@pjcdn2005 wrote:
If I sell a $30 US item on Day 1 of a month, I've paid all of my $15.95 Cdn monthly store fees with about $17.00 Cdn to spare after FVFs. From then on, for the rest of the month I only pay 9% FVF on item sales, and virtually no shipping FVFs (due to the way I've set up my free shipping).
But you said that you would recoup store fees after just one sale. On a $30 sale you have saved .30 because you had a store. You still have a long way to go before actually recouping that store fee. I realize that you think that there are many other benefits to having a store but the OP's problem is that they have items with a relatively low cost with high shipping. I don't see how the store suggestion would help that situation in any way.
Also, I think that you have low fvf on shipping because the majority of your items can be shipped lettermail within Canada so it isn't that difficult to offer free shipping but the OP's items cannot be shipped that way so how would you suggest that they cut down on shipping fvf costs?
Yes, to reply to your first comment, I realize I am only saving $0.30 in FVFs over a non-store on a $30 US sale.
However, my approach is that that first sale pays all my store listing fees for the month (with money to spare). At that point I have no further listing fees to pay, and ca. $17.00 Cdn to apply toward FVFs for the remainder of the month (well, less any COGS plus other expenses).
It's that remainder of the month of listing fees that makes the significant difference, not the difference between FVFs on store and non-store sales, which is only 1% (except for certain categories like Pierre's, which are lower). If, like 'toby', one only looks at that narrow calculation from one side, then yes, a fairly large sales turnover is required in order for FVFs to offset the store fee and actually save money in a month.
But I don't look only at that factor when considering the financial value and savings of a store. Among other things, I look at the other side of the balance sheet, considering the actual amount it would cost me to list the same number of items without a store. I'm not very familiar anymore with non-store listing fees, but I see a lot of non-store sellers complaining that eBay is restricting them more and more.
For example, as of today (with the new store allotments), I see I now have a monthly potential of 500 free listings (between .ca and .com, plus the auctions). That's my baseline. How much would 500 listings costs without a store? I think that's what the OP needs to be taking a careful look at, not simply the FVFs.
If the OP has the ability to make full use of that potential, then I think not only would he save money to apply toward his FVFs, but he'd also probably increase his sales due to having more listings. It seems these days that more listings equal more exposure and more sales, since a lot of sellers are now reporting that their turnover is well under 5% per month. I recall seeing one medium-sized seller say that he now has to list over 2,000 items in order to sell 50 per month. I don't think that's unusual these days on eBay.
I do have quite a number of lower value items with fairly high shipping, but my strategy works for me because of the mix of U.S. vs. Canadian buyers, and depending upon which site I list. The OP could easily arrange his listings so that he would save significantly on shipping FVFs based on the proportionate location of his buyers (or what he knows will appeal to which buyer subset). Of course this only works for sellers who have some history behind them on which to make an educated calculation on their buyer statistics.
I'd encourage the OP to keep a record of his buyer location stats for a 2 or 3 months, at which point he could strategize his listings to take maximum advantage of FVF reductions based on first domestic shipping rates. A store would then be well worthwhile if the OP planned to continue on eBay at a higher listing level.
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