posted on May 26, 2002 12:15:51 PM new
I would like to hear from anyone with experience with eBay stores. Is it worth the cost for a small-time seller (25-40 items a week)? Do you get good sales etc.? Thanks in advance for the help, I really appeciate all the help I get from this forum, I wouldn't know where else to go to get it.
posted on May 26, 2002 02:18:43 PM new
It will all depend on the product you sell, the price you sell at, and how well you do at getting people directed to your store.
I opened one two weeks ago, and since have had 8 purchased, which more than paid for the 9.95 monthly fee. The nice thing is you can list an item for 30 days, with a gallery photo, for the same price you list a 7 day auction.
Heck, it's free for 30 days, so give it a try. I'm sticking with my store. Only problem is AuctionWatch does not support stores. I have move all my auctions to Channel Advisor, which lets me manage all my auctions and stores. Best part, low fixed monthly fee. Hope AuctionWatch gets with the program a supports eBay stores in the future. I liked AW.
posted on May 26, 2002 04:09:06 PM new
I don't have an ebay store, but I have purchased an item through one. I would have bought more from another seller, but his items just had a picture and nothing else, and I really wanted those items but not bad enough to play the email q&a game. I have just started to search stores quite frequently but it is difficult to find what I'm looking for.
This may or may not help you with your question. I prefer buying through a store, since I would likely buy with BIN anyway. I recommend you put twenty or more items from the same category. It'll put you on the top of the browse page and draw in buyers like me who don't waste time with stores with only a few items related to what I want to look at. Also, put a specific description of what you sell in that paragraph under the store name. Work hard at your store and I think it may pay off for you. Almost all stores I've seen are severely lacking, and they won't get my business.
The rest of the problems I see are ebay's. It's a poor set up. Paypal's stores look a lot better and easier to search.
posted on May 26, 2002 04:26:55 PM new
Some interesting comments! A couple more questions. Do you have to use Billpoint? I cancelled my Billpoint account when "check out" came in, can I not still use Paypal, checks and money orders?
agapecrafts-can you not just list directly onto eBay, do you have to use a company for the listing? I also use Auctionwatch for my auctions at present, but I could use eBay directly if I need to for stores.
posted on May 26, 2002 04:41:38 PM new
[Some interesting comments! A couple more questions. Do you have to use Billpoint? I cancelled my Billpoint account when "check out" came in, can I not still use Paypal, checks and money orders?]
No - you do not have to use Billpoint. You just have to accept Credit Cards - and PayPal counts. When posting to the store-Click on MasterCard in the Merchant section. eBay does not check if you have a merchant account, but this allows you to post without accepting Billpoint. If you just select other (The only choice for PayPal, your launch will fail).
Also, I recommend you select "NOT" specifying checkout info. In other words, do not give shipping info for checkout. This will allow buyers to commit to the purchase, but they are then instructed to contact you (or you contact them) to complete the transaction. When they do, you can set up a payment through PayPal. You can also have PayPal insert Logos into your store - you can then direct the buyer back there with shipping information. (I personally put the shipping info in the add - just NOT in the eBay section).
Yes you can create ads online by clicking the link to list a similar item in your My eBay, and then just back up one step and select eBay store. Works fairly easily. I have also used Mr. Lister (eBay free product). This works great . . . create your ads offline, then bulk upload to store.
You then must figure out how to manage all the purchases. I like to have everything in one place, which is why I moved to Channel Advisor. Good luck on your store.
posted on May 28, 2002 09:54:34 AM new
I have an Ebay store and it has done quite well.
I have a regular product line with multiples of every item.
I have browsed quite a few of other peoples stores.
Benefits.......
1. There is a search box within your store front page so they can search within your listings for certain items. Not needing to browse page after page if you sell 100's of items.
2. Listing fees for the fixed price are reasonable $.05 for 30 days $.10 for 60 etc etc........especially great when you do have more than 1 of each item.
3. You can assign store categories and put glass in one, pottery in another etc. and customers can go directly to the kind of stuff they are looking for.
4. I have seen more multi-item buyers since I have opened the store.
Downside........
Those sellers who only have auction format items and 1 of each items NEVER assign store categories when listing. So a power seller with 1200+ listings have everything they sell in the "OTHER" category of their store making the store almost pointless since your stuff isn't organized by "Type" of item.
If they created categories and assigned their items then their stores would be fabulous.
I have left many sellers stores looking to multi-bid and ended up leaving every single time when I am simply browsing and not searching.
2. Another big downside is newbies who bid on an auction item then go and view your store and think they for some reason they also need to BUY IT from your store as well.
In the 6 weeks I have had the store I have had to file NPB on 3 poeple who bid o n an auction then bought it from the store.
posted on May 28, 2002 10:09:10 AM new
I can see listing fees being a benefit, but I'm not sure if categorization is beneficial. You can already display your auctions summarized in categories for free.
posted on May 28, 2002 11:55:07 AM new
As far as auctions go they with be in their proper categories obviously.
But if you don't assign them STORE categories as well when you list then they get all lumped into one list since the default category for your store is "Other"
So if you have 24 glass candy dishes, and 52 pottery vases, 49 beanie babies, 75 craft books and 4,000 baseball cards then going to your store will show one list of 4,200 items in the "other" default category of your store.
On the side bar next to each category in the aucitons listings and you are in the beanie baby category your store will be listed BUT when someone goes to your store to see what else you got you end up swimming in the 4,200 total list unsorted.
Having the store is pointless unless you assign items to "STORE" categories in addition to your auction categories.
If all of your merchandise is one TYPE of stuff say....... collectible glass you should still create your own subcategories like Fenton, Bakelite, Fireking whatever specifics people search for.
I wish I could list here examples of what I mean....ugly stores vs. organized But if you just cruise around other peoples stores you'd understand what I am trying to get at.
I began with eBay in 1996 – naturally with a few items, etc. and fell in love with on line. We opened our first web site in 1997 – and have grown from there….we both work the business full time, so I can’t say how doing a store/auctions, etc., alone would work. My husband is a master web master, and creates many of the innovations and graphics we use on our auctions and web sites. I do most of the photographs and write a preponderance of the ads. I also do 99% of promotion of auctions and web sites, via a number of promotional programs.
I was VERY dubious about a eBay store and I held off, but my husband thought it was a good idea, and certainly cheap enough, and another place to give our products exposure, so he set it up and together we filled it and continue to do so.
We opened a store last month, and I have been amazed at the sales....we are extremely pleased, but it does take time and work, and does need to be well organized, and well presented.
Naturally, we promo our store and a link to it in our regular auction ads, and it works for us.
I am thinking about trying a similar set up on another auction site.
Realize though, on line is basically all we do except for a large store front we have locally, which we have managers for. Because of this, we can devote all our time to on line - with 4 web sites and planning more, and auctions on eBay, Yahoo, and niche sites. How much work does it take??? I average 16 or more hours every day 7 days a week, and my husband almost the same, and that is just on line work....our girls at our shop do all the packing and shipping....but we love it.... Fortunately for us, we are on line – computer junkies…..I am sure this wouldn’t work for every one ..but we just love it….
posted on May 29, 2002 03:58:11 AM new
Wow, I don't have that much time to devote to my auctions, wish I could. I don't think I have the computer "know-how" for the organization etc needed. What I am looking for is somewhere with longer exposure for items like cup and saucer sets. Is it worth the $9.95 monthly cost for about 30 items? Can you just do it for say 1 month and then cancel if things are not selling? I have tried Yahoo, Bidville, etc, but very few people seem to be looking, let alone buyeing. Has anyone used AuctionWatch stores, it is free listing at the moment?
I've sold 126 items from my store within the last 90 days. The items were listed for 30 days each so I would calculate that I listed 600 items during the 90 day time frame as I ran approximately 200 items in my store at all times.
I also had gallery pictures on all store items which is an additional 0.25˘. I use the gallery with all my auctions. My personal opinion is that the $25.00 spent for every 100 auctions submitted pays for itself many times over. It takes money to make money.
I think the store is worth the effort if you can list with a set shipping cost. The upcoming postal rate increase should be considered before opening a store as it may be a big headache for you. Again this depends on the weight of the items you sell.
I sell cast iron products and most items weigh a least three pounds and some weigh as much as twenty pounds. Needless to say I can't set a shipping price on the very heavy items so they don't go in my eBay store.
posted on May 30, 2002 11:09:06 PM new
Since I have a product line Ebay stores has been great for me.
It would be a bit more work if you only have one of each item. But it may be worth it especially if you have things people often search for but there aren't 50 of them listed atany given time.
I was aprehensive when the stores forst came out........I put it off up until about 6 weeks ago.
I decided I would sink $100 into this project. So I built the store and loaded up my goodies. I don't regret it at all and have had a lot of sales from it.
If you don't have an Ebay store you don't have to pay the $9.95 if you bail out before the first 30 days are up. $.05 to list each item for EACH 30 days you want to leave each item up. ( I put everything for 60 days)
$5 to try it out..........if you want to put up 100 items for a 30 day test drive.
A cheap experiment and a days worth of effort to try it out.
