14 DAY TRIAL // eBay is trying to make its service more attractive to British users and it’s offering private sellers the chance to list up to 20 items for free per month.
Starting on May 13, UK eBay users will have free listings on any category they want, except for Motors. When the 20 have been used, the regular 35 pence per listing will be applied for any auctions or fixed-price sales.
The new structure seeks to attract odd users, those who don’t exactly make a living by selling things on eBay. Vendors that sell high volumes at low prices are at a disadvantage, since the previous structure practiced by eBay allowed them to create up to 100 free listings per month for items that had a starting price of under £1.
Also disappearing are the tiers of auction fees where the insertion fee is dependent on the tier of the starting price, as well as the different fee structure for media-related items and other categories.
The company is also encouraging private sellers to create shops, reminding everyone that you don’t need to be a business to create a central shopping destination where buyers can learn about them or the products on sale.
There are some perks for private sellers, such as up to 100 items that can be listed in any category for free each month. These can be set in an auction or fixed price format and have any start price. Up to 100 listings can be created for free and the final value fees are reduced from 10% to 8%.
The price for a Basic Shop will continue to be of £19.99 per month.
The company hopes that through these changes, the fee structure will become more transparent and easier to understand.
eBay has been making quite a few changes on its platform lately, even if these modifications aren’t spread worldwide. Last week, the popular site made an important addition by inserting a new category for virtual currencies. Users can now sell and exchange Bitcoin, Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies via the United States site.
The service is not yet accepting Bitcoin as an official payment option and this doesn’t seem like a likely action in its future, particularly due to the link between PayPal and eBay.
The new feature was introduced on the down low, without much effort to draw attention to it, listing it among all other changes in the April announcement.