eBay

katlover1952 · ‎10-12-2015

I am planning to take advantage of eBay's offer of a free store for a month. I am not sure if a store is a good idea or not but thought I would experiment & try it till the new year. Just planning on the basic store. I have never had one but I know many of you more experienced sellers on the board have them & would like to hear any advice you have to offer.

Thanks - appreciate any & all help/suggestions.

rose-dee · ‎10-12-2015

I'm a great believer in stores, if you have the volume to justify it.

There are two styles of stores -- at least for the moment -- the new, more open design, or the classic (mine is still in classic mode). Take a look at a few sellers' stores to get an idea of which you prefer. Of course I don't know whether eBay is only permitting the new store design for this promotion. I suppose you'll find out when you sign up.

There are quite a number of marketing and promotional options available if you have a store -- look under "Manage My Store" at the bottom of your new storefront page to access these. Also, I don't know whether Selling Manager is available to non-store owners, but you'll want to subscribe to that once you have a store set up, as I find it makes a lot of tasks much easier.

If you're only planning to try out a store for a month as an experiment, I think the best thing to do is to open the store, work with it for a week or two, then come back to these boards with any specific questions. Then you can determine whether you want to subscribe to a store month-by-month or yearly, or go back to non-store selling.

My view is that eBay is promoting store ownership because it provides a reliable income stream for them. I think eventually there will be two distinct strata of eBay sellers, store and non-store owners, and two very different fee structures, with more and more "perks" for stores. This is already happening to a great extent, but I believe it will become even more pronounced in the next couple of years.

katlover1952 · ‎10-12-2015

Thanks Rose. I figure a month is probably not long enough to get a real feel for it so thought I'd give it till after Christmas to see if the costs are worth it. Will do as you have suggested.

pierrelebel · ‎10-12-2015

You need to look at the big picture.

An eBay store is a place where all your listings (auction style and fixed price) are shown.

The biggest advantage of having an eBay store is the lower FVFs you pay eBay.

Please take a few minutes to compare the fee differences between having and not having a store:

Without an eBay store: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/fees.html

After October 15th: http://announcements.ebay.ca/2015/10/05/7721/

With an eBay store: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/storefees.html

In addition to lower fees, one of the main advantages of having a store is the Markdown Manager - giving you the ability to discount prices on some items for a specific period of time.

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/items_on_sale.html

Do not try to do too much after you open your store or you may be overwhelmed.

Once open, the first step is to decide how you want to present your listings on the first page. Personally, from the beginning of eBay stores in 2000, I have selected to show highest price first. Why? I want to showcase my best and most expensive items, not the cheapest ones. Listing by "ending first" is largely meaningless since most buyers do not care - they want to "buy now". (Buyers have the ability to change the sort function if they wish. Take a look at any store and play with it)

Next you have to create "store categories".

Once the store categories are created, the tough job is to revise all your listings to give them the relevant store category. It is a time consuming operation but necessary. That information is not in your listings currently since you did not have a store. Only a seller can determine where to list each item as far as store categories are concerned.

Tip - check what your competitors are doing before determining what you want to do.

Good Luck.

neatjerseys · ‎10-12-2015

Though having an ebay store does give you a lot of options, make sure you need the store. If you are getting a store because you think it will increase business, you may find that it is not the case.

Be sure that you can justify paying the monthly fee. I had a store and did not find it was worth for me to keep it going. With the consistently free listings made available, it was less expensive to not have a store.

Everyone is different. Depends on your niche.

katlover1952 · ‎10-13-2015

Thanks for the info Pierre. As always you are extremely helpful. I may need to do a bit of studying before I do anything. Perhaps I really don't need a store. Really depends on what eBay does with promos. My sales have been very slow although they picked up,this past week. I had wondered if having a store would increase business but as the next poster points out it is not always the answer.

I thank you all for your comments & suggestions.

pierrelebel · ‎10-13-2015

"I had wondered if having a store would increase business "

Having a store by itself will not increase business. What will is what you do with tools provided to you by eBay as a store owner.

Building up a list of customers to whom you send regular newsletter or list of specials. Yes, that does increase sales over time (not the first week or two). Regular short term discounts on specific items (using Markdown Manager) does increase sales. Using "promotion boxes" on your storefront will increase sales. Feel free to take a look at my store and many others to get ideas of what can be done to increase your sales.

In many instances, depending on categories, the savings in FVFs pay for the monthly store fee.

Good Luck