Transaction fees too high – 65% of my margin!
I am really extremely annoyed about the current selling fees on eBay.
I buy my product for 322,65 € and sell it for 450 €. So my original margin is 127,35 €.
But eBay deducts 83,42 € in fees alone – including transaction fees and the ad fee. That means eBay is taking over 65 % of my total margin. That is absolutely disproportionate and economically barely sustainable for a seller.
If eBay would only take 15 % of the margin, that would be completely fine – everyone could live with that. But 65 % is simply way too much.
It’s not possible to work profitably on this platform in the long term.
And I have not even taken taxes into account – this is exclusively about the eBay deductions.
I want to make it clear why I am annoyed:
Purchase price: 322,65 €
Selling price: 450 €
Margin before fees: 127,35 €
The fees in detail:
eBay transaction fee: 64,68 €
Advertising fee (Promoted Listings): 18,74 € – that is my own decision, so I’m not complaining about that
Total fees: 83,42 €
In the end, I am left with only 43,93 € profit –
and that is even before taxes are deducted!
My main problem is clear: eBay alone is already taking an enormous chunk of my margin through the 64,68 € transaction fee.
The advertising costs are optional, but 64,68 € just for the transaction is clearly too much.
In total, eBay takes 83,42 € from my 127,35 € margin,
so about 65,5 %.
This is simply not economically sustainable, eBay urgently needs to change something, this is not acceptable!
sammlerkiste-1-2-3
·8 months agoYes, it’s a tough business and what once made eBay lucrative were the comparatively humane fees and good reach ... unfortunately neither of those is current anymore 🤔
The good advice to simply raise prices is "funny" .... that actually works in some areas, but unfortunately not where competition is pretty fierce.
The margin examples that were mentioned are certainly true for retail (brick-and-mortar stores), but much less so in online retail .... BUT it depends .... as a manufacturer (or self importer) you can calculate very differently than, for example, buying through wholesale .... for well-known products it always goes through wholesale or directly from the manufacturer, but usually also with the corresponding competition .... with us, almost all collectible products (LINDNER & KOBRA) are "well-known" items, here eBay earns more on some items than we do, but that is "normal" in online retail !!
It’s just that you can’t sell all items with a dream margin .... for example, we have ceramic bracelets that retail for 19.95-29.95 ... would customers still buy them "at such a high price" if they knew they came from a store liquidation and that we bought about 1,000 pieces at 50 cents each 😋 ... the quantity lasts until retirement, but that’s how you make money with such items; the rest is necessary "bycatch" to have volume (with wholesale and with the packages)
.... the MIX is what makes it ! Chin up and keep going
Good business from Hamburg 😎
ttd4it
·8 months agoCall me “crazy” if I claim that in this day and age you can’t really express your margin in percentages across the board anymore.
There are simply too many factors in the wide range of sales categories that affect the final customer price.
Just a few keywords:
1.) someone is their own manufacturer or producer
2.) direct purchase from the manufacturer or producer
3.) purchasing goods through wholesale
4.) sale of new goods, used goods, refurbished
-------
Then Aunt Google delivers the following answers after asking the AI:
(Question: "Typical margins in retail?")
Margins by industry
Important distinction: margin vs. profit
What is missing from the list, among other things, is the market for electrical goods, for example. Here, margins are 3- 7%.
sunrise1605
·8 months agoI buy my product for €322.65 and sell it for €450.
€450 is way too little. It should be at least 100%, otherwise it doesn't add up.
200% and more would of course be even better.
You can't make a living from such a small margin; in the end, you're paying out of pocket.
imperial-modellbau
·8 months agoGood morning @sunrise1605
yes, I agree with you, 100% calculation would be the basic requirement to achieve a decent profit.
However, that is hardly possible these days, especially not with branded goods.
You can only achieve 200% or more with Chinese goods - and even there the air is getting thinner, because of the massively growing competition.
With the Ebay fees that have increased in recent years and the almost forced need to run promotions and ads, in the end there is nothing left over.
Basically, all that remains is to look for items that still allow a decent margin - or պարզապես to leave it alone - unfortunately ! 😟
sunrise1605
·8 months agoHello @imperial-modellbau
Well, I guess I’ve been spoiled too much 😁
I have managed to get up to 1000% and more with quite a few items, but 100% was the minimum.
imperial-modellbau
·8 months agoHello @sunrise1605
well, as a manufacturer I calculate completely differently than a "normal" retailer.
That’s why I can’t make any sense of the OP’s calculation either! 🤔
With a margin like that, I’d bite the table edge too!
sunrise1605
·8 months agoHello @imperial-modellbau
I hope TE doesn't have such a thin margin on all items.
It's tough, but at some point you have to sit down and crunch all the numbers hard, even if the result hurts and maybe shows you that you're only working for others and have nothing or very little left for yourself.
Then self-employment no longer looks like being self-employed, but rather you're the wallet filler for everyone standing in a long line wanting their due.
over_dog
·8 months agoHello, online retail is generally referred to as part of the digital revolution! Almost all of these social upheavals have only benefited a few!!
Regards
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·8 months agoHi @bod-technics
basically, I can only agree with the other members here in the forum. However, you have a flaw in your reasoning in your calculation here: Ebay does not calculate the fees based on your margin (Ebay doesn't know that, thank God), but on revenue. This is also communicated that way on all Ebay pages.
If you end up with too little left over, that is solely the result of your calculation. If you can't buy more cheaply, that's your problem and not Ebay's.
So, if you don't have enough left over in the end, just look for alternatives.
rest-fest
·8 months agoGood morning @bod-technics , you should check your calculation once. With your purchase price and sales price, minus the VAT to be remitted and factoring in shop costs, Lucid and shipping fees, and whatever else there is, my simple profit calculator says that you’re making a loss of at least XX EUR per item. If your personal tax rate kicks in at the end of the year too, it may end up being even more disastrous.
Or put differently - if something isn’t economically viable, you just stop doing it.
You’re trapped in the dilemma of small sellers on eBay.
- high purchase prices and too low purchase quantities
- poor visibility and little sales on the platform
- deductions, regulations, and rules like a large corporation
What can you do?
Optimize purchase price (not always possible) and others have already advised that too.
Focus on a few fast-selling items and turn over as much of them as possible.
Switch to used goods - "junk", "trash", and "odds and ends" still bring in the most with little effort.
Run on multiple tracks.
Otherwise you, too, belong to the obsolete model of the "small and sofa seller". Few items, no capacity, hardly any capital, and above all no way to make ends meet.
eBay won’t change anything as long as everyone keeps going along with it. If there were an exodus like with private sellers, privileges would come too. But we commercial sellers are still far from that.
So look for niches, optimize as much as possible, and keep going as long as it remains profitable.
ttd4it
·8 months ago@bod-technics
Basically, you're not alone with this problem.
But you can't solve the problem with/at ebay.
But other online marketplaces obviously take their cut too. The only way around that is if you run a shop with your own domain. Then the only additional help is registering with a price comparison site in order to quickly gain visibility.
gebraucht-ist-gut
·8 months ago@bod-technics
to be completely honest, all commercial sellers usually have the same costs on eBay.
If it's not acceptable, why are you still selling on eBay?
After all, you already knew the fees before selling.
Why complain afterward?
Yes, the fees are pretty hefty, no question.
But now getting upset that it's not economically viable?
That was all known beforehand.
Then all that's left is to buy cheaper or sell at a higher price, or check whether the listings are really necessary.
Unfortunately, you can't use your margin as the benchmark for the fees.
The fees aren't going to change - at least not in the direction of being cheaper.
Your opinion or suggestion for improvement, "fee reduction," will certainly be noted by eBay, but nothing more will come of it.
bod-technics
OP8 months agoI knew the fees beforehand, but only when selling do you realize how much they reduce the actual profit margin.
This is not about complaints out of ignorance, but about the fact that the fees are economically barely sustainable in practice when you sell products like in my example.
Of course, you can try to buy cheaper or sell at a higher price, or reduce optional advertising fees.
But the basic problem remains: a transaction fee of over 14% (in my case €64.68 on a €450 selling price) destroys a large part of the margin, and that is not acceptable.
My goal is not to criticize eBay just to “complain,” but to show that the current fees are very burdensome for sellers.
I hope that feedback like this is taken seriously by eBay, because the platform should also offer economically sustainable conditions for sellers.
Yes, all commercial sellers generally pay the same fees. But in my specific case, eBay eats up almost 65% of my margin with the transaction fee alone.
Your suggestions to buy cheaper or sell at a higher price, have nothing to do with my reality, because prices from my suppliers are often fixed and higher selling prices on eBay severely limit the market. Obviously you have other products in mind; in your case it's about small used items for €1, that is not comparable to my category.
I also want to emphasize: this fee policy will, in the long run, lead to an outflow of sellers who will switch to their own shops or alternatives like Shopify.
In my category, the fees can be as high as 15%, which is very burdensome for sellers.
I think it makes sense for eBay to lower the fees in this category in order to make the platform economically viable for sellers and to keep more sellers in the long term.