eBay is hopping on the free-to-sell bandwagon, although still in a very limited way. As of September 30, 2024, eBay UK removed selling fees for “private” sellers (as opposed to “business” sellers, designations that do not exist in the US).
There were recent clues eBay UK might make the move – it recently reduced the number of sellers who would qualify as private sellers by capping the number of listings per month from 1,000 to 300 as of October 1st. A bigger clue was when eBay UK displayed a popup last week announcing fee-free selling in an apparent glitch that had sellers buzzing.
eBay is following a trend. In March, selling platform Mercari eliminated seller fees, though it shifted fees to buyers. Collectibles marketplace Delcampe shifted fees from sellers to buyers in the spring,* and in July, Etsy’s Depop platform eliminated selling fees and shifted them to buyers.
eBay had already made it free for private sellers in the UK to list used clothing in April, but that news wasn’t cheered by all at the time. Business sellers said it would make it harder for them to compete on eBay.
Anticipating such objections, eBay said in Monday’s announcement that it was supporting its community of hundreds of thousands of business sellers with new exclusive features, including “enhanced seller protections and free 1:1 support with seller clinics to give sellers easy access to growth support.”
eBay also said that when it removed selling fees in eBay Germany last year, consumer-to-consumer volume returned to positive growth, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of incremental GMV relative to its prior trajectory. “Plus, not only did more people start selling on eBay, but more than 250,000 sellers started buying – and they ended up buying twice as much as buyers who don’t sell, illustrating how free selling drives holistic growth. eBay UK has also already seen positive results since its launch of free fashion selling and AI-powered listings in April of this year, with a double-digit increase in listings for popular items such as jeans, shirts, and dresses.”
Nearly buried in the announcement was information about a new feature coming soon to the UK called eBay Balance: “Starting from mid-October, this new feature gives sellers the flexibility to use their earnings to shop on eBay, promote their listings, purchase delivery labels or withdraw available funds.” That’s a feature buyers and sellers had when PayPal powered payments on eBay, and it will be interesting to see if eBay expands the feature beyond the UK.*
Update 10/1/2024: It appears eBay Balance in the UK may be the equivalent of Spendable Funds in the US.
*Update 10/4/2024: Edited to clarify that Delcampe shifted fees from sellers to buyers.
Ok, I think this is a way for eBay to make more money off of seller advertising, on the logic that free listings will flood eBay UK with even more stuff, and sellers will need to pay promoted listings to get their stuff to stand out. Since advertising revenue from promoted listings is about the only area seeing revenue growth across eBay. eBay must figure that this strategy will lead to eBay ending up making more than they do now. Very clever.