How to start selling on eBay: a guide for companies

For a company to start selling on eBay, it needs three things in this order: a Business account (not a private one), completed identity and company verification, and its first offers listed in Buy It Now or auction format, with correct product identifiers. The rest, meaning fees, Promoted Listings advertising, international shipping and seller standards, is the layer you optimise after launch. eBay tends to be underrated as the second marketplace channel after Amazon in Europe, especially in automotive, electronics, parts and collectibles. In this article we walk through the whole process and say honestly when this channel makes sense and when it is better to skip it.

A note on the data: eBay's fees and programmes change and differ between national sites (eBay.de, eBay.com and others). We give specific rates for reference only, as of 24 July 2026, and always point you to the official fee schedule. Do not treat this article as a source of current rates, only as a map of the process.

Business or private account: for a company this is not a choice

If you sell on behalf of a company, regularly and for profit, the right account type is a Business account, not a private one. This is not a matter of preference. In the European Union, professional selling comes with obligations towards the consumer (company details, the right of withdrawal, statutory warranty), and eBay requires such sellers to run a commercial (gewerbliche) account. A private account used to sell commercially sooner or later gets suspended or reclassified.

A Business account also gives you the tools without which a company cannot scale its sales:

• a public company or shop name instead of a username,
• business policies for shipping, returns and payments, saved once and attached to your offers,
• bulk listing and management tools for dozens or hundreds of offers,
• access to the eBay Shop subscription and the full advertising suite.

Verification. With a business account, eBay runs identity and entity verification: an identity document for the person representing the company, the company's registration data, and for companies, information about the beneficial owners. This is a standard KYC process stemming from regulations on online sellers. Prepare your company documents in advance, because a lack of verification blocks payouts.

Listing formats: auction or Buy It Now

eBay grew up on auctions and still offers them, but today most business selling uses the Buy It Now format (a fixed price). For a brand with a repeatable range this is the natural choice: a predictable price, the option to list multiple units, and offers that run indefinitely.

• Buy It Now (fixed price): the default format for companies. You sell your stock at a set price, repeatedly, with no time pressure.
• Auction: makes sense for rare or collectible goods, or items whose value is hard to set, where bidding finds the price itself. For a typical company catalogue it is the exception rather than the rule.

Product identifiers. In many categories eBay requires identifiers: the brand, the MPN and the GTIN (EAN/UPC) code. eBay matches your offer to its catalogue, so correct codes raise visibility and let you use ready-made product pages. If you sell under your own brand, sort out GTIN codes in advance, just as with selling on Amazon.de.

eBay fees: what they consist of

The eBay fee structure is predictable, but the specific rates depend on the national site and category, and on eBay.de they change from 1 July 2026. So below we describe the mechanics, and treat the numbers as indicative and check them in the official fee schedule.

An important contextual change: from 1 July 2026 eBay.de is reforming commissions for business sellers, moving part of its categories from a range to a single flat category rate, and lowering the commission for used, renewed and refurbished goods to one lower level. Before you calculate your margin, check the current rate for your category on the official eBay seller portal. To compare channel costs, take a look at our breakdown of Amazon FBA fees as well, because the profitability maths is the same, only the components differ.

Rule of thumb: the eBay commission is calculated on the amount including shipping, so "free shipping" built into the price still raises the commission base. Calculate your margin from the full order amount, not from the item price alone.

Promoted Listings: eBay advertising in brief

eBay has its own advertising system (Promoted Listings) that lifts offer visibility in the results. Two main formats differ in their billing model:

• Standard is billed on sales: you set an ad rate (a percentage of the price) and pay the fee only when a buyer clicks the promoted offer and buys it. Low risk, because you do not pay for clicks alone.
• Advanced works on a cost-per-click (CPC) model, with access to better placements, but it requires managing bids and budget. It makes sense for more expensive, competitive products.

For a start, Standard with a sensible rate on slower-moving offers is usually enough. Advanced is a tool for sellers who already have the data and the budget to actively manage campaigns.

Shipping, returns and international shipping

On eBay, the seller sets the shipping terms, the handling time and the returns policy, saved in the business policies. As a company in the EU you are subject to the consumer right of withdrawal (14 days as a rule), so a clear and fair returns policy is at once a requirement and a selling advantage.

Cross-border sales are the main reason brands come to eBay. You can set up your own international shipping options or use eBay International Shipping (eIS), a programme eBay is gradually extending to sellers outside the US. In this model you ship the parcel to eBay's national hub, and eBay takes over the customs formalities, import charges, international transport and returns communication. According to the programme's description, the seller's responsibility essentially ends once the shipment reaches the hub, and the seller is protected against loss or damage in international transit. Availability for a Polish company depends on how far the programme has rolled out on your account, so confirm it in your shipping settings.

Seller standards and Top Rated Seller

eBay rates sellers on hard quality metrics. Three are key:

• a transaction defect rate below 0.5%,
• cases closed without seller resolution below 0.3%,
• a late shipment rate below 3%, with an obligation to upload tracking numbers.

Staying above the quality threshold and reaching Top Rated Seller status (and its local equivalent, such as "Verkäufer mit Top-Bewertung" on eBay.de) gives you better visibility and, on some sites, discounts on fees. The transaction-count and turnover thresholds differ between markets, so check the criteria for the site you sell on in eBay's seller standards policy. The practical takeaway is simple: watch your shipping time, upload tracking and resolve disputes quickly, because those three habits decide your status.

How eBay differs from Amazon

This is not "Amazon number two". The model is different, and that changes the strategy:

• Auction and fixed price side by side. eBay was historically about auctions; today Buy It Now dominates, but the very option to bid opens categories that will not sell on Amazon (collections, rare parts, used goods).
• The relationship with the buyer. On eBay the buyer sees your shop and brand, can contact you, and you build your own reputation. On Amazon the relationship is heavily mediated by the platform.
• Brand and catalogue. eBay is looser on catalogue and friendlier to a seller's own identity, including used and renewed products. Amazon is more catalogue-centric and restrictive.
• Logistics. On eBay the seller's own shipping dominates (plus eIS for cross-border), whereas on Amazon the axis is FBA and the fight for the Buy Box.

For many brands eBay and Amazon are not competitors but complements: different buyers, different categories, a different price dynamic.

eBay start checklist for a company

1. Set up a Business account and complete full verification (identity document, company registration data, beneficial owners).
2. Connect a payout method and set your invoicing data and the mandatory company information.
3. Define your business policies: shipping, handling time, returns (account for the 14-day right of withdrawal).
4. Prepare your product data: titles, photos, attributes and identifiers (GTIN/EAN, MPN, brand).
5. List your first offers in Buy It Now format; leave auctions for unusual goods.
6. Calculate your margin from the full order amount including shipping, on the current commission schedule for your category.
7. Consider an eBay Shop subscription as your number of offers grows.
8. Turn on Promoted Listings Standard with a moderate rate on selected offers.
9. Set up international shipping (your own options or eIS, if available on your account).
10. Watch your quality metrics from the very first sale, to work towards Top Rated status.

When eBay makes sense and when it does not

This is a recommendation, not a universal fact. In our view eBay pays off when:

• you have a range that is strong in eBay's typical categories (automotive and parts, electronics, tools, collections, used and refurbished),
• you want cross-border sales in the EU without building your own international logistics from scratch,
• you care about your own relationship with the buyer and brand visibility, not just volume.

eBay makes less sense when your product is purely catalogue-based, heavily dependent on FBA and Prime, or when you do not have the resources to look after a second channel with its own quality standards. In that case it is better to refine your existing channel first and add eBay deliberately. It is worth doing the same maths before entering other markets, for example with selling on Kaufland or launching sales through TikTok Shop in Europe.

A marketplace is not everything

Every marketplace, eBay included, lends you traffic on its own terms: it sets the commissions, standards and visibility rules, and it owns the relationship at the platform level. It is an excellent sales channel, but you build your own brand and the highest margin where you control the whole thing, meaning in your own store. That is why the mature strategy is multichannel selling: marketplaces for reach, your own store for the brand and customer data. Building and migrating such platforms is the job of our sister technology brand, Seedlight (eCommerce platforms).

How you enter eBay with Amazonway

If you want to add eBay to your existing sales but do not have the hands to run a second channel with its verification, fees and quality standards, that is exactly a job for an agency. At Amazonway we provide full marketplace account management on a retainer-plus-success-fee model, and entering a new market is a separate stage of our Waypoint framework (WP 05 New markets): from account registration and verification, through running the eBay account and optimising offers, to Promoted Listings and international shipping. We do not promise rankings or specific sales, because that depends on the product and the market. We promise an orderly process and a transparent cost calculation. If you want to check whether eBay fits your range, get in touch.