As eBay Looks For New Monetization Opportunities, Will Canada Soon See Buyer Fees & Simple Delivery?
As revenue and GMV pressure mount and eBay looks for new opportunities to monetize the platform, could Canada be next market to see buyer fees and Simple Delivery managed shipping?
CEO Jamie Iannone's pivot back to a wider focus on consumer to consumer selling in the European market has seen the removal of private selling fees in Germany in 2023 and the UK in 2024, along with the introduction of buying fees and Simple Delivery managed shipping in the UK in early 2025.
Some of those initiatives have gotten off to a rough start in the UK, but as eBay dials in the program, many sellers have expected it will eventually be expanded to other countries, assuming Germany would likely be next since they have already gone fee-free for sellers in that market as well.
Liz Morton
But several new job ads raise the possibility that eBay could be looking to bring these programs across the pond to North America in the not too distant future, potentially starting in Canada.
First up, eBay is looking for a Toronto-based Monetization Manager to help optimize buyer monetization strategy and lead fee introduction in new markets.
While this role will report into the Head of Monetization – UK market, helping to improve and expand on monetization initiatives already launched there, it's clear the eventual goal is to expand the efforts globally to find the right monetization strategies for each of eBay's core marketplaces.
Role Overview
The Global Monetisation team is responsible for maximising long-term value creation for the company across buyers, sellers and partners.
As Monetisation Manager, you will be an integral part of this team and will work on some of the largest and most complex elements of eBay’s business strategy, contributing to its financial performance (top and bottom line) and defining the relationships eBay has with its customers and partners representing the firm’s largest source of competitive advantage.
The candidate will be responsible for continuously optimising eBay’s newly introduced buyer monetization strategy including the country roll-out, fee optimization, promotion plan, at the same time iterating the buyer fee product capabilities to optimize buyer fee further.
The candidate in this role will report into Head of Monetization – UK market. The successful candidate will need to operate cross-functionally (with product, engineering, analytics, finance, global market country teams etc) to develop global initiatives and to build out buyer fee tools & infrastructure.
Key Job Responsibilities
- Lead the introduction of buyer fee in new geographies and verticals as a new eBay monetization lever end-to-end working with various cross functional teams
- Partner with global product teams to build buyer fee capabilities including buyer and seller journey enhancement, monetization product capabilities, and create an on-going roadmap
- Support optimizing existing buyer fee as eBay’s monetization lever by creating more granular pricing points and optimize based on buyer fee elasticity
- Model impact of potential pricing and monetization changes and seek executive approvals
- Provide business insights using data (both quantitative and qualitative) to improve performance of pricing campaigns and analyze competitive landscape
- Create, improve, and automate crisp & accurate reporting, e.g. – standardize execution of eBay Promotions from forecasting to performance measurement
- Recommendation on pricing activities including buyer fee rate card change and promotions by exploring customer needs, product features and industry competitors.
- Pricing execution for promotions and rate card changes
eBay is also looking to hire a Toronto-based Senior Shipping Monetization Manager to develop roadmaps for shipping pricing, promotions, and incentive plans to achieve monetization goals.
Position Summary
The Global Monetisation team is responsible for maximising long-term value creation for the company across buyers, sellers and partners.As global shipping senior monetisation manager, you will be working on innovating and driving one of the most impactful and most sophisticated monetisation levers of eBay’s commercial strategy, driving financial performance and defining the relationships eBay has with its buyers, sellers, partners, representing the firm’s source of competitive advantage.
What You’ll Do
Lead the pricing strategies: Develop shipping pricing strategies that balance both immediate goals and long-term vision of ebay’s global shipping functions, either through resale model (partnering with logistics partners), or principal model (building and operating shipping labels within eBay).
Drive the roadmap: Develop roadmaps for shipping pricing, promotions, and incentive plan. Optimize and evolve current pricing structure to achieve monetization goals and growth across our most up and coming and mature categories. Ensure success of both sellers and buyers on the platform
Collaborate: Lead the shipping monetization journey and capabilities end-to-end by working closely with shipping product team, the global shipping BU, global markets and country teams, marketing, legal and finance
While that position could include a variety of initiatives aimed at monetizing shipping through existing domestic and international offerings and doesn't mention Simple Delivery explicitly - given the way eBay has positioned managed shipping as a revenue generator to investors, I wouldn't be surprised if the eventual goal is to expand it to markets outside the UK as well.
Liz Morton
We've also already seen hints that a manage shipping program of some kind could be in the works for the US with a recent survey testing seller reactions to a potentially offering that could provide pick up, packaging, and shipping as a service.
Liz Morton
When eBay announced their plan to introduce Buyer Fees in Q3 2024, investors were understandably nervous about the prospect, given the disastrous fee structure shakeups which had played out at competing marketplaces like Mercari and Poshmark last year.
Liz Morton
On the Q3 earnings call, Iannone sought to placate those fears by clearly saying eBay had no plans to bring buyer fees to the US because it is a different market and UK buyers are much more open to such a fee structure because it is supposedly more standard there.
To your questions on the US, we have no plans to launch free selling in the US. The US is a different market from the UK. UK buyers and sellers are more open to buyer fees, it's more standard in the market.
There may be certain aspects of the product experience to streamline selling that we bring to other markets and as you know we look at each market and categories and think about the specifics of what's the optimal set of initiatives to unlock more supply and demand for that specific market.
But since then, Etsy's Q1 2025 report showed their Depop subsidiary delivered strong performance and growth, particularly in the US after introducing buyer fees last year.
Liz Morton
Could that give Iannone the confidence boost to float the idea of bringing buyer fees to the US market too?
eBay UK and Germany both have a much more clear differentiation between private (consumer) and business sellers on their platforms, partly owing to the ways in which government and regulatory authorities in those countries draw more clearly defined lines for consumer protection expectations and tax implications - and eBay can and will force users to upgrade from a private to business account if needed to stay in compliance.
In the US and Canada, sellers can choose to register as either a personal/individual or business account but currently at least there isn't as much distinction between the two except in limited areas like seller limits and access to certain tools and features - but that could change if eBay decides to bring their C2C playbook from Germany and the UK to North America.
And with eBay pushing hard to make pre-loved fashion their next focus vertical (competing directly with Depop), it won't be surprising if they choose that category as an initial testing ground, like they did in the UK early last year.
Liz Morton
Do you think eBay will expand buyer fees and Simple Delivery to other markets in 2025 and if so, how will it impact your buying and selling the platform? Let us know in the comments below!
