the most affordable online marketplaces for sellers,” and it said, “We understand that changes to fees aren’t always easy- but these updates are designed to ensure every product is promoted effectively and that you get the best possible return on your sales. They also allow us to continue developing new features and tools based directly on your feedback, wishes, and requests.”
Last year, Bonanza instituted a $2 fee for transactions not using Bonanza to print shipping labels but rolled it back after proving unpopular.
Selling fees are posted on the Bonanza website.
Well, I guess I will be closing My “booth!” There is No Way I can afford to Pay for all my listings to Just Sit There!
And I Haven’t gotten Any notification of this!!
My recent dealings with Bonanza revealed that they are Idiots! My credit card expired and I hadn’t updated it with them, but they Didn’t think to remind me Before…they Shut My Booth and told me to update, which Failed several times! Their ‘response’ was 4 identical emails that where No help, and then 2 more emails asking How They Did in Helping me!
I am with you. My Bonanza shop mirrors my eBay shop. I have 900 items, so I would have to pay the $20/month. While I sell 150-200 items a month on eBay, I sell 1-2 on Bonanza. I doubt I have ever made $20 in profit in any month on Bonanza. But hey, if some place doesn’t want your business, how can you say no to them.
Bonanza does not honor the best feature of USPS Ground Advantage — package being shipped picked up at my home. That feature works at ShipStation though. Bonanza wouldn’t allow me to change my shipping account to ShipStation. Since I had no transportation to get to a post office, I had to close my booth. No real loss there. No sales anyway.
And, if you’re smart, do NOT sign up for Bonanza’s Shipping Reserve Fund. I had $33.91 left over and I had a devil of a time getting it refunded to me. Keith, their “Happiness Producer,” was a real piece of work.
I had a booth (without an upgraded membership they sell) and had to agree to their taking 25% profit of my item as a FVF so that it would appear on Google and other places. No profit. I only sold about one item a year there. Waste of time seling on Bonanza. Try Ebid.net instead.
I just closed my selling account, like “BatmanOfOz” said “There is No Way I can afford to Pay for all my listings to Just Sit There!”
I don’t even get close to enough sales to pay to have all my eBay listings listed with the new fees. 🙁
I hope they change their mind; they don’t get enough traffic to charge that much in fees.
This will be my last 2 weeks on Bonanza as well. I fell for paying for “turbo” a few years ago. It took my sales of about 1000 a month to nothing. I asked them to look into it after about 4 months with only 1 or 2 sales a month at that time and they said basically nothing wrong, working as expected, LOL I went from paying them over 100 a month in fees to 25 for that turbo service. Discontinued that service as soon as they “helped” me. Now I may have 3 sales a year for the last few years. Amazingly immediately after receiving the email for this price increase, I had a 10.00 sale and it was for an item I had put on “reserve” on Bonanza. I also immediately received the “on hold” for credit card email. Fortunately, I only have 4.00 left on shipping balance. It also will not let me update my card to pay my non-existent fees since I have a credit balance with them for overpaid fees.
Yes, Leaving Bonanza after 12 years. All done as of May 1. No advertising, 1-2 sales per year and I’m sure that’s just a fluke. I have purchased off Bonanza so feel sorry for the ones that remain in the hopes they will improve. Shipping is ridiculous and always seems glitchy. I kept “hoping” over the last 8 years, things would get better but it never did. The current ownership reminds of a kid with a penny bank. Grab what you can and never put any bank back into the business. To bad as it could have been a much better site with minimal work.
I always hoped the site would improve. 1-2 sales per year over the last 8 years. Really sad as they had so much promise. Not paying those kinds of fees for no advertising or sales. Closing shop by the end of April.
Bonanza is a joke that getting funnier every year.
I briefly entertained opening up a booth years ago when I was getting tired of eBay. Then they took away the option for offline payments but announced they would offer Stripe as an alternative to PreyPal. Offline payments went away overnight, yet it took years for the Stripe option to materialize. And then they completely bungled it by requiring PreyPal to offer Stripe. The entire point of offering multiple processors is because you may no want, or be able, to deal with certain ones.
Complain as much as you want about how eBay works but at least eBay got big before it got stupid and cruel. Bonanza, like virtually every other also-ran, went clown world before they had any leverage. Why would I put up with these shenanigans when I have nothing to lose by bailing out?
Well, it’s now after midnight of April 28th and I Just Finished the very time-consuming little project of Saving (Copy, Paste, Edit, Create Folders) EVERY SINGLE ITEM I had listed on Bonanza!! Over 600 Treasures! I will double-check everything in the next 2 days before CLOSING MY ‘BOOTH!’
Funny, I did the Very Same Thing when I Left eBay a few years ago! That is a Lot of Work and So Much Redundancy of Product in my computer!
And Now what do I do with it all?!
(Oh, and as if I Haven’t given myself Enough work…I will go and Choose a Photo from each and every item to put on its Folder, so at least it Looks Pretty!) 🙂
^^X^^