eBay is retiring its “Premium Service” badge on seller listings as it goes all in on its eBay Plus program that offers paying members free shipping on eligible items.
eBay told sellers this week, “The eBay Premium Service (ePS) badge will be phased out starting in July 2020. It has already been removed from search pages and will be removed from listing pages later this year.”
Why do away with the Premium Service badge? eBay said consolidating badging provides buyers with a more consistent and compelling shopping experience.
And, it said, “It also creates a simpler selling experience, as there is only one set of criteria for you to meet in order to be recognised and rewarded for great service.”
eBay explains eBay Plus from the seller point of view on this page of its website. “Listings that earn an eBay Plus badge see up to a +16% sales uplift on average vs. listings that are not badged eBay Plus,” it said. The statistic is based on a comparative analysis of approximately 170,000 listings that didn’t have the Plus badge for at least 365 days and then obtained and had the badge for at least 180 days during 1/8/18 – 30/4/19, eBay explained.
You can read Wednesday’s announcement on the eBay Australia Announcement Board.
I know that Ebay charges I believe $49.99 to be in the Ebay Plus and the free shipping on all of their qualified items. As we all know, Ebay almost always shows those listings where they make the most money or have these little perks associated with them. I do not ever seem to remember seeing a response to the question about how the Seller who issues this free shipping ever gets any reimbursement for eating the shipping charges all while Ebay collected the annual fee for Buyers on this service.
I hope there is one or once again it is just Ebay reaching deeper and deeper in the Sellers pockets for another “Cost of Doing Business” on Ebay while Ebay rakes in the extra cash for a service they do not provide. If I have just missed this answer, I would greatly appreciate a link to the Ebay policy showing this.
As usual, eBay tries to ape Amazon but without any of the skill but plenty of malice:
Where is the incentive for a buyer to sign up and fork out their $49.99?
The only listings that can qualify for the program must be “free” postage anyway.
eBay will sponsor Express Postage at $4 a time to the seller but they are probably counting on late delivery back charges counterbalancing that as “Express” delivery in Australia is NOT nation wide, it relies on the recipient residing within the Post Office’s “express post network” (not all postcodes).
The networked area is really quite limited to major cities or parts thereof.
Country and remote areas can be serviced by “Express” but delivery within the network timeframes are specifically NOT guaranteed or implied (a fact eBay conveniently chooses to ignore).
According to eBay’s magical thinking, any late express deliveries will be the sellers fault and they will be penalised financially for same.
Amazon, on the other hand, will always charge an amount for shipping which is ignored for members so there is some justification for going Prime if you buy frequently from the site.
There are also other benefits like the Prime streaming service.
Buyers can also pay monthly or yearly for membership.
Amazon fulfills the orders themselves so has skin in the game. They have also plugged their warehousing directly in to the Australia Post network and they have accounted for the express network deficiencies.
eBay’s Plus program offers little of tangible benefit and quite significant downside for participating sellers.
I foresee low subscription rates ending its miserable existence in reasonably short order.