eBay is raising fees for payment processing through its Managed Payments program, and it's a major hit to sellers' pocketbooks. 

eBay did not announce the change, but on Tuesday (May 21, 2019), it updated its Payments Terms of Use to add a per listing payments fee.

Notice the term "per listing." Payment services like PayPal charge a "per transaction" fee. Presumably this means if you sell 5 items to a single buyer in a single transaction, you would pay eBay 25 cents times 5 in addition to the "payment processing fee," which is currently 2.7% of the total order amount. Using PayPal, ... Read More

PayPal Chief Financial Officer John Rainey told Business Insider that eBay is not as relevant as it was 10 years ago and said PayPal is looking forward to July 2020 when it will be released from eBay's shackles, a reference to the 5-year operating agreements entered into between the companies when they split in 2015.

Three weeks ago, PayPal executive Bill Ready revealed that the payments portion of Facebook Marketplace's new checkout was built on PayPal's marketplace platform. Rainey went further, telling Business Insider that Facebook's potential for PayPal could be far greater than that of eBay.

The opportunity goes beyond Facebook ... Read More

It was a bit startling to read a tweet referencing a drinking establishment at eBay headquarters in San Jose, California: "Feel like I've finally arrived. Having a drink at @eBay onsite pub Walker's West with the brilliant #ebay #community team," wrote an employee of one of eBay's contractors who included a hashtag for "yes those are drink tickets."

It's probably news to sellers (and shareholders?) that eBay has a pub-like lounge on campus - especially one built with what appears to be no-expenses-spared. The contractor describes the project on its site as follows:

eBay released a slide deck of an investor presentation dated May 2019 in which it paints a positive picture of the company. It also argued against a shareholder proposal that calls for a mandate to have an independent Chairman of the Board. 

eBay outlined its strategic priorities:

- Best Choice (greatest selection including "incredible deals")

- Most Relevance (easy-to-find and compare items with a data-driven and personalized shopping experience)

- Most Powerful Selling Platform 

For the latter priority, eBay outlined the following:

- For business sellers: the potential to drive profitable sales and build a brand;

- For consumer sellers: an easy way to declutter, sell and make money;

- A partnership, not a competition.

eBay also ... Read More

A company called 71lbs leveled a serious charge against FedEx, accusing the shipping carrier of using unscrupulous tactics. In a blog post on Tuesday, Ellen Riley wrote:

71lbs offers services to shippers: it automatically monitors their FedEx and UPS accounts for late deliveries and service failures, and it automatically files claims on shippers' behalf. "If ... Read More