when you first started. How did you promote your ebay store to get traffic?

[vintagetonow2134]

What did you do exactly? videos? ad  posting? etc...

[momcqueen]

Classified advertising directing people to my store on ebay. 

[reallynicestamps]

I started my Stores so long ago that we only got seen when there were not enough regular listings.

I do have a Facebook page, as Reallynicestamps,  which I occasionally remember to post to and which has never given a single sale.

Which might have something to do with the 'occasionally' part.

I still think the best advertising we can have on eBay is in those 80 FREE keystrokes that make up the title.

Followed by the Item Specifics we choose.

Our customers are not looking for a Store in my opinion, they are looking for stuff and run across our Stores.

BTW- you don't need a Store to sell on eBay.

Just list.

You will be restricted in the number and value of listings for a few months until you prove your mettle.

You will get a small boost in Search for a month or so-- but so will every other newbie that signs up that month.

You have up to 50 Free Listings.

Go.

List.

Make mistakes.

Learn.

Grow.

[cumos55]

Many sellers will come to eBay with a new type of inventory...  a new idea for selling.

Then after a while sales stop...   The first group of people  that came to  buy did so... and then there were less people looking to buy..... old inventory with less new buyers

------------------------------

What we have to do....

(1) Constantly adding new inventory

(2) Open up new categories of inventory... complementary to the first group of inventory but different.

(3)  A new category sells best if there are more than 30 listings in that category

(4) Constantly work and rework the listings. 

Revising one's listings will stimulate search. 

This includes when we adjust postage in the middle of January.

Stimulate search

(1) "Pretend" to do a revision.... postal code....  Remove and add the same code.

(2) During June-July....   end and relist all listings.... Do not let listings get ... old...  The search protocol loves newer.... listings.     A listing is old if it has been  over 16 to 18 months on eBay without a sale

(3) Adjust titles..... 

All of the books about Canada history   do not need these two words in the title  because  the search uses item specifics  when someone does a search for Canada History.

However  for other listings  in specific groups  specific words will be place at the end of a title for a listing....... such as Birds Canada... Art Canada.... Military Canada

My titles identify book content, because in many instances  the title of the book does not identify the content.......  A Book with the title "Dummies"   does not show that the book is about cruise missile testing in northern Canada. 

Many sellers of a book will put the wrong  type of information in the title of a listing, and then do not present what is in the content of the book in the description.   In many instances their listing will be  lost on eBay.

Sellers must put keywords ....as words..... in a listing.  People will put infomation about a book's content by placing photographs in  a listing ... The search protocol  cannot read photographs.... and that makes keywords important.  The same applie to all categories of sales on eBay.... words... words... words ... that  tha the search protocol can read.

The search protocol looks at the title of a listing.....  most important the first few words, and then the item specifics.... and also   the information  in the description.

How many sellers say that the pictures are the description.  "Real' words are important...

Never let the inventory on eBay go  without being worked and reworked

[mrdutch1001]

Have not had a store on eBay for about 10 years now...and have never promoted anywhere, at any time...I do not do social media.

[cumos55]

Having a store puts a seller's listings at one location.

Someone can link to a store and find everything that seller has on eBay. 

Without a store  the listings are everywhere.... This spread of listings across eBay will also happen with a store....  However that single location... the store....  allows a potential buyer to visit everything at once..... Multiple purchases from one seller results in a lower cost for postage.

-------------------------------

Everything that relates to Canada > history is in one location.

My books that relate to Canada's military are not dispersed across Military and War, where the primary interest is the US military...  The same applies to social aspects, cultural industries,  and more. 

You can also promote what is in the store  by following each and every one of eBay's rules.

No policy violations in the listings.... particularly as it relates when compared to other sellers of the same type of inventory.  

--------------------------------------

Starting to sell on eBay today   is a lot different than it was 10 to 14 years ago.  Lots has changed, and one has to be more focussed and more careful today.  eBay is constantly adjusting, and in order to be successful on eBay a seller must adjust accordingly.

Sometimes  I did things that felt like I was doing the change before eBay introduced the change.

Even in difficult situations the change occurred in a relatively quick manner.

[reallynicestamps]

I agree that a Store is useful for organizing a lot of varied material, whether that is assorted topics in Books or (like the OP) the Store has  different 'aisles' for screwdrivers, girdles, Blue Mountain pottery, fanzines, necklaces, and cutlery.

But Stores cost money.

A non-Store seller already gets 50 Free Listings every month.

So to my mind, a new seller should not bother with a Store until she has at least 51 unique items to list and probably over a hundred .( The arithmetic is beyond me. )

There is a link on each listing that shows all the seller's items together, Store or no Store.

[cumos55]

A store allows for unique categories  to present the seller's inventory.

These categories can be very specific to the listed inventory and  most different than what eBay presents as item specifics for  the same inventory.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@cumos55wrote:

Having a store puts a seller's listings at one location.

 Someone can link to a store and find everything that seller has on eBay. 

---

You do not need a store for that, all you need is the eBay seller ID and the ability to enter a URL in your browser.

...

For cumos55 it is: https://www.ebay.ca/sch/cumos55/m.html

For ypdc_dennis (non-store) it's https://www.ebay.ca/sch/ypdc_dennis/m.html

...

and you can also switch views between ebay sites by changing ebay.ca to ebay.com (USA) or ebay.co.uk (UK) or cafr.ebay.ca (Canadian french) or ebay.de (Germany) or ebay.fr (France) etc...

-..-

[cumos55]

A search for my listings on eBay shows everything in eBay categories..

All of the books in Canada > History are shown in one category... a mass of listings.  very difficult to find something specific in that mass of listings.

-----

A search in my store shows the listings in custom categories  where for Canada > History there is a presentation of listings in relation to provinces  and then subcategories among provinces, as well as other custom categories. 

It is a lot easier to view listings among  custom categories then in one massive category... Canada > History.

A store is more important with thousands of listings on eBay....

----------------------------

When I first started on eBay  there were no stores....  Today, eBay promotes the use of a store  where a seller will choose a store level based on the number of listings uploaded to eBay.  Cost defines which store level should be used. 

[femmefan1946]

This may be useful:

https://salecalc.com/

And this:

https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/selling/ebay-stores.html#packages-pricing

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

This may be useful:

https://salecalc.com/

And this:

https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/selling/ebay-stores.html#packages-pricing

---

That salecalc is a nice thing, but it is designed for American use -- costs may be different for Canadians.  Still, it is useful for a general idea of whether selling an item is going to be worth the effort.

[momcqueen]

Ah, yes. When I first started to sell here, I downloaded an iPhone app that was supposed to calculate eBay plus PayPal fees based on the data you provided for item cost, shipping cost et cetera. I stopped using that app once I got a sense of it, and also after it failed to be updated when fees for certain things changed. After awhile, you just know what to sell and how to price it to stay profitable. In the beginning, however, it does help to have a tool. I was so happy to get my first few sales that I didn’t really notice I was breaking even at best on most transactions.

[tyler@ebay]

Hi everyone,

Due to the length of time that has passed since this thread began I have locked it from future replies. If this is still an issue that warrants discussion, don't hesitate to begin a new thread!