eBay has also dropped final-value sales fees on all items sold domestically in the U.K., aside from cars, due to increasing competition from its newer challengers. That places the company as one of the frontliners in the e-commerce business.
That echoes a similar move the company made in Germany last year and puts eBay in good company with Vinted and Depop, two rising competitors gaining traction among those looking to sell secondhand clothing, among other products, online. For now, Vinted and Depop pass on selling fees, also known as ‘final value fees’, instead taking their revenues through the charging of other fees.
EBay’s announcement comes at a time when more consumer goods are becoming prohibitively expensive for U.K. consumers, who in turn drive demand for more affordable “pre-owned” alternatives. This is evident nowhere more than in fashion, where sales of second-hand clothing grew a whopping 18% last year to $197 billion globally, now comprising almost 10% of the total fashion market. 
Vinted, a marketplace for used fashion, posted its maiden profit after sales jumped 61% to almost €600 million in 2023 against its last valuation of $4.5 billion. Other companies also showed growth in sales, among them Etsy-owned Depop. In April, eBay axed seller fees for fashion items in the UK.
The giant marketplace will cut most seller fees, except for automotive products, meaning cars. This means there will be no final-value fees on the item sold and no insertion fees, meaning sellers are allowed 300 free listings on the website per calendar month. Any amount above this limit will attract £0.35 from eBay.
According to eBay, the final value is the fees that were charged on the total of the sale. Everything is included in it, right from the sale price of an item to the shipping and handling fees, taxes, and other additional charges that may have been incurred.
eBay Competition
With Depop deciding earlier this year not to charge seller fees in key markets like the U.K. and the U.S.—instead relying solely on payment processing fees for revenue—eBay’s methods seem at the mercy of competitive forces. Vinted doesn’t charge a final-value fee; it makes money from options like “buyer protection” and by offering sellers paid options to boost the visibility of their listings.
With the absence of the final-value fee, eBay hopes to attract more sellers with the promise that they keep more of the profit—something theoretically trickling down to better options for buyers. It said it was reporting its findings after scrapping the fees in Germany.
Our experience in Germany last year showed us that removing selling fees could help our marketplace by decreasing the friction to C2C [customer to customer] selling, which populates the diversity and supply of inventory on eBay’, said eBay president and CEO Jamie Iannone in an internal email published publicly.
The rise of both the buyer and seller would also open a big avenue for monetisation on both new and existing streams for eBay through advertising, financial services, and shipping. Further, he spoke about an “upcoming buyer-facing fee” that will go live the next year and be similar to the already existing strategy of Vinted.
The company has not yet indicated whether it will extend the new strategy into other countries. Since the key markets for the company are the U.S., the U.K., and Germany, it would not go out of character for the company to decide to waive the selling fees in their home market sometime in the near future.
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