ebay: Subscription for free shipping is coming

Especially for the German market ebay Plus is introduced for free shipping and returns.

At Amazon there is already for a long time the so-called PRIME offer. For 49 euros a year, Amazon customers can book free and especially fast shipping of their orders, if the ordered goods are delivered directly by Amazon and not by one of the dealers in the Marketplace. Especially in Germany, Amazon PRIME* is very popular.

ebay Plus

Now ebay also wants to follow suit with a similar offer specifically for the German market. With the ebay Plus subscription, the customer is guaranteed free fast shipping and returns on some items. In addition, subscription customers get access to special offers.

The package arrives on time.

For buyers ebay Plus will cost 19.90 EUR per year, and is thus significantly cheaper than Amazon PRIME. However, fast free shipping and returns are not guaranteed for all items on the trading platform of ebay. At the start of the new subscription model, up to 10 percent of all commercial offers on ebay are planned to be available with the ebay Plus add-on. That’s not much, and that also explains the price of the subscription, which at first seems extremely reasonable.

Dealers are only allowed to participate in ebay Plus if they have achieved the status “seller with top rating”. All other and private sellers are left out for now.

In the future the rating system will be changed as well. Instead of the very strong focus on the personal ratings that customers give after a purchase, data from tracking, such as shipping time, will be evaluated in the future, making the merchant rating more objective.

German customers

ebay Plus was developed specifically for the German market, as ebay explained. In this country, differentiated shipping options are particularly popular with customers. The possibility of free returns also plays a major role in the purchase decision.

By the end of October 2015, ebay Plus will be rolled out gradually and will be available to all customers. Merchants get a 15 percent discount on sales commission for ebay Plus transactions.