Any one have an Ebay store?

[ronnie]

Seems I've seen people talking about having an ebay store here. Couple things I am curious about, would love to ask some one that has a store and been using it. Any one? Non adult of course.

Thanks in advance.

[T Pat]

DocHolly and RedCherry have eBay stores

[docholly]

Thanks TP for the plug...

Actually thanks to MML, I started my store selling used stockings/socks/pantyhose but there just wasn't a big enough market to sell them.

Ask away..

[secretagentwilly]

I'd like to start one, I just can find any product that's not oversold. I have one ideal that i want to start producing and if I do, then I'll sell them. I know a few people that sell coins on ebay. I don't know if ebay has the juice it once had...of course it's still the big dog in the kennel, but craiglists is taking over big time.

[Twiceshy]

Got up this morning and was doing my morning google and came upon this thought it was rather cool not that i would get one .

http://www.physorg.com/news122819670.html

dayum i posted this in the wrong spot grrr i need more coffee

[ronnie]

My wife and her friend will be selling some things they are making. She looked at an Ebay store the other day and noticed they take about 10% in processing/fee's, if she read it right. Which seems out of hand for non-adult products.

But the big question is, are their advantages to having a store that might out-weigh the cost? One being traffic, do the stores get traffic because they are a ebay store? I know when I search for items myself, I've seen stores with related products listed. Or do you have to pay for that? Also, I know some time back they cracked down on external links in auctions, but of course, saying "check out my store" is no problem.

Also wondering if maybe you gain more trust by being an Ebay store? Surfers more likely to buy?

I can put up a shopping cart for them and hook it up to paypal, which wouldn't be much in the way of processing fee's. But maybe you gain more in the long run with the store?

docHolly, did you get traffic just with having a store? Anything else you notice that maybe an advantage for having a store?

[RedCherry]

The fees just recently went up, and truthfully, I'm thinking of closing mine. I tend to sell the most from October through Christmas, so I might just have mine seasonally. They take 12% now final value fees when you sell something out of a store, and when most of my products are under 10$ that is a lot. Plus, using Paypal as a processor, takes another chunk.

The advantages of selling on eBay though are if you start a blog, and use keyword optimization in your title tags for your listings, plus submit your store to froogle, you can get your items in the search engines easier than you can starting a stand-alone store. Plus, there are literally millions of people shopping eBay, so if you have something unusual you can get some good sales. Just make sure you take in account the fees when setting your prices.

I also plaster my url to my non eBay store on every picture I post on a listing, so that can help you cross sell on your non-ebay store and make some money. You can't link off-site on listings, but you CAN on your about me page...so take advantage of that.

You will also need to drive traffic to your store by sumbitting auction style listings too. I might list a loss leader, or list something that for 25 cents more than can just buy it now in the store instead of waiting for the auction to end, that that will get traffic to the store. Plus, as I said, using the blogs helps too. There are quite a few bloggers on eBay and the blogs get read, and spidered well too.

So for me, I don't get a bunch of sales right now, but the soap market is very competitive on eBay. But DocHolly has unusual stuff, so she is doing better. If you have unusual, you can do fine.

[docholly]

I haven't really noticed a slow down in traffic since january and certainly not since the strike BUT..

12% is a lot and most of my stuff is under 10.00 as well however I will say that on quite a bit of it i have like a 300%-500% mark up. The bigger pieces aren't so much since i'm selling them for starving artists but i still factor in enough to cover all my fees and make a profit.

Ronnie: Depending on what she is making to sell, I find that etsy.com is a much better marketplace for handcrafted items. I've removed my store from there for my cross cultural greeting cards because I just can't keep them in stock and they are too hard to make.

I don't think Ebay is on the way down actually I think they are realigning themselves to be more market friendly. There are lots of "stores" over there and mouthy people who spout off on the forums and the blogs but have ZERO in their stores. and i've been listing on craigslist for about 5 years now and ebay is still much more trafficked.

As far as traffic goes.. my #4 referrer to my store is GG&J. but I do have a site that feeds traffic there, plus i'm pretty active on livejournal groups and flickr groups so I get quite a few sales from there. and like Redcherry said.. put your URL to a stand alone store on the pictures and people will type it in. Once your stand alone store makes more than ebay then it's time to move on.

The theory I've always subscribed to was that you have a balance between store and auction. I have my stuff at auction for about 3 cycles (7 days each) then I move it in the store, unless it's a repeat item that I sell frequently. Once it's in the store more than 2 months (it only costs .01 to list in the store) and it doesn't sell, it goes to my 'sale' list which is every 2 weeks. I try to turn my inventory every 90 days otherwise it starts eating into my profits.

that's about it.. got go watch my sales since my auctions are going off in the next few hours.

Oh yeah that another thing I've learned... Most sales are made on Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. Who knows why. I say its the Sports theory but what explains Wednesday? A little shopping before prayer meeting??

[NY Jester]

Ronnie, my father used to have one for his Ephemera stuff, postcards, first day covers, autographs etc..its a conveneince thing I think iin many cases...Its a 30 day listing, the fees are raised becaus eof that I believe. The insertion fees are less but the final value fees are much higher..somewhere near double I believe. Red and Doc know more than I with regard to the stores ..After he passed I closed his store and just did/do individual auctions.

[ronnie]

Thank you Redcherry and docHolly, the info is greatly appreciated. Also thanks NY Jester, any info helps..

Their items will be very unique, so covering the fee's shouldn't be a problem, but still don't like Ebay getting such a deep cut. The more I think about it, it seems the only advantages of the store is possible traffic and SEO. Although from what folks are saying, traffic is not huge, course sure it depends on the items. Sounds like just as much or more traffic can be gotten from url's on auction pics and, on the about me page (forgot about that).

Just trying to find out if there was a big advantage to using the store, but doesn't sound like it.

Like i said I can put up a cart that will do it all through paypal, sounds like the better way to go.

urgh.... more work to do...

Any one else want to chime in and any one want to add anything.. go for it..

[NY Jester]

I dont know if policy has changed but I dont think you can use clickable URL's in the about area? My Ebay..but the URL branded images are an easy loop hole.

[docholly]

Actually I think you can have 3 outside links on your about me page as long as it doesn't go to another auction site.

Ronnie: she might want to just do auctions without opening the store to get her product started (i think you have to have a 10 feedback anyway to open a store) for like 6 months or so, then she'll have a following and if it is branded the same name as her website, it will be much easier to find.

I'll give you a fee example:
I sold in 31 days.. 998.15 just short of the power seller mark and my total monthly fees were 104.14 so it's about 11%.

Much cheaper for me than when i had my store at the swapmeet and MUCH much easier to manage.

[NY Jester]

Thats good to know Doc..it must have changed since I last did up "MY Ebay"

Conditions for the store are:

Registered Seller Account:
A "20" Feedback
PayPal account in good standing.

Find full features, Q&A and links to more info Ebay Stores

[ronnie]

Thanks doc and NY, didn't even think about the feedback or the paypal account (she opened a new one for the biz), though makes sense, least some why to try and screen out the bad.

doc, ya when you put it that way, 11% is not that bad, for sure, doing it all from home is worth something.

[NY Jester]

Yeah Ronnie, they just dont want drive by sellers. As Doc suggested..have her do some single auctions, dutch if she has multiples of something at a set price and get her toes wet..get her feedback, her name out there and se what works after that. You are also not locked in to any type of long term with ebay stores..try it for 30,60, 90 days and if not happy close it. Best to her new venture