"They are clearly backing down though." While an expression of thanks is due all those sellers who spoke up and contacted support about their discomfort with the original proposed changes.
This is typical of the communication and customer service that is prevalent in our society today. There is no initiative to do anything other than what you are told to do, if you are indeed told to do anything. Anytime you are dealing with a medium to large company you will run into all sorts of issues with accuracy of information and knowledge of corporate policies and most times will be given completely false or at the least misleading information. I have had this happen with HP in the past, and most recently Citibank with an ongoing fraud issue. I recently few to Florida and booked to rent a car online what a nightmare that was. Nothing is easy today and I question whether computers have really made our lives that much easier. They certainly have not reduced the amount of paperwork you have to print out. We will see what happens in the future on Hip Stamps but I will not open my account on the Hip Postcards which I was going to do once I moved to Florida. Actually would be nice of you could use both sites from one log in and toggle back and forth.
Wow!! for a bored person, this is fun to read. So, if annual basic is going from $7 to $15 (more than doubled and I round off) featured from $20 to $30 (50%) increase, I don't see as "backing" off. I see it as a windfall and an annual world cruise for HS employees paid by this new fee rate
Thank you to everyone for your continued feedback. We highly appreciate it.
We recently announced our 2022 Summer Seller Update, and we understand there were concerns about the listing count level changes that we announced. As a result, we have updated our store subscription pricing changes to leave all listing counts as-is. You can review the full updated changes here: https://www.hipstamp.com/p/2022-summer
These changes represent our first pricing changes in two and a half years and help us continue to provide our members with new features and services, and most importantly for sellers, to continue to market your listings and drive buyers to your store. This includes our Google Shopping program, where we pay to promote each individual listing on HipStamp throughout Google and the Google Ad network - which touches a large portion of all websites on the Internet.
This program helps to drive a large number of sales each month and is either not offered by other marketplaces or when offered, is at a substantial additional fee. For example, eBay offers this same service through their Promoted Listings program, where they will charge up to 20% of the sales price in additional fees - on top of final value fees.
In general, if you compare our Store Subscription Fees to eBay, you'll see that they're half the cost of what eBay charges. However, our Store Subscription Fees are only intended to be a small part of our overall fees. Combined with our Final Value Fees, most Sellers should only see less than a 5% increase in total fees per month with our pricing updates.
If you're interested in saving on your Store Subscription Fees and paying less fees overall, we recommend that you switch to an Annual Store subscription before July 22, 2022. With an Annual Store subscription, you'll pay a lower effective monthly rate than you're paying today and lock in those rates for a full 12 months.
If, for any reason, you're not interested in switching to an Annual Store subscription and are concerned about any of our upcoming pricing changes, please reach out to us directly at support@hipstamp.com. As mentioned, we intend that our Store Subscription fees should only be a small part of your overall fees with us. If that's not the case, we'd be happy to help work with you to increase your sales and additionally let you know of any discounts we may be able to offer you based on your current store subscription and sales volume.
promoted listings start @ 2% on Ebay and rarely go over 7% but in any case it is up to the seller at what level if any level as it is an option. It has NOTHING to do with Google or Google shopping. It is an inhouse promotion so to say it is 20% is not true. also a $5 increase on lower level monthly fees is not less than 5% it is 33%. Please explain your math? most of us went to school here and know how to do math.
Stated Facts-- Real Math: Price Changes Currently, a Starter Store subscription is $2.95 per month, a Basic Store subscription is $6.95 per month, a Featured Store subscription is $19.95 per month, and a Premium Store subscription is $59.95 per month - all when on an annual subscription; or $3.95, $9.95, $24.95 and $74.95 per month respectively when not on an annual subscription. Updated: Effective July 22, 2022, a Starter Store subscription will be $3.95 per month, a Basic Store subscription will be $11.95 per month, a Featured Store subscription will be $29.95 per month, and a Premium Store subscription will be $89.95 per month - all when on an annual subscription; or $5.95, $14.95, $37.95 and $119.95 per month respectively when not on an annual subscription.
so.. you increased $9.95 to $14.95 - how is this less than 5%? I don't think most of the sellers here are this dumb to not see the real facts. this is 33% -the other level store increases are similar.. not 5%. I would also mention that i do not think it is a great idea to pay up by the year here. :-)
eBay Promoted Listings are no longer an in-house promotion. As of last year, all listings on eBay within the Promoted Listings option are sent through Google Shopping via Google Ads. The cost of this is now factored into the Promoted Listings costs. Just Google "ebay external Promoted Listings" and you can read all about it. Here, at HipStamp we provide this same service for every listing on our platform - with no added cost to the Seller.
The average price paid for Promoted Listings on eBay, specifically in the Stamp category is 10.79% the total price of the listing, which is on top of the Final Value Fees. eBay publishes this information on their own website: https://pages.ebay.com/ge/en-us/promoted-listings/adrates.html#us
As Van also mentioned, most sellers on HipStamp will see a 5% increase in their total fees or less with our pricing updates. This is because Store Subscription fees have always been intended to be a very small portion of our overall fees. The majority of fees come from our Final Value Fees.
For example, a Seller on a Basic store today, who sells $1,000 per month with us, currently pays $99.45 in fees per month; after our Pricing Updates, this would be $104.45 in fees - a 5% increase in their total fees with us.
I do promoted listings on 4,000 listings monthly. it was 1% it is now 2% you only pay if it sells. as for the math Mark. this to be polite - is deceptive talk. a 33% increase is a 33% increase
also.. most people would call it a 50% increase . $10 to $15
Mark this might be true for some, but not all. For a Premium store with $2,500 in sales, current total fees are $283.90. The new fees will be $313.90. This is a 10.6% increase. If Premium store was increased by $15, then the percentage increase would be 5.3%. Any chance of you reconsidering Premium store fees?
You're right. While most sellers will see a 5% or less increase in total fees, that definitely doesn't mean all. If that's not the case for you, we'd be more than happy to review your store and make sure you're happy with the store subscription fees that you're paying. Just reach out to our team at: support@hipstamp.com and we'll be able to help.
Jerry - I agree with you but I'm not so generous. If you are going to use $14.95 annual fee for basic's new rate, then you need to use the $6.95 old basic annual fee, not the $9.95 monthly fee if I've followed the bouncing ball correctly - which means more than doubled not the paltry 33% you stated. What say you Mark?? Now there may be fees you have lowered or even deleted which I know nothing about nor really care - I just pay what I owe within the hour -if that long
Just to clear up the Ebay Promoted listings Facts: (i pay 2% and only if the item sells via their "extra" promotion links -so if it does not sell you do NOT Pay) the idea that you are paying a lot of money is not true. most items you dont pay because they didnt sell. On hip stamp this is also true as most items don"t sell. :-) so it is a FVF increase on certain promoted link items -sold items but Ebay favors stamp dealers with a great rate. so an extra 2% (optional) for me is a good deal in my opinion so i use it. this fee is only charged if the customer uses the extra ad links on Ebay to find your items so it is an extra source of exposure. (in house) . There are also other ways to do ads on Ebay but they are a rip off in my opinion. Google shopping is an extint dinosaur anyways.
Hi Stampers I will go for basic store 6.95 1 year in advance but I am not sure how to do this I have tried on the page for all the plans clicked on basic store and pressed the radio button but nothing happens! what am I missing?
I'm late to the party having purchased a Basic Store in May and paid for a year. Well, at least this gives me time to look for the next platform. I never understood the business philosophy of limiting listings when the more listings equal more fees? I thought I had found a wonderful site that allowed me to leave Ebay for good but I can see that is not going to be the case. "Let's raise prices and reduce listings in a bad market" Yep, that's sound business thinking.
George, to create your own platform will take money. Unless you have a couple of sellers who are programmers, you'll need to hire programmers. The platform will have to work on PC and phone apps. You will need to incorporate in a state favorable to LLCs, and have someone in that state. You will need to purchase a bunch of servers, and have a company host the transmission and emails. You will have to pay income taxes to IRS, and possibly the state of incorporation. You will have to have constant monitoring of the site, so you'll have to hire people to watch things. It will take a tear or two get the system up, then you have to maintain it. You sure you have all that money for the start up? I'm just saying. We just did all this with Stamporama.
"George, to create your own platform will take money. Unless you have a couple of sellers who are programmers, you'll need to hire programmers. The platform will have to work on PC and phone apps. You will need to incorporate in a state favorable to LLCs, and have someone in that state. You will need to purchase a bunch of servers, and have a company host the transmission and emails. You will have to pay income taxes to IRS, and possibly the state of incorporation. You will have to have constant monitoring of the site, so you'll have to hire people to watch things. It will take a tear or two get the system up, then you have to maintain it. You sure you have all that money for the start up? I'm just saying. We just did all this with Stamporama."
Michael, Most of the problems you mentioned above can be easily solved using a good hosting company at minimal expense. I would recommend setting up an LLC and I agree you would have to pay taxes on profits (but you have to do that in any case). However, it would be very difficult to operate - the primary problem and expense would the the cost of acquiring and maintaining a customer (buyer) population. Gone are the days of running a few pay per click ads and/or mining email addresses from successful competitors. You must be able to establish and maintain an advertising budget that will continually increase the buyer base - this alone can cost thousands of dollars per month for a startup site. Without a steady flow of new visitors to the site and it will eventually fail. Pete James AwardmastersUSA
Programmer is top expense- get the best - let them hire any help needed. Maybe find someone that wants part of the pie. :-) Just be sure they are good and know the most recent methods of programming. Hosting is cheap with dedicated server. try hostgator but many out there cheap- ask the programmer to select best. Dont be held hostage to/by your programmers. big issue. So the real need is a great Programmer. Designing it from scratch , correctly is the key. it gives you a big advantage money wise and overall to sites that are put together with chewing gum done by 50 different past and present programmers - all trying to make it work with their methods- new site is totally better. Ads and such can be done later-- if the site is nice.. they will come!
Assuming all things are equal, Hipstamp may well be a better value than eBay. But comparing Hipstamp to eBay is like comparing Dan Quayle to JKF (God! I'm old!) Maybe somebody from staff should compare dollars invested to dollars realized. eBay is probably the better choice in that area, but what are Hipstamp's qualities that make it a better choice? Some kind of silly price comparison ain't it. I've been here a while, I know what it is. Do you know, Mark R.? Or rather do you know what it used to be???
Rod, humor can be a productive human reaction to stress... and the sky is truly NOT falling because this is a HOBBY, not critical human infrastructure. And free market forces prevail, like discussion of other options like leaving or creating one's better option. Don't let this topic steal your joy.
Comments
They are clearly backing down though.
While an expression of thanks is due all those sellers who spoke up and contacted support about their discomfort with the original proposed changes.
We recently announced our 2022 Summer Seller Update, and we understand there were concerns about the listing count level changes that we announced. As a result, we have updated our store subscription pricing changes to leave all listing counts as-is. You can review the full updated changes here: https://www.hipstamp.com/p/2022-summer
These changes represent our first pricing changes in two and a half years and help us continue to provide our members with new features and services, and most importantly for sellers, to continue to market your listings and drive buyers to your store. This includes our Google Shopping program, where we pay to promote each individual listing on HipStamp throughout Google and the Google Ad network - which touches a large portion of all websites on the Internet.
This program helps to drive a large number of sales each month and is either not offered by other marketplaces or when offered, is at a substantial additional fee. For example, eBay offers this same service through their Promoted Listings program, where they will charge up to 20% of the sales price in additional fees - on top of final value fees.
In general, if you compare our Store Subscription Fees to eBay, you'll see that they're half the cost of what eBay charges. However, our Store Subscription Fees are only intended to be a small part of our overall fees. Combined with our Final Value Fees, most Sellers should only see less than a 5% increase in total fees per month with our pricing updates.
If you're interested in saving on your Store Subscription Fees and paying less fees overall, we recommend that you switch to an Annual Store subscription before July 22, 2022. With an Annual Store subscription, you'll pay a lower effective monthly rate than you're paying today and lock in those rates for a full 12 months.
If, for any reason, you're not interested in switching to an Annual Store subscription and are concerned about any of our upcoming pricing changes, please reach out to us directly at support@hipstamp.com. As mentioned, we intend that our Store Subscription fees should only be a small part of your overall fees with us. If that's not the case, we'd be happy to help work with you to increase your sales and additionally let you know of any discounts we may be able to offer you based on your current store subscription and sales volume.
Stated Facts-- Real Math:
Price Changes
Currently, a Starter Store subscription is $2.95 per month, a Basic Store subscription is $6.95 per month, a Featured Store subscription is $19.95 per month, and a Premium Store subscription is $59.95 per month - all when on an annual subscription; or $3.95, $9.95, $24.95 and $74.95 per month respectively when not on an annual subscription.
Updated: Effective July 22, 2022, a Starter Store subscription will be $3.95 per month, a Basic Store subscription will be $11.95 per month, a Featured Store subscription will be $29.95 per month, and a Premium Store subscription will be $89.95 per month - all when on an annual subscription; or $5.95, $14.95, $37.95 and $119.95 per month respectively when not on an annual subscription.
so.. you increased $9.95 to $14.95 - how is this less than 5%? I don't think most of the sellers here are this dumb to not see the real facts. this is 33% -the other level store increases are similar.. not 5%. I would also mention that i do not think it is a great idea to pay up by the year here. :-)
as far as improvements here.. LOL
The information that Van provided is correct.
eBay Promoted Listings are no longer an in-house promotion. As of last year, all listings on eBay within the Promoted Listings option are sent through Google Shopping via Google Ads. The cost of this is now factored into the Promoted Listings costs. Just Google "ebay external Promoted Listings" and you can read all about it. Here, at HipStamp we provide this same service for every listing on our platform - with no added cost to the Seller.
The average price paid for Promoted Listings on eBay, specifically in the Stamp category is 10.79% the total price of the listing, which is on top of the Final Value Fees. eBay publishes this information on their own website:
https://pages.ebay.com/ge/en-us/promoted-listings/adrates.html#us
As Van also mentioned, most sellers on HipStamp will see a 5% increase in their total fees or less with our pricing updates. This is because Store Subscription fees have always been intended to be a very small portion of our overall fees. The majority of fees come from our Final Value Fees.
For example, a Seller on a Basic store today, who sells $1,000 per month with us, currently pays $99.45 in fees per month; after our Pricing Updates, this would be $104.45 in fees - a 5% increase in their total fees with us.
as for the math Mark. this to be polite - is deceptive talk. a 33% increase is a 33% increase
also.. most people would call it a 50% increase . $10 to $15
You're right. While most sellers will see a 5% or less increase in total fees, that definitely doesn't mean all. If that's not the case for you, we'd be more than happy to review your store and make sure you're happy with the store subscription fees that you're paying. Just reach out to our team at: support@hipstamp.com and we'll be able to help.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/promoted-listings-overview/promoted-listings-standard?id=4164&st=3&pos=1&query=Promoted Listings Standard&intent=promoted listings&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1083
2 . . .
5 . . .
Michael,
Most of the problems you mentioned above can be easily solved using a good hosting company at minimal expense. I would recommend setting up an LLC and I agree you would have to pay taxes on profits (but you have to do that in any case). However, it would be very difficult to operate - the primary problem and expense would the the cost of acquiring and maintaining a customer (buyer) population. Gone are the days of running a few pay per click ads and/or mining email addresses from successful competitors. You must be able to establish and maintain an advertising budget that will continually increase the buyer base - this alone can cost thousands of dollars per month for a startup site. Without a steady flow of new visitors to the site and it will eventually fail.
Pete James
AwardmastersUSA
But comparing Hipstamp to eBay is like comparing Dan Quayle to JKF (God! I'm old!)
Maybe somebody from staff should compare dollars invested to dollars realized.
eBay is probably the better choice in that area, but what are Hipstamp's qualities that
make it a better choice? Some kind of silly price comparison ain't it.
I've been here a while, I know what it is. Do you know, Mark R.? Or rather do you know what
it used to be???
Nice to see you still around. It's been a while since the Awardmaster days!