After dropping fees for private sellers and later adding the option to collect purchases in person, EBay Germany is now going cashless and only allowing payments to be made through “existing standard payment processing” for commercial users.
“Sellers are no longer able to select the Barzahlung bei Abholung (cash on delivery) option when listing products on EBay, and the cash-payment option has been automatically removed from previous listings,” the company said in an email to users.
The measure came as a shock to most sellers, who were given very little notice. Many of them conduct a significant number of transactions in cash, which remains a popular option in Germany.
With this change, EBay argues that purchases will be “more secure”; it will also prevent commercial sellers from avoiding fees by accepting cash.
EBay has warned sellers to adjust their advertisements and clarify that the only options are online payment and credit cards. As things now stand, if a buyer collects an item and pays in cash, sellers will not be able to mark the sale as completed and buyers will risk being cited for non-payment.
With the sale of Kleinanzeigen to Adevinta, EBay lost its successful classifieds division and may try to implement changes to win over private sellers.
The company said it would “improve the buying experience” in the near future but gave no further details.