eBay lowers fees to salvage waning growth

Posted January 29, 2008 at 08:46 PM by Leo Blanco

Section: Web, Websites

Hoping to recover from its sluggish growth and support low-cost sellers, online auction giant eBay will implement a new pricing structure and tighter seller standards effective February 20, 2008 in the U.S.

One of the notable changes is the cutback on the cost of listing new items by 25% for auction bidding and 50% for fixed price markets. Moreover, the company will also award sales incentives and priority search ranking for “sellers that describe items accurately, ship on time, and ship at a fair price”. Some business analysts believe this scheme could aid in winning back sellers of items valued below $25.

Together with this new pricing scheme is a stricter selling standard to ward off any mediocre and abusive selling practices such as higher shipping fees and inaccurate product descriptions. In effect, sellers with low satisfaction ratings will not get any preferential treatment in terms of search ranking.

Although the U.S. sellers will test the waters, eBay will in time cascade these changes worldwide.

Read [Reuters]