Ecommerce news: Handmade at Amazon price changes and PayPal closes in Turkey

This week there’s been a big announcement about PayPal closing its services in Turkey, as well as pricing changes from Handmade at Amazon and MyHermes, and issues with Etsy's Pattern charges. We’ve got a brief roundup of the latest ecommerce news to keep you informed about what might affect your business.

Handmade at Amazon extends fee waiver

Amazon has extended the fee waiver for its Handmade marketplace until the end of 2017, while also increasing the referral fee from 1 August 2016. Launched in October 2015, Handmade at Amazon is a new marketplace dedicated to handmade items.

Initially, the $40 monthly fee for listing on Handmade at Amazon had been waived until August 2016, but this has now been extended until the end of next year. However, Amazon has also announced that from 1 August 2016 the 12% referral fee for every item sold (or 50 cents, whichever is higher), will increase to 15%. Find out more about Handmade at Amazon price changes here.

PayPal closing operations in Turkey

From 6 June 2016, PayPal will no longer be available in Turkey after failing to secure a new payments licence, which means that residents won’t be able to send or receive money using PayPal. The Turkish financial regulator, BDDK, denied the licence because of new laws which would require PayPal’s IT systems to be localised within the country. This could affect eBay and Etsy sellers in Turkey, as well as anyone who sells to Turkey from the UK or other countries. Find out more about PayPal closing down in Turkey here. 

PayPal has also announced that from the end of June their app will only be available for Android and iOS operating systems. Users of Amazon Fire, Blackberry and Windows mobile devices will find that the app no longer works.

Confusion over charges for Etsy Pattern

Some Etsy sellers have complained after being charged for using Etsy Pattern, which they hadn’t signed up for. Etsy Pattern is a separate hosted ecommerce stores that integrates with an existing Etsy store, but when it was first launched in April 2016 there was confusion after sellers clicked on a link to learn more and were taken to a page that implied they had signed up for a Pattern store. Now some Etsy sellers have been charged for using Etsy Pattern after the end of the free trial period, but claim that they hadn’t signed up for it in the first place. Etsy has responded saying that the charges were not related to the previous bug, and that “if a seller has been charged for Pattern, it is not in error.” If you sell on Etsy then it’s worth double checking your invoice this month.

Etsy has also started charging VAT on listing fees, transaction fees and promoted listings fees for eligible sellers in the EU this month.

Find out more about the issues with Etsy invoices here. 

MyHermes price increase

On 1 June 2016 MyHermes increased the prices on all but one of their services. The courier collection price for 0-1kg has been lowered from £3.13 to £3.10 (inc. VAT), while all their other services have slightly increased. Find out more about the changes in MyHermes prices here.