eBay Store subscription: what each tier costs and what it gives you

What an eBay Store subscription costs

An eBay Store subscription is a fee you pay eBay every month for a branded storefront on eBay and lower selling fees. eBay offers these Store packages: Starter, Basic, Premium, Anchor and Enterprise. eBay says a Store gives you more listings with zero insertion fees and lower final value fees than selling without a Store, and access to additional tools to manage and promote your business.

When you subscribe you choose a monthly or a yearly renewal. The fee is charged every month, on both monthly and yearly renewals. In every tier that offers both, the yearly renewal costs less per month, but leaving it early costs an early termination fee. Store fees are taken from your current or future payouts.

Enterprise's monthly renewal is not available, so it is sold on a yearly renewal only. What changes from one category to another is the final value fee on each sale, covered below.

eBay store cost on one sale, with and without a Store

Basic and higher Stores lower the final value fee on each sale. This is the same $30 sale in a most-categories listing, without a Store, with Starter and with Basic.

Free listings and insertion fees by tier

Every eBay seller gets 250 free listings a month. Without a Store, listings after that cost $0.35 per listing. Every Store lowers the fee on each extra listing, and Basic and higher Stores also raise the allowance, as the table above shows for fixed price listings.

The allowances come with conditions that change the sums:

• Basic and higher Stores split the allowance by format. Basic gets 1,000 fixed price listings a month in all categories, plus 250 auction-style listings in select categories.
• Basic and higher Stores also get a larger fixed price allowance in select categories: 10,000 fixed price listings in select categories for Basic and 50,000 fixed price listings in select categories for Premium. eBay lists those categories on its Store fees page.
• Good 'Til Cancelled listings renew automatically once per calendar month, and each monthly renewal counts toward your free listings. A shop with many slow sellers can use up its allowance on renewals alone.
• Unused free listings do not carry over and reset at the start of each calendar month.
• Basic and higher Stores get insertion fees credited back for auction-style listings that end in a sale.

When an eBay Store pays for itself

A Store saves money in two places: insertion fees on listings past the free allowance, and the final value fee on each sale. It pays for itself in a month when those two savings add up to more than that month's Store fee.

Starter's free allowance is 250 listings a month, the same as a seller without a Store, and its final value fee in most categories is 13.6%, also the same. Its only fee saving is on listings past the allowance, which cost $0.30 per listing instead of $0.35 per listing. Starter pays for itself on fees only for a seller who lists well past the allowance every month; for everyone else the reason to buy it is the storefront.

Basic is the first tier that lowers the final value fee. On a $30 sale in most categories it charges $4.21 instead of $4.48. That saving grows with the order value, so Basic pays off sooner for sellers with higher-priced items.

eBay advertises savings of up to 50% on final value fees compared to non-Store rates. The discount depends on the category. In most categories it is the step from 13.6% to 12.7%. Most consumer electronics drop further, to 9.35%. Books & Magazines pay 15.3% with a Store and 15.3% without one. The Store rate falls to 2.35% on the portion of an item's sale over $2,500, so a books seller saves on final value fees only on items that sell above that amount.

Work out your own break-even

You need two numbers from your own selling: your average order total and how many listings you create or renew in a month.

1. Find the saving per sale

   Multiply your average order total by the gap between your category's rate without a Store and with Basic. In most categories that is the gap between 13.6% and 12.7%. On a $30 order, it is the gap between $4.48 and $4.21.

2. Multiply by your sales

   Multiply the saving per sale by the number of orders you expect in a month. This is the final value fee you would save with Basic.

3. Add the listing saving

   Count your new and renewed listings for the month. Without a Store, listings past the 250 free listings a month cost $0.35 per listing. With Basic, the allowance is 1,000 fixed price listings a month in all categories and listings after that cost $0.25 per listing.

4. Compare the total with the Store fee

   If the two savings together are more than $27.95 a month on a monthly renewal, or $21.95 a month on a yearly one, Basic costs you less than selling without a Store. If they are less, selling without a Store is cheaper.

5. Allow for the start date

   Store rates apply only to listings created, relisted or renewed on or after the subscription start date. Listings you created before you subscribed keep the old rate until they are relisted or renew, so the first month can save less than later ones.

Which eBay Store tier fits a small seller

For most small sellers the choice is between no Store, Starter and Basic. Premium has the same 12.7% final value fee in most categories as Basic and costs $74.95 a month on a monthly renewal. What it adds is an allowance of 10,000 fixed price listings a month in all categories and extra listings at $0.10 per listing, which pays only for a seller who lists far beyond Basic's allowance.

eBay's own Seller Center describes who each tier is for:

How to open an eBay store

Before you start an eBay store you need an eBay seller account with a linked checking account for payouts. Opening a Store does not raise how much you can list: selling limits do not change when you open a Store.

1. Pick a tier and a renewal

   Use the fee table and the break-even steps above to choose a tier. If you are not sure your sales will cover the fee, a monthly renewal has no early termination fee.

2. Open Choose a Store Subscription

   In your eBay account, go to the Choose a Store Subscription page, find the Store type you want and choose Select and review.

3. Choose the term and the name

   Select a monthly or yearly term and type a name for the Store. eBay turns the name into a web address at www.ebay.com/str/, in lowercase with hyphens between words. eBay suggests a name that immediately tells buyers what you sell.

4. Submit the order

   Select Submit order. eBay charges a prorated fee for the days from sign-up to the first of the next month, and you get the whole month's free listing allowance, whatever day you sign up.

5. Set up the storefront

   Add a logo and a billboard image, sort your listings into up to 300 Store categories and choose featured listings (up to 4 rows of 6 listings, a maximum of 24 items).

Cancelling or changing an eBay Store subscription

An eBay Store subscription renews automatically unless you cancel or change it. For a yearly plan, eBay sends a reminder at least 30 days before the yearly term ends. To cancel or change a Store, go to your Subscription Management page and select Change subscription or Cancel subscription.

A monthly Store has no early termination fee. If you cancel it after the first full month, you are billed for the whole calendar month in which you cancel, and you then pay standard fees for any new listings from the next calendar month.

A yearly Store has an early termination fee, charged if you cancel or downgrade before the last calendar month of the term. The fee is months left times the monthly Store fee, divided by 3. These are the amounts eBay's terms list for Starter and Basic:

If you cancel or downgrade in the last month of the term, there is no early termination fee. An upgrade to a higher tier carries no early termination fee, and after any change of level your live listings stay live on eBay.

Where Nation fits

Questions about the eBay Store subscription