From the Editor – July 11, 2021

When you hear the cost of selling is going up, you may immediately think of shipping rate hikes, or perhaps something related to online sales tax. But next month, payment-processing fees will go up for some sellers.

PayPal is raising its fees from 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction to 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction. (Rates will be 2.59% + $0.49 if you use PayPal as a merchant gateway for credit card payments, be sure to read PayPal’s full announcement.)

PayPal charges fees on the total amount of a transaction, so add an extra 3 cents for every $5 in shipping you charge buyers.

Not only does it spell bad news for those who rely on PayPal, it could give other companies ideas, including online marketplaces like eBay, which charges a 30-cent fixed fee in addition to combined final value / payment-processing fees. Will companies feel emboldened to raise their fixed-price fee to 49 cents? Let’s hope PayPal’s rate hike isn’t contagious.

Speaking of shipping costs, we may soon learn if the USPS will raise rates during the holiday shopping period as it did last year. In August 2020, the USPS announced it would raise all commercial domestic competitive package volume from October 18 through December 27, 2020.

Meanwhile, the USPS wants to slow down First Class Package Service (FCPS) in addition to First Class Mail – see this AuctionBytes Blog post for details.

Given the trends, you may want to look back at the last issue for the article, “With Costs on the Rise, Should You Raise Your Prices?“

We’ll soon hear from marketplaces about 2nd quarter sales. eBay, Amazon, and Etsy will publish earnings for April through June that show how sales and revenue compare to last year when the pandemic was fueling online shopping.

It will be Amazon’s first earnings call with a new CEO. Jeff Bezos stepped down on July 5th, but he had gotten out of the habit of being on the earnings call with analysts. It will be interesting to see if his successor Andy Jassy will join Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky in the Q2-2021 call. We’ll be sure to cover Q2 results in Newsflash, so stay tuned.

In today’s issue, we look at targeted product sourcing. It’s a strategy that has always intrigued us, and Don Heiden explains how it reaps benefits for his reselling business.

Kenneth Corbin talks to a 20-year Amazon veteran about fulfillment. Dave Glick was instrumental in developing Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) before he left the company in 2018, and he now works for a firm the offers outsourced fulfillment services to high-volume sellers. See what he says now about using FBA – it may surprise you.

Also in today’s issue, Collectors Corner looks at Aloha shirts, and we wrap up with Letters to the Editor.

Thanks for reading.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.