eBay sent a survey this week to find out how sellers felt about fees. The survey asked respondents a series of questions about insertion and final value fees, asking them to choose which format they would choose - auction or fixed price - under various scenarios. eBay routinely sends surveys to sellers before making policy changes and are often a very good indication of what the company may be planning.
The survey asked sellers how they would trade-off Insertion fees versus Final Value fees, asking them to allocate eleven points among each of the two types of fees based on which they were more inclined to pay. For example, if they preferred a higher final value fee and no insertion fee, respondents were instructed to allocate all eleven points to final value fee and zero to insertion fee.
It then asked sellers to participate in a set of "selling experiments," and presented 9 selling situations. For each scenario, respondents were asked to choose whether they would list in fixed-price format, auction format or not list their item on eBay. Each scenario presented an item's approximate worth and different listing duration and different fees for fixed-price and auction formats.
Respondents were asked why or why not they chose the answer they did for each scenario.
The survey also asked sellers to indicate how confusing they thought three fee structures were: Tranched, Flat Rate with Cap, and Flat rate with Fee - and then asked them which fee structure they preferred.
The survey asked for the respondent's latest 12-month sales on various online channels, and asked which criteria were most important to them in choosing an online channel to sell items. Included was a list of venues such as Amazon and Bonanzle. Respondents were asked to indicate their preferred listing duration and which duration they thought buyers preferred the most.
The last question was, "If there was one thing that eBay could do to get you to sell more on their website, what would that one thing be and why?"
A reader sent us screen captures of the survey, which we've put up on the site for you to peruse.
FVF Fees #1 FVF Fees #2 Reason for not listing Fees Scenario #1 Fees Scenario #2 Fees Scenario #3 Fees Scenario #4 Fees Scenario #5 Fees Scenario #6 Fees Scenario #7 Fees Scenario #8 Fees Scenario #9
In February 2008, eBay lowered insertion fees and raised final value fees, believing that sellers would prefer to pay more in commission fees when items sold if they could pay less in upfront listing fees. The company also introduced category-based fees - making listing fees lower in the media category, and later introduced a five-free listing plan for auction listings targeted at consumers and casual sellers that had a higher commission fee, depending on the selling price.
Survey a Harbinger of eBay Fee Changes to Come? 
