Question
I have been thinking of opening an ebay store on ebay. The one for $15.95/month. I have treied to find out more about it, but as usual, ebay doesn't tell all the specifics. If you open the store, do you still pay listing fees?
Thanks.
Answer
Yes, you still pay listing fees. Plus store items don't show in search usually unless there's less than 30 or 20 items on the regular ebay. So you have to list a bunch of auctions as well and hope that they come to your store. Then you have a higher FVF than regular listings (8% as opposed to 5%).
Answer
It depends on what you sell if it's worth it. I found it not to be as I sell a bunch of odd stuff that generally has no correlation with the rest of the stuff I sell, so I can't run an auction that leads to my store for additional buying.
The listing fee is a big thing for most-with gallery it's like 3 cents, but the FVF is higher and the search for stores stinks. It's up to YOU to promote your store since ebay won't do it for you.
Answer
For me it's worth it.
I have the 15.95 store.
You have to work the store...cross promotions, store emails, & run a couple auctions so folks will find your store easier. SEO helps alot
Store listings are .03 each, INCLUDING gallery. FVF's as said above are higher....but I average 1/4-1/3 of my sales from the store, lately higher than that, probably 50%.
Depends on what you want the store to do FOR you. If you just want a place to park stuff so it's visible all the time that's cool, & you'll probably sell a few things. If you want to really sell stuff you'll have to make the store work for you. But what you sell will determine how well your store does. Some things just don't do well in stores.
Hazel
Answer
A long time ago I tried a store and it was a dismal failure. Then they made some changes, stores started coming up in search results and they offered a free trial or something so I signed up again, in May I think. I have lots of ties, books and ornaments listed, stuff that wouldn't get more than one bid if I auctioned it and stuff that needs to hang out until the right person finds it. I've been doing great with the store this time. I usually list in groups, put up 20 ornaments at a time, make the better choices auction items and the rest put in the store. Stuff that doesn't sell I'll stick in the store after the auction ends. It's worth the $16 a month to me, only 3¢ to list if you use gallery for 30 days, dang good deal for iffy stuff that may sit for a while.
Answer
For slower moving products, there isn't a better way to peddle!
Although we once had three ebay stores, which proved too much to handle (keeping enough inventory in them to be worthwhile), we're down to one now... but there isn't a sign of us closing up anytime soon.
Although... I dread to think what sort of fee hikes are planned for '06. It makes one shudder after what they did to us last year.
Cheers
Answer
If they raise the FVF again then the BIN fee, Gallery fee and add a duration fee for 1, 3, 5, 7 days... AND fixed price...
but then again, people just whines and don't do anything about it. The majority just complaints and threatens to leave, and they never do.
Answer
"ebay store? is it worth it? "
In a word
YES!
We have switched tactics and oh boy, has it paid off - If I told you what percentage our sales are up, you wouldn't beleive me. Here is what we have done, mainly from using things we learned about right here at here. Note this only works if you are selling the same items over and over.
1. List the same exact thing in a standard auctions (fixed price does not work anywhere as well, customer just buys the auction)
2. List the item for 1 day
3. Use software (I recommend Sage) that auto changes the listing date from 1, 3, 5, and 7 days
4. Have a "Click here" button in your Ebay auction that points directly to your store item Have the wording that explains they do not have to wait for the auction to end, just "click here" if you do not want to wait- note this is important you MUST have it at the exact same item at the exact same price. This is working out really, really well for customers who want to get it for Christmas.
what we have found is that the main auction item will drive customers to the Ebay Store. Best part is that they will buy other related items since they are in the store. Our average price per ticket has gone up quite a bit.
Couple of interesting points
1. We find ourselves hoping that the regular auction doesn't get a bid until the 7th day, that way it has 7 full days with 3 revises, to "advertise" the item in the Ebay store. It is not unusal to sell several of the same item off the one stand auction. Yes we pay more in higher commission fees, but higher dollar sells, more sells and no listing fee to speak of for the store item more than makes up for it.
2. People still get into bidding wars on the standard auction, even though there is bright red letters that say "click here" to buy now - go figure.
If you have any questions I will try and answer them as best I can
paul
Answer
It ALL depends on what you sell. My suggestion, try it for a month or 2 and see if it works. It takes time to refine your methods of which auctions/Fixed price listings to list to not only get sales but bring traffic to your store. You'll also want to have a nice link in place to draw your customers in.
Listing fees? Hardly, 2 cents for auction, 2 for gallery and one for subtitle (or something along those lines). Well worth the 5 cents. The FVF are higher, but that's the trade off.
Our business is perfect for the store, yours may not be.
Answer
I am happy with my store. It was a year old in November.
We sell antiques/collectibles/uniques and while I still run auctions, I have recently discovered that FP does very well for us. All the auctions are currently shut down and we still had some lady come thru the store yesterday and buy several items. Works for me.
Just be sure NOT to depend on the link ebay provides in the upper right hand corner of the listing. Put a link to your store in EVERY description! Right there where they can find it without having to hunt. They'll click on it!
I haven't looked at the numbers in the last few weeks but we were running 35-40% store sales AND at higher prices than we could get through auction listings. I still don't quite understand that part but hey, whatever works, right?