Question
I'm going to dump my eBay store. It's not that I haven't had sales; I have. It's just that I'm more of a liquidation personality, always have been. When I did flea markets with my partner, I would cut deals just to get the thing sold. My partner, on the other hand, had a price in mind and would not budge from it.
There's room in life for both philosophies. I saw her make some great deals that I never would have thought would happen. But years later, she still has a garage and spare bedroom full of inventory that her husband complains about. (And a big old pickle jar full of Bakelite bangles that I covet!)
We all know what the eBay fees are for Stores. But what are the hidden costs? Are you losing money by parking items in Stores when you could be selling for a slight profit and reinvesting the cash? Do you have so much stuff sitting around that it causes problems at home? Does it bother you sometimes that six months after putting it in your Store it's still on your shelf? (That's what gets me.)
flofF
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Answer
Interesting question, fluff.
For me, I would have to say that the Ebay store is doing the opposite--making me money by moving inventory that would otherwise be sitting unlisted. I acquire way faster than I can sell, especially during yard sale season. In previous years, my shelves just got fuller and fuller, waiting for the Fall selling season to kick in, and then I would work like a madwomen to list as much as I could handle while the buyers were bidding.
I opened my Ebay store expressly to cut down on my fall workload. I wanted to get stuff listed as I brought it in--if some of it happened to sell, well, that would have been a nice bonus was my thinking. I figured I could then convert all the store items to auction items throughout the course of the fall selling season. Instead I discovered that items sell regularly out of the store---enough to let me retain my bronze PS status, if I had decided to hang onto it instead of dropping it as I did in April. I even hung onto my UPS daily pick-up this summer because of the number of sales my stores are making.
The store also makes me money by letting me set the price I really want for an item. I am definitely NOT a liquidation type of person lol. I made one small sale today for $10 of an item that is selling for pennies on the auction site right now, not sure why this person chose mine, but it happens frequently that buyers will snap something out of my store when identical items are going without even an opening bid on the auction site.
I always stopped selling on Ebay during the summer. My items sold, but I was giving them away and working just as hard, so I opted to cease sales during July and August. The stores smoothed that out for me, so my sales have been slow but steady, profitable, and plus I am still making progress toward my goal of getting all my stuff listed for fall. There are just several hundred LESS items to market in fall than there would have been under my old system--I got my top dollar for those several hundred items at a nice, leisurely pace.
Liquidating to get the cash for new inventory is not an issue for me--I sold enough out of my stores over the weekend to pay for a months' worth of trips to the auction, for example. But then I am just a one-person operation. Things are no doubt different for those who keep more than one person employed at this nutso biz.
Answer
I think it depends on your inventory mix.
If everything is a one of a kind preowned item then the Store might still work but may not be as effective.
I've never managed a large number of auction listings very well. With a Store you can create listings at any time, put a sample at auction and invite people to visit a larger display within the Store. That may lead to lower listing costs and more combined sales. I'm also better prepared to take advantage of eBay promotions.
It works best when there is some connection between items. Clothing for children, glass, older tools can all have their own category in the Store. With sell through rates what they are I'm finding the additional 50% of sales coming from Store items is a real boost without the increase in listing fees it would require for auctions.
It also gives customers an identity to return to for later purchases. The Store has also changed my thinking about inventory I want to offer. My listings have consistently moved from all preowned to an ever greater percentage of new, replaceable items.
Since Store listings are fixed price it does change the start low, sell everything, roll inventory mindset which works well for many sellers.
I do think the Stores are the best merchandising value eBay offers and while they might not fit everyone's needs I do feel people planning on long term eBay selling should look at every possibility of using Stores for a more profitable business. About 40% of my Store visits are now coming from off eBay (search engines) and that is just not possible with auction listings. With the lower listing fees and refund of 50% of FVFs for off eBay generated customers it is a big help in keeping eBay fees a lower percentage of total sales.
The question might not be "How can Stores help in my present selling patterns but rather how can I change to make best use of my potential?"
I loath changing but survival makes me do stuff I would rather avoid.
Answer
Fluff,
For me, the items I have in my store are there because they are/were consistent slow movers in the auction venue.
Didja know your store item now show at the bottom of a search? They come up under the regular auction items under a heading something like "these items are also available in member stores".
~Vampy
Answer
Originally Posted by FLvamp
Didja know your store item now show at the bottom of a search? They come up under the regular auction items under a heading something like "these items are also available in member stores".
~Vampy
Yeah, I did, thanks. I sell new sterling silver jewelry, which is a very crowded field, so my Store results don't make it onto a search page very often. I used Sellathon for a while, so now I know the common search strings for my kind of stuff, and they're pretty vague: "marcasite bracelet", "sterling silver earrings", that kind of thing.
Contrast that with something like selling old books, where your Heinlein first edition or your Maxfield Parrish-illustrated books have a far better chance of popping up in a search.
I think that in my desire to liquidate there is a generous portion of "tired of looking at it!" I think boredom breeds boredom and the way to keep the busiiness fresh is to keep bringing in new and different merchandise. (I realize that not everyone has this option.)
fLuff
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Answer
But what are the hidden costs?
To be honest, I've never considered them.
Are you losing money by parking items in Stores when you could be selling for a slight profit and reinvesting the cash?
Possibly, but I've already got enough stuff on hand that I could quit buying entirely today, and continue listing for six months or more. Also, many of the items I sell in my store are not in demand by large numbers of buyers. If I offer them at auction, the chances are not good that they'll be seen by the one buyer who is willing to pay what I want to sell for. If I repeatedly list an item with an opening bid of $250 and get no bids, the fees pile up fast. In my store, the fees are, by comparison, minimal.
As an example, I've sold stuff for $300 that, had I listed instead as an auction with an opening bid of $49.95, would probably have sold for 80 or 90 bucks. And if I had listed it at $250, it wouldn't have gotten a bid. One or two sales a month like that more than pays for the store.
Do you have so much stuff sitting around that it causes problems at home?
Space is not an issue. Six month's worth of inventory takes up approximately 4" x 6" x 12".
Does it bother you sometimes that six months after putting it in your Store it's still on your shelf?
No.
Answer
I keep things listed so long online, and then what doesn't sell, I would have to find a different way of getting rid of it.
Stuff that I take to the flea market, if it doesn't sell, then I either drop the price and try to break even on the item, and get the money and space freed up.
I do have a few items that I won't budge on, and if I don't get my price, then the item can go back into storage if need be. But I try not to do this too often.
Right now I am sorting books, and trying to move the common stuff out before winter gets here. I need to be able to organize what I do have, so when I do sell it, then I can find it quickly.
Let's say you only have room for 100 items to sell....if 40 of them don't sell in a resaonable amount of time, then they should either be put back in storage, or sold by a different method, and something else put up their place. This would work in a ebay store, a brick and mortar, a antique booth, or a flea market setup. Customers get tired of looking at the same things week after week. Something as simple as moving the item to a different area, and changing the price may help to catch someone's interest. When your inventory reaches the stale point ...you need to do different things to freshen it up.