eBay is allowing certain sellers to request a deferral for some of their fees in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and it has extended the application period to April 15th.
Sellers in the US who have a subscription to an eBay Store can submit their application on the eBay website, where it explains, “To help with your cash flow, we are offering to defer payment on Covered Fees on your next eligible invoice. The deferred Covered Fees will need to be paid over your next two billing cycles. If your request is approved, 50% of the Covered Fees on your current invoice will be deferred until the next billing cycle, and the remaining 50% will be due on the subsequent billing cycle.”
The deferral timeline is a bit confusing, as we noted on the AuctionBytes Blog, so read the details very carefully. Note that “Covered Fees” include: final value fees, insertion fees, store/shop subscription fees, optional listing upgrade fees, and promoted listings fees.
eBay provides the status of such requests on the submission page within 3 business days of the application.
Initially eBay gave Store sellers until April 10th to submit their request. On Tuesday, eBay executive Marnie Levine announced the extension of the application process and said, “we wanted to make sure if there were any stragglers out there who haven’t opted in, have the opportunity to do so.”
Sellers should understand that defer means postpone – sellers will still owe the fees to eBay.
You can read more about the program on the eBay website.
Related story: Sellers Split on Marketplace Response to COVID Pandemic (April 7, 2020)
