excelrye
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posted on March 10, 2004 07:29:00 PM new
I'm thinking about opening an Ebay Store, however the "Jurys Stiil out", as far as I'm concerned. Does anyone get allot of traffic to thier Ebay Store since store items don't show up in Ebays Search Engine? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Warmest Wishes,
RC
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dadofstickboy
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posted on March 10, 2004 07:55:28 PM new
I had one for a couple months.
Traffic was so low I decided to close it.
Monthly fees and no sales just don't add up.
It's been closed for a few months now and I think about reopening it.
The monthly fees haven't changed but the listing fees were lowered.
More than likely still won't sell anything but Hey you never know!
My advice to you is:
Give it a try, if it don't work you can close it with a click of the mouse!
And depending on what you sell who knows it may be well worth the trouble.
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gousainc-07
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posted on March 10, 2004 08:17:04 PM new
It depends a lot on your merchandise.
One thing that is nice about the store, if someone solicits you through eBay for a product, you can put it in your eBay store and sell the product, essentially without listing fees.
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toben88
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posted on March 10, 2004 08:34:38 PM new
I opened mine 3 weeks ago - so far no dice
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neglus
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posted on March 10, 2004 09:27:46 PM new
I think it depends on what you sell and how many auctions you run. I have had a store for about a year, and after a slow start, I can finally say that I am really glad I have one. I don't know if this is because buyers are becoming more savvy and/or because there is an increasing fondness for the fixed price format.
One thing for certain is that YOU have to promote your store yourself! The more auctions you run, the more activity you will drive to your store. Probably a few high profile auctions would have the same effect. Offering combined shipping provides additional incentive for buyers to take a look.
Ebay's cross-promotion feature can be used effectively to get more store "shoppers".
At any rate,the price is right! Now that ebay has reduced the listing fees the stores are even more attractive. A "good-til-cancelled" listing means you can list it and forget it - stores are very low maintenance.
I sold 19 store items in the past two days according to "My Ebay" - some days I sell nothing from the store and sometimes someone will come in and buy 20 items in a few minutes - you never know!
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AuthorizedArt
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posted on March 11, 2004 06:17:15 AM new
For me it was a WAIST OF TIME and $$$$, I closed mine after three months. Ebay phoned me and offered a free month with no listing fees. I did not take the offer, I did not want to waist more of my time.
I have a hunch that ebay may make free offers to those who close a store after a specific amount of time.
People prefer the auctions.
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lattefor2
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posted on March 11, 2004 06:28:32 AM new
I sell the same items over and over again and the store works for me, because I have the type of merchandise that support it. I believe Neglus is right,the buyers like the fixed price.
reenie
I don't get even....I get even better Jimmy Hoffa
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chuckatcdcards
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posted on March 11, 2004 07:08:07 AM new
One thing you might consider is a Vendio store. There is no comparison in fees between eBay and Vendio. Vendio with some plans is free with a minimal Final Value Fee. I opened an eBay store and my sell thru statistics show that its not worth it at all for me. I sold less with the eBay store and saw no profit. The only time I will use it is if they offer free listings.I sell about 1.5% of my thousands of listings monthly on the Vendio store (18% of total listings annually). Vendio store require no maintenance. Just keep the shelves full for best results. Unless your STR is high enough I recommend no eBay store.
AngieatCDCards
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katiyana
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posted on March 12, 2004 12:32:12 PM new
Stores tend to work best, from what I've seen, when you don't have unique one of a kind items, but have stock items or duplicates of things.
You have to pull the traffic in yourself because eBay does very little to promote that stores are a shopping option to the general community.
My eBay store inventory items are running about 50% of my total sales for the year so far - and at 3 cents for 30 days (with gallery) regardless of quantity - the price is right IF you'll do the work to bring the viewers in.
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neglus
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posted on March 13, 2004 04:43:19 AM new
I just checked on my weekly store sales and they account for 28% for my weekly sales (35 out of 123) - this might be a little skewed because I was out of town for a funeral last weds-thurs-fri-sat and was not able to list, so virtually my only sales the past couple of days were store sales...
After writing the above, I decided to check my 30 day sales on My Ebay and 126 out of 463 sales (27%) were store sales (again this might be skewed because I was out of town the first week of Feb with no listings, one weekend and then 3 days last week). I guess the point of this is that eBay stores CAN be worth it. I sell postcards and each item is unique (but all the same 'genre').
I shamelessly promote my store in all of my auction listings with a link (not allowed to do this with Vendio stores). I firmly believe that my store sales are all generated by this link and the natural desire of buyers to save $ on shipping and handling by buying multiple items. It is rare for a buyer to buy a single item from my store.
I should add that my store listings are bargain priced, so while they represent around 25% of my monthly NUMBER of sales. they do not represent 25% of my $ total, but certainly enough to justify the $10 monthly fee + .03 (listing plus gallery) of all of the items ($85/month on 2500 items) AND I am moving inventory !!
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toben88
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posted on March 13, 2004 06:34:12 AM new
How do you drive traffic to your site?
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katiyana
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posted on March 13, 2004 06:17:43 PM new
Primarily through links in your auctions. I have a picture gallery in mine that link to similar items in my store that might be of interest.
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Excelrye
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posted on March 13, 2004 07:42:44 PM new
I sell the same item over and over again, however I think it might be a "Stupid Move", for me to open up an Ebay store for a number of differen't reasons.
My items all start at $0.01, and if I advertise the exact same product which I sell over and over again in my Ebay store with a hyperlink in my listing this wll obviously kill my overall margins for this particular prdouct if a prospective bidder can buy it for $0.99. On average I get $2.00-$5.00 for this particular item, so I don't think it would be a wise move right now.
However in the future when I start selling related merchandise I think this would be a great way to uspsale my existing customer base. I also noticed that allot of POwer Sellers are running 90% of thier auctions through theier stores, so I'm not exactly sure where thier getting thier traffic from.....does anyone know? If anyone can please tell me where these Power Sellers are getting thier traffic from I would really apprciate it?
Thanks,
RC
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