To Open A Store, Or Not Open A Store, That Is The Question?:|

[thebarterersdog]

?:| Not sure what we are doing yet... Anyone else opening a store and care to share their concerns or thoughts as to why? Do your items show up earlier in the search pages? What's the benefits besides fees...?

[trikiliki]

Great, I will, thank you. Your quick response and info is much appreciated 🙂

[nan*55]

I'm still undecided 😞

[pierrelebel]

I have not reopen a store nor do I plan to.

[rose-dee]

The intangibles of a store have a value as well but it's hard to quantify.

Actually, one of the intangibles many people forget about is the 'branding' that an eBay store can provide. 

It's possible to customize the visual look and appeal of an eBay store to quite an extent to make it unique and memorable.  Non-store listing pages all look like eBay generic pages, but store listings can be creative and individual, with logos, custom designs, etc., depending on how much you want to spend.

This is one aspect of having a store that I particularly like, and marketing professionals will tell you that if you're a serious seller, logo and branding are critical (and they have real-world value).

[pocomocomputing]

Based on your current number of listing (65 FP, 1 auction), no-store will be cheaper with 50 free listing (can be FP or Auction after May 1st).

You can get 50 free on both sites eBay.ca and eBay.com for a total of 100 free for non-store. You might also get invited for some promos to be able to list more from time tot time.

You will pay 10% FVF rate for non-store versus 9% for store for most categories. So there is a small incentive to go to a basic store to save 1%. But I reverse calculated ($19.95 / 1% = $1995 or yearly $15.95 / 1% = $1595)) that you would need monthly total sales (price plus shipping cost) of $1995 or $1595 before the 1% saves you FVF. So if you do $1000 in sales (price + shipping) the savings in FVF pays for half of your store. So the actual cost of a basic store versus non-store goes down with each sale in a month.

The most interesting change to the free listings is that they can be Auction or Fixed Price. So you can have a mix of both under the new plan.  So you could run 100 FP and 50 auctions per month under a basic store. Auctions are shorter duration and might pull in visitors to the fixed price in a store.

I would think that a basic store is worth it to at least try for 2-3-4 months for sellers who never had one before. For sellers around 75-100 items per month. Go with the $19.95 plan so you can switch back anytime to non-store. Remember part of that monthly fee  is paid by the FVF savings.

Now if you cannot use all 150 free with a basic store (plus the 150 free on the ebay.com site), you can experiment with shorter duration Fixed Price listings like 10 or 7 day or even 5 day. You can try some selling strategies to perhaps boost views and visibility and sales.

For example, you have a new item to list. You could list it Fixed Price 30 days GTC and wait. Or you can try and have a shorter start and end. List it the first time at FP 7 days. If it does not sell, you relist for 7 days again. Repeat so that you have 4 x 7 days listings in a row with 4 start times (good for newly listed searches by buyers) and 4 end times soon searches) in the same 30 duration. Remember Fixed Price has 3,5,7,10 30 and GTC durations. So you can experiment with durations.

Or you can list at auction 7 days at the best price that you will accept (not 99 cents) and then if it does not sell, relist at auction 7 days. If it does not sell, then move to Fixed Price 10 days 3 times, then finally to FP GTC.

With sorter duration strategies, you might "force" some sales quicker because your listings gets seen more often in newly listed search and ending sooner searches.

So your monthly listings will have a mix of auctions, short duration Fixed Price and long duration Fixed Price. And if found, the potential buyer might then click on your store link and visit the rest of your items.

With such a sales strategy, you might get more sales. You can be a little creative in how you sell to perhaps get an edge over other sellers.

[pocomocomputing]

Based on your current number of listing (65 FP, 1 auction), no-store will be cheaper with 50 free listing (can be FP or Auction after May 1st).

My post was in reply to nan*55

[nan*55]

I've had a store before and miss it 🙂 And I do have many more items to list.Just holding off until I decide.Debating if I should go for it now,wait for fall or not at all.

[dutchman48]

who will do the test to see if with a store you can get 150 free per site (.ca and .com) for a basic and 500 free per site for a premium store. I know the pinks say you can but not sure if I believe it. If any one does test it after May 1, please post results. I may try it as well. 1000 listings for 50 per month sounds like a great deal. Even 300 per month for 16 is a great deal.

[frances74915]

I decided to open a store at the begining of I decided selling as a business in ebay.  No doubt to do that if you want to look more professional.  However, my store still looks like a baby need to learn lots of selling skills and marketing abilities, need to sourcing more items for sale, I will definitely run a store.

Recently I found a small disadvantage for a store.  I want to sell something totally different category from what I sell in my store, I have to registered another id to sell them.  If you don't have a store, you don't worry about that.

[pjcdn2005]

Frances, why would you need another id to list in a different category?

[rose-dee]

Frances, why would you need another id to list in a different category?

Quite right.  You certainly can list in as many categories as you like with a store, no separate ID needed.  Remember there are eBay categories and then there are store categories -- these are two completely separate things, and your store categories need not match eBay's categories. 

In case you're not too familiar with store categories, you can name your store categories anything you like (well, there is a limit of so many characters, but otherwise, it's up to you), and place them in any order you like.  You can also customize your categories in a hierarchy with sub-categories.  This is a store feature I especially like, particularly since the category name doesn't show up unless there is actually an item or items for sale in that category.  This is a nice touch, thank you whoever designed eBay's stores. :-x

[lovbugshop]

well that makes sense if are are making Thousands of dollars a month to have a store, I had a store a few years back but now I am just selling to help out our grandkids and not making much so I closed my store. all the best in your decision.                                                                                   

[frances74915]

Dear PJ and Rose,  I know I can creat up to 30 categories in my store and sell anything.  What I mean is, I'm focus on selling Lace items and womens fashion in my store.  If I want to sell, let's say, sea glass or beach glass, it obviously not fit my store customer.  I don't want my store sell mess items, I want it has a theme, has certain customer.  That's why I registered another id to sell sea glass. 🙂

[rose-dee]

I don't want my store sell mess items, I want it has a theme, has certain customer.  That's why I registered another id to sell sea glass. 🙂

It's possible that having two different types of items in one store might actually increase your sales overall, because you'll be attracting two types of customers to the same place.  You never know which person looking for lace will be interested in sea glass too, and vice-versa.  You could still leave your focus on lace, but set up a major category for sea glass for example, or call the category "Glass Gifts" or whatever.  Just a thought... 🙂