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Sorry I’m not very knowledgable on this, but thought it would be an interesting discussion topic. News out this morning is that Amazon cut off Australians from the US Amazon site due to a new tax law in that country which will require, I believe a 10% tax on goods bought from US by Australians. Amazon is trying to get the Australian buyers to instead buy from the Amazon Australia website but consumers complain the inventory is a tenth of the size of what is available on the US Amazon website. From what I’ve read, Ebay is making a play in Australia but I’m not sure what effect it could have on us U.S. ebay sellers. First, Ebay Australia has started a “Prime” type membership there where Australians can pay a subscription fee for free shipping and possibly free returns. That probably only applies to Ebay Australia and only to “new” items. Second, I’ve also read that Australians upset that they can’t purchase from U.S. Amazon will instead buy from US Ebay. An article mentions that Ebay hasn’t yet determined how it will charge US sellers the 10% tax on any goods sold to Australia. That part is a bit concerning as I just changed my shipping policy last week to remove Australia from out of GSP in order to mail there directly. I may need to change it back. Any insights from anyone more knowledgable on this news?
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The law basically is that all Australian retailers charge a 10% GST tax on everything – which foreign retailers are not paying up until now.
Those with both an Australian and foreign operations must charge the tax, no matter the source.
We have a similar law in Canada, but the tax is collected as part of customs/duty charges. Our GST/HST is applied the same on foreign goods entering the country that have the same taxes applied to them in Canada.
It sounds like Australia wants the retailers to collect the taxes for all sales if they have Australian websites – up to now, they allowed Australians to bypass the tax by buying items on the U.S. or other foreign websites.
With the U.S. pulling out of various trade deals, expect this to happen more to U.S. businesses that ship internationally as reciprocity or retaliation.
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It’s called eBay Plus in Germany:
https://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/guides/ebayfeatures/Development/Feature-eBayPlus.html–Buyers receive free 2-day domestic shipping for eBay Plus items that are paid by the seller-defined cutoff time (typically 3:00pm).
–Buyers can make unlimited, unconditionalfree returns of items they purchase with eBay Plus.–Sellers receive an additional discount on their Final Value Fee for eBay Plus orders.
–Sellers have DSR (Detailed Seller Ratings) protection for shipping cost and time if the carrier misses the delivery.Tne big question is how much of a discount on Final Value Fees does eBay gives sellers. Its nice they are willing to share the pain, but they are also getting to keep the eBay Plus subscription fee.
Free shipping both ways will be expensive.
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Which of course begs the question, is Ebay preparing an Ebay Plus in the US and can you imagine the other seller forums if/when such news is made? I think the stage is being set but I’m not worried about it.
In the meantime, I do think I’ll change my shipping policy to put Australia back into GSP. I would expect/hope that by doing so, Ebay will charge the 10% tax to those customers and I’ll be left out of it.
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I would love an eBay Plus that would rival Amazon Prime. For sellers that comply, that could be a big boost.
We already run our business like this anyway, with Same Day Shipping up to 2PM. We could go Free Shipping if that would help. The increase in STR would probably be worth it.
The key would be if they added a free NetFlix or HULU subscription with eBay Plus. Some of the other benefits of Amazon Prime like Music, Video, etc. make the cost worth it for some.
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