posted on January 13, 2005 07:58:17 AM new
had two days left on my trial and had pretty good results. But not going to risk $15.95 for the store -- in addition to the other ebay gouges forthcoming. If they'd just upped the up-front money and kept the commission low, then fine -- but increasing the BIN, Gallery, and commissions on top of the store fee is just ridiculous.
My future with ebay is in question.
------ "Bend over backward for the customer. Don't bend forward."
posted on January 13, 2005 12:06:31 PM new
Do you think eBay is trying to oust the little seller?
Is there anyplace where it says how many stores sellers have on eBay so that after the raise in fees that we can see how many closed their stores? I can see maybe a dollar raise but %6.00 is more than 50% and that is outrageous. Does eBay need more money? Are they greedy, I would say so.
posted on January 13, 2005 12:48:29 PM new
Do you think eBay is trying to oust the little seller?
I think they are trying to get rid of the ones who only carry around 20 or so items in their store and use is as a parking place for their items that didn't sell as auctions.
I don't like price increases either, but that is life and the way business works. eBay is a business. They are in it to make money. They don't make any on the stores I mentioned above.
The sellers who specialize in what they sell, stock their stores with a variety of items, and carry a good size to large inventory are not complaining and jumping ship.
If they had a B&M store, they would pay $1000 or more and possibly 2 to 3% of their sales in rent. Add to that, utilities, advertising, taxes and a hundred other little things. Their customer base would be limited to a few miles around their store.
Put your store on eBay for $15.99 a month plus 8% of your sales. Your expenses are your supplies and maybe an auction management service. You get free advertising. Your store is seen all over the world and is open 24/7. Even with the price increase it is still cheaper than any thing else around.
If you carry a medium to large inventory, work at making your site look nice and unique, build your brand and use the auctions to your benefits, an eBay store can work.
If you open one that looks like a thousand others, stock it with 20 or so items that didn't sell at auction (meaning no one wanted them)and then sit back and wait for them to sell, then no it's not worth $15.99 a month.
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on January 13, 2005 01:00:53 PM new
I agree with your assessment Gtootie - This is only going to remove the most marginal accounts with ebay. The store I closed is exactly what you described, no real activity there but it was worth $10 a month to try to develop it. My main store has a lot of activity, I sell about 1000 items a month from there and I have no plans to close that. It would take a much larger fee increase to move me away. I think the writing is on the wall though, I do expect to be hit in the next year with a fee increase that will really reduce my profit margin. I took a good look at my ebay invoices, and I did notice a healthy percentage not coming from ebay (thus a lower FVF) - I promote the heck out of my store to my customers, and it appears many are coming in from places other than ebay. I think what I will do that I can start right away is ask my repeat customers to access my store from my website, not from ebay. Going down from 8% to 4% FVF is a big difference, and will help. I also know that I need to start moving away from relying on ebay completely. When the fees get to the point where I have to question whether an ebay store will work, I want to have a couple of different options. For my business, the best thing that ever happened was when ebay announced half was closing down, because it forced me to move to a different business plan that ends up being a LOT more profitable for me. I am looking at it that way as well, I think if I work on moving outside of ebay (be is a vendio store, my own website, a stronger yahoo presence, I don't know yet) I won't be given a few weeks notice that I will be paying a lot in fees.
My prediction, the next fee increase WILL include a fee for GTC listings in the store. The aparatus is already set up, right now they charge 0 but I expect them to charge a nickel or something like that next time around. The amount of work it would take me to relist items every month would not make it worth it to stay in an ebay store, nor would paying 7-12 cents a month instead of 2 cents a month make a lot of sense either.
posted on January 13, 2005 01:25:11 PM new
I also have a Vendio store. At first it didn't do very well at all. I was thinking about closing it when the people who host my website decided to stop supporting stores. At the time I was really stressed out at my job and working a lot of overtime. The thought of setting up a new shopping cart was overwhelming. When I read the instructions on how to do set it up, it was like reading some other language.
So, I put a link on my website to my Vendio store and worked on improving it. At the same time I started putting a lot of energy into eBay. Between my website and eBay customers using the checkout, my store sales picked up and made it worthwhile. I know a lot of people don't like the Vendio checkout but I have very few problems with my customers about it and I do get sales from it. On some orders, the customers will have items from an auction, my eBay store and my Vendio store.
As soon as I get over this bump in my financial road, I am going to start looking at shopping carts again so I can put my items directly on my website. Once that is done, I will take another look at the eBay and Vendio stores and decide if they are worth keeping open. I look at them as different locations of my business.
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on January 13, 2005 01:54:53 PM new
I closed my store this morning and will not be using gallery unless I am listing something for more than $25.00, that will cut down on some of the fees and maybe I can keep afloat. I am only a Bronze Power Seller so small potatoes to feebay but I feel more in control by denying them some money.
posted on January 13, 2005 02:03:34 PM new
I feel more in control by denying them some money
Sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
If you are making that choice because it is a sound business decision I say go for it. If you are doing it to get back at eBay, you are wasting your time. The only one who will notice is you.
Be kind. Everyone is fighting their own secret battles.
...Author Unknown
posted on January 13, 2005 02:08:14 PM new
I'll agree with Gtoots as well. The $6 increase in the store price is miniscule if you make any sales at all through your store. Calling $16 a month a business risk is laughable. I spend hundreds of dollars at a time on merchandise that might be "iffy" in resalability, why nitpick over six extra bucks?
The FVF increase however is a bigger deal. The increase is $27.50 per $1000 in sales. My average sale price is right around $20 and this will make a big difference for me.
I'm not going to close my store. Actually I had been planning to do a major increase in store listings this year, and this change isn't going to stop me. I'm going to review my S&H charges, auction management fees and shipping supplies.
You just have to offset those costs in other places.
--------------------------------------
Replay Media - The best source for board games, card games and miniatures on the web!
posted on January 13, 2005 02:16:20 PM new
I'm with your replaymedia, anyone who closes down a store because of a $6 increase probably shouldn't really have one. It is the FVF which is a killer. I am also going to work on ways to offset the cost. In the end, I believe I will actually profit a little while basically holding the same sales volume. My concern is the next raise though, which will see a GTC listing fee, and probably a higher insertion fee. That will be bad!
posted on January 13, 2005 03:21:24 PM new
It makes good business sense for me to close my store because I did not make very much from it. Some months the profits only paid for the store. I know, I know, if I had promoted it ect I would have done better, but I didn't and the extra fees just helped me decide to close it. You are right $6.00 doesn't make or break anyone, but combined with low sales it makes sense for me and maybe other people.
posted on January 13, 2005 07:39:25 PM new
I am keeping my Ebay store open despite the fee increases. I am holding my own and have been increasing my sales each month. I look at it this way. If you have a website and need a checkout to go with it it may cost you $25.00 or more depending on the web hosting company. I tried Homestead and many others but you need traffic and Ebay has got it. They don't unless you pay for submissions to search engines or pay per click. I also have a Vendio store so I get sales from auctions and both stores. Unless Ebay starts charging huge fees each month like these web hosting sites than I will stick with what I have.
posted on January 13, 2005 07:46:07 PM new
Thanks ewora, that was an interesting thread. Evidently eBay didn't like some of the posts and deleted them.
posted on January 13, 2005 09:05:05 PM new
Thinking of which, I need to close down my pictures here... I am not going to do any auctions soon, I will dump the pictures until I start auctioning again. I sell items that usually go for $5 to $20, sometime up to $150... but rarely. The new fees are going to move me from 25% of my sales for different fees to over 35% or so. That's no way to make money... (except for the fact that my markup is about 2000% when I sell for $5).
