Debating on getting rid of starter store
Summary: rdemaree is contemplating whether to keep their online starter store, which costs $84 CAD annually, especially after losing their Top-Rated Seller status. They are considering ways to cut costs due to additional fees of $200-$250 incurred by the status loss. flipistics suggests selling cheap, easy-to-move items to increase transactions, with transtraders recommending DVDs or CDs as potential solutions. ricarmic advises assessing long-term business goals and maintaining the store for repeat customers, while acknowledging challenges in the current selling landscape. Other participants discuss related experiences and strategies, highlighting concerns over transaction counts and potential fees.
I have had a starter store since 2020 and am debating on whether or not it is worth keeping. It costs roughly $84 CAD per year to keep but I never list more than 80 listings and will never come close to 250 listings. Much of my business model is repeat sales of high margin sales in the 25-200$ range.
The only benefit I get from it currently is a professional looking storefront and URL. I am wondering if this is worth the cost. Im leaning towards keeping it because this is the main place I sell my products and enjoy looking professional but im open to walking away from it.
I also recently lost TRS for the first time after having it for 6 straight years because I have 96 instead of 100 transactions (old avg was 115-145 at any given time but now its 88-105 avg. ) no other issues, just a few transactions short and calculated ill now be hit with roughly 200-250$ per year in extra fees now and likely lose some more sales due to losing TRS via algorithm (kick em while theyre down mentality)
This has caused me to find ways to cut costs and dead weight as much as possible in all facets of my business. I feel like I might be able to regain TRS status in the future but it will be a bumpy road and it wont be secured as easily as it once was.
Please share your thoughts and experiences.
thanks
timber_oak
·6 days agoAnnual plans are hit with cancellation fees. It's going to cost you either way.
ricarmic
·1 week agoHere are my thoughts, useful or not, you'll have to decide!
I think it's important to assess your long term goals. Do you still hope to continue here (or online) in the long(er) term?
If your business plan is to continue on, having the store provides you with a "place" that folks know where to go to look for your stuff. I did a VERY quick look at your items and saw some having themselves in 17 shopping carts. If you do a lot of repeat business, I'd think that having a continuing place for folks to find you is a good idea.
I'd suggest from the math inferences I'm making that losing $200-$250 in fees means an $84 annual cost is a very inexpensive aspect of helping preserve the fairly significant raw sales that $200-$250 in fees come from.
I'm confused a bit by the TRS concern. There's 2 TRSs, the US one and the Canadian one. Do you still have the Canadian (aka Global) one? I am like you, my store is STILL a .COM store, I've not been top rated on the .COM (US) side for likely over a decade now, but I am still top rated on the Canadian (aka Global) side. Its the Canadian one that makes or breaks the 10% TRS discount across ALL sites, or that's what I recall, others more studious may correct me on that one.
I've been around in the mailorder business for 48 years now, one thing I see that folks too often do is over-react to incidents, frustrations etc. The most common one IMO is blocking an entire country after the first INR from that country.
The current selling situation is a bit different as the complexity of selling internationally including the US doesn't show any signs of being "over" anytime soon. Adapting or toughing it out is a lot harder for long(er) term problems, especially affected by how dependent one is on the revenue to live.
I've recently blocked US folks from all .CA items (about half) and from any "Canada" items on the US side and this has absolutely devasted my sales volume here, only 2 orders in the last 6 days, unprecedentedly awful results, worst ever.
You'll probably recall from other threads that I've been running experiments with other selling venues and ironically my "antique malls" are very much outperforming eBay at the moment, which is sad because they were only running at about 25% of my ebay sales, but at least I have them.
I've always been a big fan of suggesting experimentation, if someone had told me even 5 years ago that me selling stamps out of antique malls would have outperformed ebay sales I would have had a most boisterous laughter as a response. I'm not laughing now....
ricarmic
·1 week agoWell, I do stand corrected, I have been delinquent about listing new items, I've been coasting over the summer, but before the latest tariff round I was coasting with a couple sales a day, so things are still bad.
At any rate, today I listed 17 items, and during the listing period, had 2 questions/offers and one sale (different person), so it appears I should have been a little more active listing......
rdemaree
OP5 days agoI have never been a TRS on the global or UK one. Only USA. I am currently 30% down in sales compared to before November 2024 (trump 2.0) and dont see me ever fully returning to sales how they were. I could see me recouping some sales eventually when better leadership and policies arrive but not for a while.
Yeah I think all those people with my stuff in their carts abandoned them thanks to trump rhetoric and bad optics tbh even tho there are no tariffs on my products. The average person doesnt understand trade deals and im a one person business so my reach is limited.
I have always been a 75% USA sales business but trying to get that number down to like 60% of my total and hopefully gain at least a few more Canadian or European/ Commonwealth country sales to slightly make up for my lost american sales.
Multiple shocks to the system bled away buyers from me. In March 2025 I completely switched ALL of my listings from .com/ usd to .ca/ cad and switched completely from free shipping/ higher BIN to calculated shipping/ lower BIN. Also ebays phony tariff warning message for sellers who dont use EIS. Now the EU is disrupting micro ecommerce as well with tariffs and regulatory hurdles.
So my business model has been shaken up drastically over the past year and a half and tbh despite all of my hardwork to stop the bleeding of business im still down 30%. I put a CUSMA message on all of my listings, I added new products, I do monthly themed sales every month of the year and I added multiple entry level products. If I had done nothing who knows how bad it would be. Im assuming 45-50%.
I was going to be placing my product in a physical store in Ontario that reached out to me and we had a deal and they suddenly ghosted me. Reached out to a few more in Canada and either didnt hear back or was told they arent currently looking for new product atm.
Ultimately I think ill keep the ebay starter store for now and monitor over the next few years. For sure I dont have any more plans on growing my business. I just want to reach a stable and predictable plateau.
If things dont improve by the time trump leaves office and I cant find a Canadian shop to stock my product I may begin the slow liquidation process. Ive got 2-3 years to see if international trade policy improves or if a domestic storefront decides to carry my products and if neither come to fruition I might need to call it a day and begin the 5 year slow sell off until materials dry up.
Its a terrible time to be a Canadian micro ecommerce business right now. Bad economy, tariffs and regulatory hurdles coming from both the USA and EU etc. Just a terrible time to do international trade and especially for micro businesses from small countries like Canada.
mandicrafts
·1 week ago"Starter" stores are not available on .ca
You must have signed up via the .com site, and it can become problematic if you want to move up to a Basic store or if you try to cancel it.
reallynicestamps
·1 week agoI'm not sure that badge is worth much as a badge. We Canadians have the Global TRS which has slightly lower expectations, we don't need as much tracking for example, but the badge does not show to US buyers who find us on dotCOM.
The perks, like the lower fee, is certainly worthwhile.
I'm currently in the same position, low summer sales leading to the TRS warning.
flipistics
·1 week agoJust a thought, but if you have the dollar value and not the transactions could you list a few ultra cheap items to boost it up? They don't have to be related to your paints. Just look for a handful of things at a thrift store (maybe something on the toy baggie walls) or elsewhere that you know will sell quick and throw them up at cost, or perhaps at auction with a starting bid at cost.
rdemaree
OP1 week agoYes I was thinking about that. I just need to find an easily moveable item that I can sell to Americans specifically at least 10 times per year. Looking over my options. Preferably something very cheap, small and easy to sell.
transtraders
·1 week ago · EditedI recommend DVD's or CD's for that purpose. Easy to list, easy to ship, don't take much space and best of all they are Tariff/Duty free to Americans (unless they are made in Canada).
reallynicestamps
·1 week agoWelp, I've been avoiding putting my mint Canada postage packets on discount, but I think you may have persuaded me.