eBay Germany has announced that selling on the online marketplace will be free of charge for private sellers as of March 1, 2023.
The following announcement (translated by Google) appeared on the online marketplace’s community board:
Dear sellers,
Selling items on eBay.de will be free for private sellers from March 1, 2023. Private sellers then pay neither a listing fee nor a sales commission when they sell on eBay.de. The change also applies to offers that were already posted on eBay before March 1, 2023, and have not yet been sold.
Why are we doing this? We know that fees have been the biggest hurdle for private sellers to sell on eBay. The change in fees not only means an attractive opportunity for additional income for private sellers, but also a wider range of inexpensive and used items on eBay.de. This allows consumers to save when shopping on the eBay marketplace in economically challenging times and, at the same time, give used things a second life.
With the elimination of fees for private trading on eBay.de, eBay is investing in the entire marketplace ecosystem: the figures show that anyone who sells on eBay also buys twice as much as buyers who do not sell. And that also means higher sales opportunities for our commercial dealers. We are your reliable partner again this year and will support you with improved functionalities and various programs to start and grow your business.
We wish you every success in selling, and thank you for your trust!
Best regards
Your eBay team
What This Means For Business Sellers
While many business sellers will believe this move will put them at a disadvantage on the German marketplace, it may actually be good news. eBay.de is essentially investing in its entire community by offering free listings to private sellers. The more people that list their items on eBay, the more people will visit the site and potentially buy from business sellers.
The practice of offering free listings to private sellers has long been deployed by classified advertising platforms like Gumtree (previously owned by eBay), Craigslist, or Loot. Free listing is also a practice adopted by marketplace disruptors like Vinted, with which eBay competes in critical business categories like pre-loved fashion.
How Can Business Sellers Stand Out?
Business sellers worried about being lost in the crowd need to do more to make their listings more visible.
They can do this by implementing professional branding and design, following eBay listing best practices, and optimising their listings accordingly.
The first step of this journey is to analyse how well your eBay listings currently perform in terms of listing best practices. You can do this using Frooition’s free eBay Listing Optimisation tool, which scores your listings and provides actionable tips to improve your listings.
Learn More
To learn more about how Frooition can help your business’s listings stand out in a sea of private sellers, schedule a free 15-minute discovery call with one of our eBay experts today.
