eBay Germany No Longer Allows Cash On Pickup, Requires Use Of eBay Payment Processing
eBay Germany is going cashless to make transactions "more secure" by eliminating the cash payment option for local pick up sales.
According to EcommerceNews.EU, the announcement was sent to users in an email.
Arjan
eBay sellers in Germany can no longer accept cash payments from customers when they pick up their orders. Click & collect is still available, but payments must be made through the “existing standard payment processing”.
eBay Germany informed affiliated retailers of this policy change via email last Friday, and it went into effect this Monday. Sellers are no longer able to select the “Barzahlung bei Abholung” (cash on pickup) option when listing products on eBay, and the cash payment option has been automatically removed from previous listings.
eBay is directing sellers to its standard online payment methods, whether through its APIs or not, including various credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Klarna.
eBay has used the German market to test a variety of new policies and initiatives this year, notably dropping fees for private sellers in March in an attempt to bring more casual sellers onboard and to try to engage the flywheel that turns sellers into buyers on the platform.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Promoted Listings Express ads for auctions have also recently been dropped from the German marketplace, with auctions added to the existing Promoted Listings Standard cost per sale model instead.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Cash on pick up is still allowed on other eBay sites but as with the announcement on Promoted Listings Express, there's always the question if policy changes made in one market will filter into others.
Do you offer cash as a payment option for your local pick up or click and collect listings and if so, how would it impact your business to lose that option? Let us know in the comments below!
much too complicated now for a few pounds a year in sales
They just "killed the golden goose". I imported my 1500+ eBay items to there since it was free. Turned out just to be a lot of work for (maybe) 3 sales a month.
The total fees were higher there before this new $20 a month cost structure, even though they claimed otherwise. When one factors in the 3.49% + 49 cent PayPal processing fees so one can get paid, there went a good chunk of profit.
Now they have boosted their commission to 11%, and still claim that the cost to sell there is less than eBay's. And remember that this does not include payment processing. WHY?? Makes no sense at all.
On eBay, for $27.95 a month, I sell over 100 items there every 30-31 days. Makes ZERO SENSE to pay a site $20 to make just a couple of sales. Since they now allow 50 "free listings", I have trimmed my offerings back to just below that amount. Also had to raise all my prices accordingly to absorb the extra selling costs.
The people who run the show here obviously didn't realize that eBay sellers who imported their listings gave the site a great depth of product, which would attract more buyers. Now that will be gone, because NO ONE will pay them $20 monthly for little to no sales.
The site also has technical issues that they refuse to fix. It was a decent resource to enable the occasional sale, but they will soon be stacked onto the eCommerce trash heap of companies that THOUGHT they could compete with Amazon and eBay. Etsy may also suffer the same fate soon, as many sellers are also leaving their site due to high fees, website issues, and poor management.
Basic eComm rule here: When you do not carry any inventory, and sellers are solely responsible for supplying your site with the goods offered, DON'T BITE THE HAND WHICH FEEDS YOU!!!