eBay Details Plans to Replace PayPal as Main Payments Processor With New Partner Adyen

[MacRumors]

eBay this week announced major changes coming for both buyers and sellers on its online marketplace, with a plan to phase out its 15-year-long partnership with PayPal and eventually integrate Amsterdam-based payments company Adyen as its "primary partner for payments processing globally" (via Recode). This will eventually affect all eBay customers on every version of the site, including desktop and its iOS and Android apps.

The process will happen over a long period of time, beginning with payments intermediation on its marketplace -- essentially helping sellers and buyers transition to Adyen -- in the second half of 2018. This will be a "small scale" initial expansion, and grow further throughout 2019. eBay currently has an operating agreement to keep PayPal as its primary payments processor through mid-2020, so the plan is to have "transitioned a majority" of its marketplace customers to Adyen by 2021.

After that time, PayPal will be relegated to a secondary checkout option for customers until July 2023. Following that transition it's unclear whether eBay and PayPal's partnership will end completely, or if the payments company will simply continue as a secondary option in checkout.

For Adyen, eBay noted that there will be "additional payments-related data" required to transition to the new platform, with these steps "required" to continue selling on eBay. Still, the company ensured that most of the ways that buyers and sellers pay for and receive money on the site will "be very similar" to how it worked with PayPal.

The way that sellers engage with eBay in an intermediated landscape will, for the most part, be very similar as they do today. For example, sellers will not need to change their accounts with eBay. Sellers will continue to log into eBay and manage their listings as they do today. As eBay begins to intermediate payments, sellers can expect to see new, streamlined dashboards and reports inclusive of payments - all within eBay.

eBay said customers will benefit from this shift in multiple ways, including lower costs of payments processing for sellers, as well as a simplified pricing structure and "more predictable access" to funds. Buyers will have more payment options, which eBay hopes will increase checkouts on the site. Additionally, because Adyen focuses solely on providing back-end payments services and will not link out to a secondary website, eBay said it will now "manage the entire checkout experience" so the payment process can be more streamlined.

PayPal became eBay's main payments provider in 2003, following eBay's acquisition of PayPal a year prior at $1.5 billion. In 2015, the companies split to become separate public companies, but agreed upon a deal that keeps PayPal as its primary payments provider for five years, through 2020. For PayPal, the company has been expanding its own reach in online payments over the past year, allowing friends to pay one another in Facebook Messenger and introducing Venmo as an online payment option at more than two million retailer websites last October.

Ahead of the launch of Apple Pay Cash -- which works like Venmo in letting users pay one another through an app -- PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said he didn't think Apple's peer-to-peer payments platform would hurt Venmo because of Venmo's availability across ecosystems. "We're technology agnostic," Shulman said at the time, emphasizing that this provides the PayPal-owned company a "powerful advantage" over rival P2P platforms.

Article Link: eBay Details Plans to Replace PayPal as Main Payments Processor With New Partner Adyen

 

[73b]

Someone really needs to make a new eBay. I hate selling on there, but it’s the largest market I can reach. I run an online business and all transactions go through paypal. This is just another thing making selling on eBay even worse.

 

[newdeal]

eBay sucks. To me at this point it will be another reason for it to fade into non-existence. Its bad enough that all I can find are people selling cheap Chinese junk in ebay stores when what I really want to find is private individuals selling used items like I can find on Kijiji up here in Canada. eBay has a much broader area that I can buy from which is what at one time made it great before they spammed it all up with stores.

Also, whenever I sell anything on eBay (which is rarely) I am shocked by how high all the fees are!

 

[TwoBytes]

wow, blow to Paypal. The start of the end it seems.

Why the move? Paypal works, it's established. It's expensive yes...

 

[oldhifi]

Yea this will PO a lot of people like me..
Amazon is a good market place, but is steep on prices..

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Maybe this will lead to eBay/PayPal no longer double dipping on fees.

For example, I just sold a video card. $720 B-I-N. The amount of cash I received was about $698. And I know that in a month, I'll get an invoice for selling fees.

 

[Marco Klobas]

Someone really needs to make a new eBay. I hate selling on there, but it’s the largest market I can reach. I run an online business and all transactions go through paypal. This is just another thing making selling on eBay even worse.

What about Amazon Seller Central? I'm not a merchant: I've used it to sell some of my used stuff. There're some restrictions for Apple items, though.

 

[mooblie]

....what I really want to find is private individuals selling used items ...

Agreed. I wish there was a obvious UK alternative.
Gumtree here is just a (small-scale) classified ads site, with fixed, seller-chosen, prices.

 

[superduperultra]

Here's an obvious UK alternative:

 

[lunarworks]

wow, blow to Paypal. The start of the end it seems.

Why the move? Paypal works, it's established. It's expensive yes...

It's expensive, and it takes two or three days for your funds to transfer to your bank account. (In North America.)

 

[555gallardo]

Someone really needs to make a new eBay. I hate selling on there, but it’s the largest market I can reach. I run an online business and all transactions go through paypal. This is just another thing making selling on eBay even worse.

Not sure about what you sell, but I always pay sellers using credit card.

 

[needfx]

combined ebay, paypal fees, conversion rates and receiveing bank fees are ridiculous at best
it amounts in about 25% of sale value+they dip their greedy fingers in shipping costs

then again, there is no viable alternative in the breadth of ebay
-etsy, while it has lower fees it is restricted to crafts and vintage articles, and 2nd hand sale items are hard to sell.
-amazon, haven't been able to decode their M.O.
-private sales on facebook groups have become commonplace but it is restricted to local sales evidently.

 

[Master-D]

Not sure why this is a Mac rumour

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Not sure why this is a Mac rumour

Probably because it affects a large portion of MR's readers. I'm not saying I disagree, but it was on the sidebar at least.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Someone really needs to make a new eBay. I hate selling on there, but it’s the largest market I can reach. I run an online business and all transactions go through paypal. This is just another thing making selling on eBay even worse.

Yeah, it’s gotten pretty bad on fees, and buyers are getting really flakey. I rarely sell there, but more than once the winning bidder either never paid (and never even responds), or they message me saying they changed their mind. One time I sold a Mac mini and the buyer messaged me accusing me of selling false goods because it didn’t automatically pair his Bluetooth keyboard. I provided some links on how to pair it, and he never replied again. I try to be a good seller, but the number of bad buyers is frustrating. I don’t know if I’ll ever bother selling a higher value item there again.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

It's 2018 but eBay thinks it's still 2000 and person-to-person payment systems are limited. eBay needs to open up to the likes of Zelle, ApplePay, PopCash, etc., that have lower or no fees.

Off topic but I also wish eBay would require a credit card on file to have a buying account. So sick of non-paying bidders screwing up an auction.

 

[naturalstar]

Interesting. eBay at one point used to be great as a seller. With each year, it’s grown worse and worse. After testing the waters with eBay again, I saw a few bright spots, but I’d prefer my own platform now. It’s no longer as protective of sellers and the recent auto-approval of refunds was the last straw for me. Even with the double dipping with PayPal ending, there will still be processing fees with the new vendor, but yeah, no longer an eBay selling fan anyway.

I’ve grown to like PayPal though. The issue debit cards (not interested in the credit card) that will pull money right out of your PayPal account, so when you want to keep certain transactions within that pool of money, it’s easier to manage. I also like that they will allow instant transfer of funds to my bank account for 25 cents or for free if I wait until the next business day. They are a very specific use case though.

I’ll see how Apple Pay Cash grows over time.

 

[Brookzy]

It's 2018 but eBay thinks it's still 2000 and person-to-person payment systems are limited. eBay needs to open up to the likes of Zelle, ApplePay, PopCash, etc., that have lower or no fees.

Off topic but I also wish eBay would require a credit card on file to have a buying account. So sick of non-paying bidders screwing up an auction.

[Off topic as well but had to reply: you can set your buyer requirement preferences to ban buyers who have no credit card on file and a low feedback score.]

 

[ksnell]

It's 2018 but eBay thinks it's still 2000 and person-to-person payment systems are limited. eBay needs to open up to the likes of Zelle, ApplePay, PopCash, etc., that have lower or no fees.

Off topic but I also wish eBay would require a credit card on file to have a buying account. So sick of non-paying bidders screwing up an auction.

I have found the simple solution is to do a fixed price, set it a bit above market value, and allow offers, but decline lowballs. Maximum sales price with minimum hassle.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Someone really needs to make a new eBay. I hate selling on there, but it’s the largest market I can reach. I run an online business and all transactions go through paypal. This is just another thing making selling on eBay even worse.

Ugh, yes!

I've started using Swappa for iPhones, but for buying and selling other tech eBay is still the go-to. I simply don't know of any other platform where people seeking to buy second-hand tech go. Amazon has a "used" section, but it's clearly an afterthought and all the sellers there look pretty dishonest (a lot of "seller refurbished, mint condition, buy now now now" type of descriptions).

 

[velocityg4]

Too bad for eBay. I think they'll regret this decision. Ultimately this will likely hurt eBay more than Paypal. It took a long time to build up peoples trust in Paypal.

It's 2018 but eBay thinks it's still 2000 and person-to-person payment systems are limited. eBay needs to open up to the likes of Zelle, ApplePay, PopCash, etc., that have lower or no fees.

Off topic but I also wish eBay would require a credit card on file to have a buying account. So sick of non-paying bidders screwing up an auction.

EBay has simply become too risky for me to sell higher value items. I've sold a lot of trinkets to clear out my garage. But the expensive stuff I sell in person for cash. Because of how easy it is for buyers to scam sellers.

I'd rather they bring back the sellers ability to review buyers. They could make it easy to avoid the revenge review system. Instead give buyers and sellers a month to leave reviews. But make it blind until both have left reviews or a month has elapsed. That way neither the buyer or seller knows if a review has been left or what the rating is. Until either both have left reviews or the review deadline has elapsed. After either event. It is too late for a revenge review.

Also to attract more sellers. Change the fee structure to include seller insurance. That way when eBay arbitrates a dispute. Instead of the seller paying back a possibly fraudulent claim. eBay pays it out of the insurance fund. Too high a percentage in claims close the sellers account. Sellers would also need somewhat better documentation. I'd be willing to sell higher end items and pay a higher fee if that meant I don't have to worry about a buyer scamming me. eBay would also become more diligent in its arbitration.

As it stands now. If I want to sell some old vase, DVD, &c. I'll sell on eBay. If I want to sell a used computer or iPhone. I'll go to Craigslist.

 

[blcamp]

No thanks, eBay. I don't want or need another payments firm having my credit card information.

I've never sold anything on it, and have maybe bought less than a dozen things on it in the past roughly 20 years. And I have made only three PayPal transactions in my entire life.

I may not be the typical target audience here but I honestly don't see the need for eBay when there are many other ways to get stuff online... the biggest of course being Amazon; but I can still contact most sellers directly (Dell, for example).

 

[UL2RA]

I guess I'm done with eBay. Been with them for like 13+ years. eBay as been getting worse and worse and the fees to list things has gone up year after year to the point that it's not worth it to sell high value items anymore. I'm not sure what business model they're trying to emulate, but it sucks.

 

[naturalstar]

It's 2018 but eBay thinks it's still 2000 and person-to-person payment systems are limited. eBay needs to open up to the likes of Zelle, ApplePay, PopCash, etc., that have lower or no fees.

Off topic but I also wish eBay would require a credit card on file to have a buying account. So sick of non-paying bidders screwing up an auction.

I only deal with BIN and depending on the item, I will allow offers with auto-decline if the offer is lower than my minimum acceptable selling price. Then payment is required immediately upon acceptance. I don’t deal with high collectibles where auctions may make more sense however.

 

[selfsilent]

Replacing a long standing "trusted" money handling company with some unknown just because they'll get a sweet deal on the fees. Ignoring popular alternatives that people actually use and have heard of. What could go wrong?