To close or not to close the store

[katlover1952]

I am just wondering what everyone does when they go on holidays. I am going away for just a week and am trying to decide whether I should allow the store to stay open or close it. I know that when I closed it for a month the year of the pending postal strikes it took me months to get my sales back to where they had been pre-closing so am wondering if it is better to leave open.

I have seen items where there is a message posted at the top that the seller is away for a certain length of time and would be unable to mail any items till a certain date. Don't suppose that would keep you from getting a defect though.

Thoughts?

[femmefan1946]

What does your customer expect from you?

Remember that shipping to the USA takes longer than shipping within the USA.

And that American customers expect delivery yesterday and will panic if they don't get a tracking number within 24 hours.

Personally, I close my Stores completely, so that no one can even see my listings until 24 hours before I am returning.

Since I can't ship, why try to sell and risk an unhappy customer?

the year of the pending postal strikes

There were a lot of Canadian sellers who were closed for long periods that year. I wonder if the lack of Canadian content made shopping on dotCA unattractive?

[recped]

I use the Vacation setting frequently (and no I've never noticed any disruption in sales).

These days I run almost exclusively Fixed Price so if I'm, leaving today and returning next weekend I would put my Store on vacation until next Thursday or Friday.

If I was listing Auctions then I would list them TODAY and they would be ending the day I return (7 day listings).

You can combine the two because when your store is in vacation mode the Fixed Price will be hidden (if you make that choice) but the Auctions will not and people can bid.

This assumes no BIN on the Auction listings.

[pjcdn2005]

If you wanted to avoid a late shipping ding you would have to change your handling time but I would recommend closing it, that seems more professional to me than having a handling time more than a few days.  I have noticed that when I reopen it is slower for a couple of days but didn't experience what you said you did.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I went away for a week last year & put my store on the vacation setting so buyers could see how long I was gone for.  I checked my computer daily while I was gone & was able to send a personal reminder to any buyers to tell them I was away.  I said I would ship their item out as soon as I got back. Most said no problem.

[esclyons]

Keep in mind any one who is watching any of your items can still purchase them, even if you are on holidays with listings hidden.. So personally i would put your store on holidays, and extend your handling time to accommodate your time away, otherwise i would put the store on holiday mode with listings hidden. At least that way if someone buys something you are covered either way.

And by extending your handling time most people never click on the tab to see the amount of days anyway.. But if you are away with internet access i would just send a polite reminder to anyone who has purchased something, that you are on holidays and will dispatch immediately upon your return.

[pjcdn2005]

No, I don't think that they can, that was fixed quite a while ago even though it may still say that in the help pages.  A couple of sellers tested that out here and they weren't able to buy the other seller's hidden listings even though they had them on watch.

[recped]

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@esclyonswrote:

Keep in mind any one who is watching any of your items can still purchase them, even if you are on holidays with listings hidden.

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While that was true a long time ago my understanding is that it hasn't been for several years.

I know for sure that lots of my listings have watchers (and they are NOT GTC), I've used the vacation setting at least 6 times per year for several years and I've never had a hidden item purchased.

I have made sales of those watched items shortly after re-opening so although not conclusive I'd bet the "watchers can still buy" isn't possible anymore.

[esclyons]

the last threat of a postal strike i was hidden, on holidays..  and i received an offer on a item someone was watching, they didn't buy it outright  but they were able to send an offer.  I just assumed if they could send an offer, they could have bought it. but can't be 100% sure.

[momcqueen]

 I put my sore on Vacation with items still showing and alter my handling time to match the number of business days I will be away. 

[silverpinups]

I just tried to purchase an item from a seller who is on vacation with his listings hidden and although I can still view the listing on my watched items I cannot purchase the item.

If I click Buy it now I get this disclaimer;

Sorry, this seller is on vacation, so this item is unavailable for purchase.   

[ricarmic]

I live in the "stamps" world.

I close my store and hide the listings.

Contrary to what seems to be the case for others, I have a boost of sales when I reopen my store.

[katlover1952]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It is much appreciated. I think I will put the store in vacation mode with a message at the top giving the dates of the week I am away. I will change the handling time to 7 days for the duration I am away. I am not sure how many people look at this but if they are seeing that I am away it won't make much difference. If they wanted it really fast they simply would not buy it.  Changing the handling time would be simply to avoid defects with eBay. Hopefully this will work. If I was going to be any longer than the week I probably would close it and hide the listings but a week is really not that long.

[musicyouneed]

Kat, one problem that you may have not considered.  If you list on .com and you use either standard or economy shipping for buyers in Canada you are only given 7 calendar days to get that item to the Canadian buyer after they have paid.  It doesn't matter if you put 7 days for handling, that is not taken into consideration. 

I am having an issue with that right now and trying to get it resolved.  7 calendar days without any handling time is outrageous so before you put your store on vacation, you may want to consider that.   

This is what yours shows:

This is my problem with it.  

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/OMG-a-buyer-is-asking-about-where-his-CD-is-and-it-has-o...

This is what ebay says:

[zee-chan]

Just to be safe, I suppose you could extend your handling time to even longer like 15 days?

[ricarmic]

Just a note from the buyers perspective.

I have a seller I use that has very long handling times all the time. This annoys me and I'm in the game so to speak!

If I saw a 10 or 15 day handling time because of a vacation, I think that would annoy me too. 

The long handling time doesn't stop me from buying from this person but I thought it might bear mentioning that a long handling time might not be good from a customer service perspective.

But then again I'm biased because hiding vacations work AOK for me....

[katlover1952]

Well that is pretty ridiculous isn't it! There is no way that letter mail would get there that fast and why would eBay still not be including the handling time. ( Is that 7 business days or just 7 days cause that makes a difference too!) That makes no sense at all. But yes that is something I would have to consider as I do send some things by letter mail in Canada and on .com those would show as economy shipping.

What about expedited - is it 7 days and nothing for handling time as well? If this be the case I would think that we would not want to ship to Canada at all if listing on .com!

[musicyouneed]

Hi Kat it is 7 calendar days from when they pay for both economy and standard shipping on .com to anywhere in Canada. 

I am trying to deal with this the best I can, check out each weekly session.  I am going to be a pain in the rear until they fix this.  How simple is it just add the time that we have on .ca, see my post for this week's session.

[katlover1952]

Well that is really crazy 7 calendar days is simply not reasonable in Canada.

Do you happen to know what the time frame is for expedited? If they don't add the handling time on there that could screw things up too. Expedited can even take more than 7 days across Canada. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

My sales have gone in the tank this past week anyway. No sales since Feb 25th, a whole week.  With that in mind likely makes little difference whether or not I close my store so with what you have told me likely makes more sense to close rather than getting a defect or INR claims.

[pjcdn2005]

If you look at your listings you'll see that expedited int'l shipping on .com does not give an arrival time so a buyer could open an inr after 7 days.  I wouldn't ever use the term expedited shipping on .com because it does suggest that delivery will be faster than usual and I don't find expedited parcel all that fast anyway. I use standard int'l delivery on .com for delivery to Canada and haven't had any problems with that as most buyers don't try to open a case in 7 days anyway. Although I agree it is ridiculous to allow buyers to open a case that quickly, I don't think that it really is a huge problem for most sellers.  It's possible that it would affect you more if you are away though since Canadians won't see any date of arrival.