eBay to charge buyer fees instead of seller fees in UK

by | Oct 7, 2024 | E-commerce News

Starting next year, eBay will begin charging buyer fees instead of seller fees in the UK, following in the footsteps of Mercari, Poshmark, Depop, and Delcampe, all which shifted fees from sellers to buyers this year.

Quick backstory: eBay distinguishes between “private” and “business” sellers in the UK, unlike in the US.

Business sellers in the UK are subject to more stringent legal obligations compared to private sellers, such as having to comply with consumer protection laws, offer return policies and warranties, and pay taxes on sales including VAT, which are not mandatory for private sellers, so that's why there's the distinction. So, now that you understand that…

In April, eBay started testing no fees on used clothing for private sellers in the UK, and last week, the company made it free to list items in all categories except motors.

The catch to the no seller fees? eBay is introducing a “buyer-facing fee” early next year.

There's an unspoken rule in e-commerce: “Hide your fees from buyers.”

This is why traditionally e-commerce sellers have always absorbed fees like platform transaction costs, payment processing fees, and even shipping into their product costs. The end result is that the buyer sees the exact amount they'll be spending on a product while shopping, versus having additional fees reveal themselves at checkout. That's checkout optimization 101.

The only company I've ever seen successfully charge buyers a platform fee on an international scale has been Airbnb, but even they eventually started giving the option to display the full out-of-pocket cost to buyers browsing the site after pushback from users. 

The reality is that buyers don't want to be charged additional fees to patronize a marketplace, and turning the traditional model upside down isn't a good move for a marketplace. eBay has been having a hard enough time as it is to attract / keep buyers on its marketplace, and adding a buyer fee certainly won't help. 

Is eBay simply out of ideas at this point? Is their whole strategy essentially — well that platform did this, so we could try that?

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