eBay scraps selling fees for secondhand clothes

From today, eBay users will be able to both buy and sell pre-loved clothing for free in a move that encourages shoppers to “put more cash in their pockets while supporting circular fashion”.

All fashion listings will benefit from the change, even if they were originally posted ahead of April 8, 2024.

However, while all pre-loved clothing is now fee-free to buyers ad sellers, seller fees are still applied to trainers, watches, handbags and jewellery.

Secondhand shopping is already free for eBay buyers and transactions are protected by eBay’s money back guarantee programme. Shoppers also benefit from help from its customer service team when required.

eBay has also introduced its livestream shopping experience, eBay Live, as well as new personalised shopping features, including customised feeds and visual searches to help shoppers “find their favourite items quickly”.

Other recent updates include AI-generated item descriptions for UK sellers on eBay, which it hopes will “transform the platform”.

The news comes as the latest research from eBay found that 70% of people wear 50% or less of their wardrobe in daily life. It also showed that 92% have more than one item of clothing in their wardrobe that they haven’t worn in the past year.

eBay said that shoppers are “missing out on potential big bucks”, with only 25% of people currently selling pre-loved clothing.

General manager of global fashion Kirsty Keoghan said: “Free fashion selling has come at the right time for a nation sitting on billions of pounds worth of unwanted clothes.

“We know selling clothes can sometimes feel like a chore, so free selling and new updates like new AI-powered listings, will help more of us to sell clothes easily – putting more cash in pockets.

“By encouraging more people to buy and sell pre-loved clothing, we’ll keep more clothes out of landfill as we collectively enable a circular economy for fashion.” 

eBay follows in the footsteps of rival platform Depop, which announced the removal of seller fees for UK users last month.