Subject:
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Re: ebay Australia going paypal only in June
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:38:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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7482 times
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> ebay Australia will only allow transactions by paypal by late June. The
> exception is cash paid for an item/s picked up in person.
So, as a seller, we will pay eBay fees to eBay and then we will pay our
Paypal fees to, err, eBay. Nice!
While eBay claims it is for buyer safety, I have to wonder if the buyers are
actually clamouring for it. Although I'm a minnow in the world of Lego
sales, I have sold on both bricklink and ebay over a few years and I have
always offered other Aussies a wide variety of payment methods including
Paypal, direct bank deposit, cheque, cash in the post, money order, etc. Now
I don't levy any kind of direct or hidden fee for using Paypal so for the
buyer the cost to them of using Paypal or direct deposit is the same. Yet
almost every Aussie buyer chooses to pay by direct bank deposit with only a
couple paying with Paypal. So, this tells me that Paypal is not the
preference of Aussie buyers.
And looking at feedback, I have often noticed that most of my Aussie buyers
have feedback only from other Aussie sellers. This suggests to me that many
Aussie buyers do not wish to engage in international transactions. This
suggests to me that they probably don't have Paypal, since the compelling
reason for most of us get Paypal is to make international transactions.
So, while ebay buyers and sellers who deal internationally probably do have
Paypal (out of necessity), I rather suspect the buyers and sellers who only
deal within Australia almost certainly don't. So, all of those people now
have a choice:
1) get Paypal -- which is clearly what eBay want them to do
2) stop using eBay
As international transactions do have greater risk, one presumes that the
Aussie-only buyers and sellers are more likely to be risk-adverse than the
international buyers and sellers. Given that most studies show significant
numbers of Australian are still concerned about doing financial transactions
on the WWW, I wonder how many of those risk-adverse Aussie-only buyers and
sellers will be willing to walk away from eBay due to their reluctance to
use Paypal.
I am thinking about a former colleague in her late 50s who used to buy a lot
of clothes and accessories from ebay. She used to send cheques through the
post as she never did any financial transaction online and didn't even have
a credit card (her husband did have one but only for emergencies). I find it
hard to imagine that this lady will suddenly embrace PayPal. It will be
interesting to see if any of the other Aussie auction sites will see an
increase in activity if people walk away from eBay. Of course, eBay's
success depends on the critical mass effect. The sellers come to eBay
because there are so many buyers and the buyers come because there are so
many sellers. So if some portion of the buyers/sellers walk away, the
critical mass effect is weakened, although probably not to the extent of
destroying eBay, but it may provide a window of opportunity for a rival site
to achieve a critical mass it currently lacks.
Actually what I suspect will really happen is that the other forms of
payment will continue but "under the counter". That is, I suspect bidders
will email the seller to ask if they will accept other forms on payment and
only bid if the seller is willing. I can't honestly see how eBay could
police that. So I suspect that a seller offering "cash on delivery" may
become a signal for "I accept other forms of payment, please ask me for
details". Now I suspect that eBay probably realise that other forms of
payment will continue, but from eBay's perspective, if anything goes wrong
with these other forms of payment, then the buyer can't blame eBay. That is,
I think this move is more about eBay's safety and its profits than about
buyer safety.
My prediction is a drop-off of eBay sellers when the May deadline for
offering PayPal is introduced, followed by a drop-off in eBay buyers when
the June deadline for payment options as Paypal and COD are introduced. I
think most of the drop-outs will not move to other auction sites, but will
simply delay buying/selling for a while to see how the situation shakes out
(i.e. hoping eBay will change its mind). After a while, the drop-outs will
be forced to make the decision to either get Paypal, forget eBay (going to
other sites in some cases or nowhere in other cases), or get wind of the
fact that private payment arrangements can still be made and resume with
eBay on that basis. Frequent ebay users will get Paypal; their need to
transact (for whatever motivation) will drive them to overcome any
resistance to Paypal. Younger people are more likely to get Paypal (as they
are more generally comfortable with online payments). It is the older and
occasional buyers and sellers that are more likely to walk away (their need
to use eBay isn't desperate and they are too uncomfortable about using
Paypal and probably not well-enough connected to discover that
under-the-counter payments are still possible). There are a lot of older
people using eBay, so it will be very interesting to see what that group do.
Generally for that group of people to move to online payments, they
generally have to be coaxed into it by someone they trust who will hold
their hand through the process. So if they have a relative or friend who
says "but you'll miss using ebay so much, let me show you how my Paypal
account works, and I'll help you set it up", it may happen. Without that
"word-of-mouth" recommendation, I think they will not touch Paypal with a
bargepole.
Since I have Paypal myself, it's obviously not going to stop me buying on
eBay if I feel the urge, but I guess I will be suspecting that sellers will
be doing more gouging on "shipping and handling" in order to cover the
seller's Paypal fees (shipping rip-offs are already rife on eBay and this
will only make them worse). As a seller, I will definitely be holding off
for a while because of the fear that if the number of buyers are reduced, it
must push prices down (basic supply-and-demand theory). Being an occasional
buyer/seller on ebay, I think I fit my theory of "delay for a while to see
how the situation shakes out", even though I am a Paypal user.
So I shall watch on from the sidelines with interest. I wonder how crowded
those sidelines will be :-)
Kerry
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: ebay Australia going paypal only in June
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| (...) Hi Kerry Long time no see?? You got it right in all that you said but I think you really hit the nail in the end. I also think it will go underground and Email comms will step in between buyer and seller and that is happening every day now. (...) (17 years ago, 12-Apr-08, to lugnet.loc.au)
| | | Re: ebay Australia going paypal only in June
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| (...) Pretty much true on my side, I prefer direct deposit, and have done that for most orders, second method I use a credit card (If they have the facilities set up), I will never get a paypal account, so no more ebay for me. (I don't trust a (...) (17 years ago, 14-Apr-08, to lugnet.loc.au)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | ebay Australia going paypal only in June
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| As announced on the 10th April... ebay Australia will only allow transactions by paypal by late June. The exception is cash paid for an item/s picked up in person. The transition period starts in May when paypal must be offered as a payment option (...) (17 years ago, 12-Apr-08, to lugnet.loc.au)
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