eBay Australia shifts focus from auctions to fixed price selling

Online auction site eBay Australia is set to introduce extra benefits for users looking to sell their items at a fixed price in a reaction to what the company says is an increased level of demand for the site’s ‘Buy it now’ feature.

The move comes as an Australian eBay user has accused the site of allowing several instances of “shill bidding”, whereby fake accounts are used to drive up the price of items sold on the site.

eBay Australia managing director Deborah Sharkey says the new features are an attempt to persuade the 52,000 Australians earning some form of income from the site to sell more items at a fixed price.

Under the changes, which will come into place September 10, sellers will be encouraged to sell using the fixed price option through a new monthly subscription fee that gives them access to lower upfront listing costs and lower eBay fees on product sales.

“Subscribers will also be waived of fees when adding a picture, and they will also be able to list items longer, for up to 30 days,” Sharkey says.

“These new features are completely optional. So sellers can always use the auction style of selling. But as eCommerce continues to grow in Australia, the bulk of that growth will be coming from people buying products at fixed pricing, and we want our users to be able to capitalise on that.”

She points to figures that show 50% of global eBay sales are now from fixed price items and says that while fixed priced sales have grown by 12%, auction sales have continued to decline.

“Auctions have and will be a significant part of eBay, and we are not changing our auction practice at all. These new changes are designed to make it easier for sellers to tap into a significant demand for fixed pricing.”

The announcement of the fixed price selling push come as eBay user Philip Cohen published an 8,000-word analysis of ‘shill bidding’ on the company’s message board, alleging that eBay Australia’s security systems are flawed.

‘Shill bidding’ occurs when a user creates a fake account, and then uses that account to bid on an item they have put on the site for sale. Once they bump the price higher, they remove their own highest bid from the item, giving the winning bid to the previous bidder, who now pays an inflated price.

Cohen wrote that a new eBay policy which hides the user names of people bidding on an item allows people to bump up their own item’s prices without anyone else knowing.

But Sharkey defended the site’s security systems. She says the use of ‘shill bidding’ is forbidden and the company is doing all it can to prevent its use.

“eBay is Australia’s leading shopping destination, and users come looking for great value. On average they get prices cheaper than in retail stores. But we don’t like this practice, we don’t want it, it is absolutely not something we encourage and we have systems in place to prevent it.”