eBay UK set to limit postage charges?
August 1, 2008
In June, eBay Germany introduced maximum shipping prices in the 34 categories where they believed buyers were most likely to be overcharged on shipping. Now it seems that eBay UK may be considering similar steps. A post from Richard Ambrose on the PowerSeller Forum (PS sign-in needed) asks:
In response, we’re considering a range of possible actions to eradicate excessive P&P on eBay, including imposing maximum or fixed P&P prices by category.
Over the course of the last few years, it’s also become more and more the norm in e-commerce for P&P to be free. We’re also considering how best to increase the availability of free P&P on eBay, including mandating it in some categories and rewarding sellers who offer it with better visibility and/ or lower fees.
Our main goal, as always, is to make eBay as attractive as possible to buyers for your and our benefit. However, obviously the type of changes we’re considering would have a very big impact on sellers in the short-term, so we wanted to hear your views on three questions:
- How would you like to see eBay combat excessive P&P?
- Would you like to see eBay encouraging free P&P? If so, how?
- What would you prefer us NOT to do in either of these two areas?
(I’ve copied the whole post in case of later disappearences.) Richard then goes on to clarify that this will apply to the basic domestic shipping options only.
eBay don’t know what they don’t know
The most common complaint against the policy, and it’s an entirely reasonable one, is how can eBay possibly know what shipping will cost for any particular item? I remember a listing of Chris’s, for five car hands-free kits; he was charging exact-cost £12 to deliver the 3kg parcel, but eBay pulled the listing twice for excessive P&P charges, because it was so far above the average for the category. Category averages are not always a relevent measure of reasonableness, and eBay have neither the staff nor the expertise to judge in this area. eBay Germany’s compulsory pricing will often not cover insured shipping, yet the policy affects jewellery sellers. This will be another quagmire of pulled listings, restricted accounts, and annoyed sellers with their livelihoods damaged. Dolphin salad, anyone?
Like several posters on the PS thread, I thought that detailed seller ratings were intended to combat excessive shipping. Sellers who overcharge will be marked down by their bidders, they’ll be disadvantaged in the search results, and therefore will be unlikely to sell much any more. They’ll either mend their scamming ways, or leave the site. So goes the logic.
Do buyers actually care?
If the DSRs haven’t achieved this, I can only come to one conclusion: that the DSRs in this area are not working as eBay think they should. Even sellers who offer free P&P frequently do not have 5 stars: I’ve done some experimenting recently with free P&P on some of my listings, but my P&P DSR for that account sits unmoving at 4.8.
There has been ample evidence that the postage DSR behaves differently to the other three scores: it is routinely lower for almost all sellers. Top sellers on eBay.com have scores for P&P on average around 0.15 lower than for item as described.
I’ve speculated before about why this is. I still think it’s because P&P fees are stated right there in the listing. They’re never a “nice surprise” for buyers, and therefore they’re more likely to be marked with a “good” 4 than an “outstanding” 5. My belief is that buyers are not as stupid as eBay think they are: they know that “free P&P” means it’s been paid for somewhere.
What buyers really want is not free, but fair P&P. I’d like, for example, to see the end of “standard shipping”, and for it to be compulsory for sellers to state what service will be used. Being charged £5 to post a t-shirt is excessive for second class, but quite reasonable for Special Delivery. Shouldn’t I get to know what my £5 will buy before I spend it?
And perhaps more than anything, buyers want combined shipping if they buy more than one item. If every item has P&P included in its listing price, then where’s the discount for multiple purchases? You alienate as many buyers as you please with free P&P.
Is free P&P normal?
There are arguments to be made for free P&P, and arguments to be made against it. The variables are many: not just what you sell, but how you sell it, where you sell it from, your routines, your buyers’ especial foibles all play a part. To charge or not to charge should be a decision sellers make for themselves.
But Richard says in his post - and he’s said it on several occasions before - that free postage is “becoming the norm” for ecommerce. Looking at things I’ve bought from the internet recently, I would say free P&P is most definitely not the norm.
Does your website offer free postage?
- No, never. (64%, 93 Votes)
- Yes, on orders above a certain value/volume. (19%, 28 Votes)
- Yes, on all orders. (17%, 24 Votes)
Total Voters: 145
Loading ...And in the meantime, what do you think of Richard’s proposals? A great way to keep happy buyers coming back for more, or a step too far for eBay? Leave us a comment.
Thanks to Steve from Kingsbridge Karaoke for the heads-up.
eBay UK “tweak” Seller Non-Performance Policy
June 14, 2008
Could this be a glimmer of hope for “dolphin” sellers caught in the net of eBay’s Seller Non-Performance Policy? Pink Richard Ambrose posted on the Q and A forum:
On the subject of SNP, the first sellers who were restricted as part of the tougher sanctions are coming to the end of their restriction period. Some have been suspended permanently, some have had their restrictions lifted. Having studied this first ‘wave’ we’ll make some tweaks to the way the programme works - most importantly, we’ll re-introduce a warning period rather than continuing with immediate restrictions.
While it’s always dangerous to extrapolate entire eBay policies from what Pinks post on message boards, in the absence of any official announcement on recent changes to SNP, that’s about all we can do.
This looks, in fact, like a great improvement to the policy. If the new criteria for warnings are the same as the old criteria for suspension, sellers with just one or two problem transactions may get a warning, but they shouldn’t go on to get a suspension. If warning period and SNP calculation period are both thirty days (which is a reasonable assumption), bad feedback and DSRs will have rolled beyond the radar, and PayPal disputes should have been dealt with.
Sellers will also have the opportunity to increase their numbers of positive feedbacks by selling more while they’re on a warning; though some will question why they should give more money to a company that’s threatening their account, others will welcome the opportunity to save the account by any means necessary.
As always, more details when we get them; if you’re one of the affected sellers, please leave us a comment.
Thanks to Dave in the forum for the heads up.
Mutual Feedback Withdrawal is being withdrawn
May 1, 2008
A sharp-eyed reader of the eBay UK Business Seller Board spotted a comment on eBay Germany, saying that mutual feedback withdrawal will not be available after the end of May. eBay Pink Richard Ambrose responded:
All eBay countries will be phasing out the Mutual Feedback Withdrawal process as part of the forthcoming feedback changes - with only buyers able to leave negs, there is little point in continuing the process as it is. Sellers will be able to appeal malicious, defamatory or accidental negs to eBay.
Richard’s logic is of course impeccable, but eBay need to consider that often, feedback is not the end of the matter. Frequently it’s used by inexperienced buyers to communicate a problem; and eBay’s insistance that feedback somehow “protects” buyers is part of the cause of this.
If a buyer uses feedback to notify me that their item has been lost or damaged in the post, should I
- (a) contact that buyer myself and try to make things right, or
- (b) shrug it off, save myself the money and the hassle, and not even bother responding to them?
Option (a) obviously makes for a better buyer experience on eBay, but without some way for the buyer to remove, change or edit their feedback, I don’t have much incentive to do it as a seller.
I sincerely hope that Richard’s post is only half of the story, because otherwise sellers are going to be backed into a very nasty corner, and that can only be bad news for both buyers and eBay.
