eBay drops fees for selling pre-owned clothing

EBay has dropped fees for individuals to sell pre-owned clothing in an effort to keep the items out of landfill.

As of Monday, it is free to sell all second-hand clothing, including brand new items with tags on that have never been worn.

Seller fees will still apply to trainers, watches, handbags and jewellery.

Existing individual fashion listings will also benefit from free selling, even if they were listed before April 8.

A survey for the online marketplace found that 70% of Britons wear half or less than half of their wardrobe on a day-to-day basis, while 92% of consumers have more than one item of clothing they have not worn in the last 12 months.

However just 25% sell their unwanted clothes, with the average consumer holding on to more than £400 worth of clothing that they do not wear, the poll suggests.

EBay has also made AI-generated item descriptions available to all UK sellers.

The new feature suggests “attention-grabbing” item descriptions, cutting down the time it takes to list an item.

Meanwhile, eBay Live, an interactive livestream shopping experience, will be piloted in the UK with select sellers in the coming weeks.

The feature allows users to attend live auctions, shop for exclusive deals and buy in real time. It has been successful in the US since launching in 2022.

EBay said encouraging more people to buy and sell pre-owned clothing was essential for creating a circular economy for fashion.

It claims that it saved more than 1,600,000 kg of waste going to landfill through sales of second-hand clothing last year.

Kirsty Keoghan, general manager of global fashion for eBay, said: “Free fashion selling has come at the right time for a nation sitting on billions of pounds worth of unwanted clothes.

“We know selling clothes can sometimes feel like a chore, so free selling and new updates like new AI-powered listings will help more of us to sell clothes easily, putting more cash in pockets.

“By encouraging more people to buy and sell pre-loved clothing, we’ll keep more clothes out of landfill as we collectively enable a circular economy for fashion.”

Opinium surveyed 2,000 UK adults in March.