posted on June 13, 2001 04:47:44 AM new
Let me count the ways:
1) they charge a monthly membership fee of $9.95 (this will most likely increase!)
2) they charge you a monthly fee of 5 cents to list each Storefront item
3) they charge a 1 to 5% final value fee
4) if they integrate a BillPoint shopping cart there goes another fixed transaction fee and a percentage of our profits like they do today
--- there are other fees eBay will most certainly think up for your Storefront like promotional fees, prime placement fees, etc., but let's not go there!
Any wonder Storefront items are going to be marked up??? How the heck are you going to make a profit with eBay sucking every ounce of profit out of sellers??? Like eBay cares whether we make a profit!
The holes in eBay's Storefront strategy leave the door open for another large entity like AOL to enter the fray and do it right!
posted on June 13, 2001 06:44:01 AM new
With storefronts we will probably see the same thing that happened with Half and Amazon. Sellers will be listing their items at too low of prices. It seems that too many sellers forget that a fixed price site is not an auction, and there is no need to give away your items.
A reasonable price increase will not hurt your sales, but it sure will help you make a profit.
posted on June 13, 2001 07:06:11 AM new
It's yet to be proven that ebay storefronts will pull much traffic away from our auctions. First, items listed in storefronts won't come up in the search. Second, ebay bidders aren't known to click (in large numbers) on the 'me' button, and that's where the ebay storefronts link will be (it replaces the 'me' button).
Example, I have six listings on ebay right now. I listed one item as a test on the ebay storefronts yesterday. The results from my hit counters might give us a good glimpse at the future effectiveness of ebay storefronts.
Any guesses as to which one is the ebay storefronts item?
So, I have about 800 hits this week on my auction listings, and not a single one of them clicked to look at my ebay storefronts and looked at the item listed there. Could be many reasons for that...
I'm not mentioning that I listed in ebay storefronts in my auction. I'm betting that this is an exception to the 'no links' policy (not that I'm paying too much attention to that anyway, I did get 17 unique visitors to my website who clicked from the ebay auction listings, though)
It's very possible that the people looking at my auctions have no interest whatsoever in the item I listed in the ebay storefronts. I intend to test for this in the near future, as I have time to start more listings in ebay storefronts.
The feature is new, and people may not be familiar with the ebay storefronts link that you see in the auction listing (but this may be an argument for the reverse, too, curious people will click).
I just don't think ebay storefronts is a bad idea. Some of their other "improvements" are far worse.
[ edited by petertdavis on Jun 13, 2001 08:08 AM ]
posted on June 13, 2001 01:32:55 PM new
I'll offer a contrary opinion.
eBay storefronts will INCREASE your profit (bad news for eBay stockholders though).
The key is that you have to put the right kind of items there. Look at the following example:
Seller A lists 100 "better" ($200) items per month and 30 sell. Listing fee is $3.30 each + FVF (on sold items). Your cost for those sales??? $330 (listing) + $168.90 (FVF's on the 30 that sell ) = $498.90.
Seller A now takes those to storefront and the same 30 sell. Monthly fee (after the free introductory period) will be $9.95 + $5.00 (listing fee) + $168.90 (FVF's) = $183.85.
YOU SAVE $315.05
YOU'LL SAVE EVEN MORE WHILE THEY'RE LETTING YOU LIST FREE.
The PROBLEM will be the traffic. eBay isn't driving traffic to the storefronts because they're not adding items into the main search.
YOU WILL HAVE TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR STORE.
Registered users will have to search BOTH the auctions AND the storefronts (too much work, and probably not worth the effort initially). The 30 million registered users are AUCTION GOERS. They aren't necessarily "retail storefront shoppers". Probably a bad assumption on eBay's part to think there will be equal interest... Maybe even a bad assumption to think there will be "decent" interest...
I don't think eBay will have any trouble getting folks that sell lots of better items to try it (they'll save a ton of money if they can generate the traffic there). I'd expect lots of stores to open during the "free period". The question is will they have any sales...
The other question (for stockholders too) is will it help or HURT eBay?? The "amateur" look is an embarassment for a multi-billion dollar company IMHO. No cart? No customization? It looks just like a seller list page! It's a JOKE! They really should have waited and rolled out a state-of-the-art system.... Why the rush to release??? Everyone else has had the storefronts for years -- doesn't seem to be any reason for eBay to roll something out before it's ready...
posted on June 13, 2001 01:48:30 PM new
STOP already with the negative aspects of this new feature!
The storefronts are going to serve as just another of the many revenue stream available for your business. Period. There's way to much speculation and philosophy being thrown around. Very negative in nature, I Migh add.
If you are unable or unwilling to change the way you do business, you'r right, this progress in online selling is going to kill you. However, if you allow these changes to be viewed as opportunities, rather than setbacks, you'll find that you are being provided with many new tools to grow your business.
I've never seen a place with so many whiners. It makes me wonder how many board users have any practical business experience. There's always going to be change. There's always going to be competition. It's business 101.
Business = WAR! Your opponents want to kill you. Are you going to lay down and let them? Or are you going to educate yourself and work harder and smarter to insure that you are successful?
Do'nt put the blame on eBay for your success or failure. This weight is soley upon your shoulders.
posted on June 13, 2001 02:07:16 PM new
I'm going to keep putting some of my stuff on Half.com instead for now - on the $1 items, the 15% commission is lower than listing Ebay auctions, but I'd have to sell an awful lot of low-end items to cover $10/month "rent" on my storefront space.
posted on June 13, 2001 02:20:22 PM new
someone mentioned AOL,i know there is cobranding agreement between aol and ebay at one time.
well has it expired?
it would be foolish to sit and watch aol members logging on and rush to internet to buy,bid,browse,why not keep some of the aol members on aol turf and sell them something.
so far aol shops are not that great,well that just means there is room for improvement.
posted on June 13, 2001 02:36:09 PM new
I can see a valid use for storefronts for the small seller.
I sell a certain type of tool that is only of interest to a specific buyer - and it comes in hundreds of sizes.
With storefronts, I can list 10 or 20 as auctions, mention that other sizes are available by clicking my Icon and give myself lots more listings for a much lower listing fee and for 4 times the duration. 5 cents sure beats relisting 4 times at 30 cents a whack. Given FVF as the same as an auction, it should easily cover my 9.95 monthly cost.
I agree that a storefront for a widely varied assortment of items is probably nor productive. EbayPowerSellerGold hit it on the head when he said you will need to generate your own traffic- and SIMILAR items is the easiest way to do it. Expecting someone that is viewing your Vintage Nose Hair Clipper to go peruse your meat grinder,
Baccarat vase or Child's Snowsuit is a bit foolish.
posted on June 13, 2001 03:16:19 PM new
Storefronts are good for selling new items in quantity. I doubt many collectible and antique sellers will use it. Your price would need to be competative with all the Ebay auctions of similiar or same item.
Probably good for those items that always close for starting price or the sellers who have BIN price same as opening bid price.
A friend sells shipping supplies this will work great for her, as for me I'm never 100% sure of what the final price will be so I'll stay on auctions.
posted on June 13, 2001 03:24:46 PM new
Quadruple Dip?
I see Final Value Fees the same as auctions.
I see Billpoint Fees the same as auctions IF your buyer uses/you accept Billpoint.
I see Listing Fees 1/6th auction cost or less - for 3 or 4 times as much exposure.
I see only one additional fee - the monthly cost- which should be easily covered by the savings on listing fees - and is incurred ONLY if you CHOOSE to set up a Storefront.
posted on June 13, 2001 03:27:07 PM new
The point (keeping on topic was that there ARE valid reasons that it would be in a sellers BEST INTEREST to move to the storefront venue (hopefully my example illustrated that point). They won't "dip into your profit", they'll actually increase it.
The question of whether eBay is acting intelligently or not is a different point altogether (new thread: "the downward spiral has begun". I think when they look back on this a year from now, they'll see that they did nothing other than siphon "higher revenue" business from auctions into a "lower revenue" storefront venue. As a result, they'll LOSE money over what they would have had doing nothing... It may be one of the FEW THINGS that they did for the SELLER'S benefit (although they just don't realize it yet
With the layout as poor as it is, I can't imagine someone NOT ALREADY ON EBAY would come there to sell. It will be (95%) auction sellers that move there, and SOLELY because they can get away with lower fees. Why would someone move if it's going to cost them more? If they didn't already use eBay, why would they pick THIS storefront to "start out with" over another competitor? (and don't mention registered users as part of the answer -- I think few of them will bother even LOOKING at the storefronts)
Looking at what's there today, I just don't understand the "business strategy" for eBay rushing this out the market. Maybe they want to lose money quicker LOL! Very few new users, only existing users moving, and only so that they can pay THEM less money. Hmmm... good business strategy!
posted on June 13, 2001 04:02:52 PM new
Well, storefronts may be lower revenue for eBay, but they also may be less costly for eBay to support than regular auctions. Perhaps eBay thinks it can recapture some of us who have cut way back on the TYPES of things we list due to too-high fees, glutted listings and lower clubdowns.
I also cannot help but wonder if eBay, in their delusions of grandeur, think that those of us with websites are going to be tempted to move our merchandise to the storefronts now that we can no longer link from our auction pages.
posted on June 13, 2001 07:08:41 PM new
The bare bones, no shopping cart, no pic preview stores at $9.95 will morph into the $49.95 "Featured" stores in August. eBay knows how to create storefronts, but they are gonna wait till folks invest time and energy in stocking their stores when they are free, and then $9.95--- and then roll out the real features and charge through the nose for them. Bulk listing, auto relist, shopping cart, gallery preview.
posted on June 13, 2001 07:35:45 PM new
Magazine_guy...from the pages I saw on the storefront there will be two levels of storefronts...basic at $9.95 and featured at $49.95.
[b]and then roll out the real features
and charge through the nose for them. Bulk listing, auto relist, shopping cart, gallery preview.[/b]
Do you say this because of some information you have recieved from ebay (either personally or second hand), or is it just speculation on your part?
Like eBay cares whether we make a profit! 
was that there ARE valid reasons that it would be in a sellers BEST INTEREST to move to the storefront venue (hopefully my example illustrated that point). They won't "dip into your profit", they'll actually increase it.