posted on September 25, 2003 12:58:55 PM new
I noticed in an Auctionbytes e-mail today that it appears Yahoo is now offering several different levels of stores, with the starter package price at $39.99 and NO LISTING FEES. This has me a bit intrigued, and I know there are at least a few posters here who have a store - am I reading things correctly on this?
Also, it looks like your items don't show up in the Yahoo!Shopping search that's now at the top of the page unless you pay a certain amount per-click to be included in searches. Is this true? If so it looks as if the former insertion fees have been replaced by per-click ad costs but I'm hoping I am wrong about this. It would also appear to make auctions much more appealing since they do appear in the searches.
posted on September 25, 2003 05:43:24 PM new
Hmmm. VEEERRRRRY interesting. That nickel an item listing fee was what was keeping me from going with Yahoo stores previously.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on September 25, 2003 08:59:00 PM new
Hi Replay, I thought you were one of the ones that used the stores. Wasn't the listing fee $0.10 per item or did they drop that in the past?
Can you confirm whether my suspsicions about showing up in searches is correct. The way I'm reading the new price format, you have to pay extra to get included in searches. Has that been your experience or am I just confusing myself? Thanks.
posted on September 26, 2003 06:40:20 AM new
When we had that long thread here a few months back, I did do the free 30 day trial. I liked the store, but knew I'd never be able to afford the per-item listing fee.
Yes, I think it was $0.10 per item, I was wrong in my previous post when I said a nickel.
"You will pay a fixed cost-per-click charge, based on the category of the product listed"
Yes, it also looks like they changed the pricing structure for their sending people to your store. It used to be a higher percentage of sales. Now it's a cost per click on your stuff.
Now they make money from you whether the item gets sold or not. This is quite evil. What if a person wants to think about the item and returns four or five times to read your description.
I haven't read the entire thing yet, there is a lot of info on the site. I think if I go with it, I'll used the store, but opt out of the marketing thing- it just costs too much.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on September 26, 2003 07:48:34 AM new
Isn't $40 per month still a little steep? Maybe not if the seller has 1,000 items but for a 500 item store it's still cheaper to have an ebay basic store.
-------------- sig file ----------- Most costume jewelry is unsigned. After all, the vast majority of it was made to be worn a few times, then discarded. It wasn't made to be durable. --- The Fluffster
posted on September 26, 2003 09:02:20 AM new
"Isn't $40 per month still a little steep?"
I sure don't think so. I'm paying $70 a month for my webhost setup with multiple domains, SSL, and stuff. PLUS the eBay store & auction fees. PLUS other sales venue like Amazon Pro Merchant.
Eaby stores are OK price-wise but it's butt-ugly and not at all customizable.
Also, I want to advertise MY store/brand, not eBay or Amazon's. With Yahoo stores (or whatever it is they are calling it now) you don't even have to mention it is one of theirs.
Would anyone here actually use an eBay store as a primary website? In my own opinion they are just cheap and very unprofessional looking. They are OK for people already shopping on eBay, but to actually use an eBay store as your main website is just chintzy-looking. Much like those who try to use a Geocities website and Paypal shopping cart for a so-called "business site."
Appearance is EVERYTHING on the internet. Cheap don't sell.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on September 26, 2003 10:34:02 AM newEaby stores are OK price-wise but it's butt-ugly and not at all customizable.
Ugly but not completely uncustonizable. The sellers name the categories in their store for instance.
I, for one, don't give a rat's posterior what a website looks like. The content and prices in the store are a thousand times more important than the looks of the site.
*******
Since ebay does almost nothing to promote the buyers using the stores I'd love to see an underground revolution or revolt against ebay by the ebay store sellers. If the sellers would put the " SEARCH ALL EBAY STORES " link in their auctions ( ebay legal? ) it would greatly promote the OVERALL health of the ebay stores in general. I'm sure that ebay would make new rules to put down the rebellion but it might get more traffic to the stores as ebay is so slow to make changes such as new rules.
-------------- sig file ----------- Most costume jewelry is unsigned. After all, the vast majority of it was made to be worn a few times, then discarded. It wasn't made to be durable. --- The Fluffster
posted on September 26, 2003 11:20:54 AM new
Replay- I know you use the same AW auction listing service that I do - is that where you host your storefront also? I think it's a great setup, I've just not marketed it the way I should. But to me there is no better tool than one that allows you to set up your inventory for auctions and can set it up for storefront inventory at the same time. I'm thinking of re-directing my domain name to my storefront there and really promoting the store heavily. My concern with the Yahoo store in addition to AW is you have to create all your inventory listings twice.
posted on September 26, 2003 12:38:55 PM new
Emak -
No I don't really take advantage of their storefront. Although it LOOKS a lot better than eBay, I've just never really gotten into it. It is something I've considered, but for some reason have not really gone with it. Although it's good, it's just not flexible enough for me feel comfortable with giving up my own site. I guess I'm a control freak
I designed and programmed (PHP/MySQL) my own site and host it on a regular server. I also have about a dozen other domain names that point to this and some other sites on the same account. It's clearly the most customizable way to go, but it is a lot of work to make changes. And I'm no graphic artist, either.
I tried to sign up for Yahoo this morning, but they refuse to process the order they keep giving me the old "We're overloaded/try again soon" screen. A hint of things to come?
AuctionAce-
I think we're going to disagree on this one. If you and ten other sellers sell the same thing at roughly the same price, then presentation and the appearance of professionalism is all there is to compare.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
posted on September 26, 2003 01:45:15 PM new
In all honesty I'd probably never buy anything from a website other than a major one like Amazon. I have only bought a total of two items from ebay web stores. I just started searching the ebay stores because I saw an article that said there are now over six million store items. That creates a possibility to find some bargains as many sellers list an item on the regular ebay auction once or twice and then stick it in their store.
The good thing about an ebay store is that even though ebay treats their stores like orphans they do have multiple links in active regular ebay auctions. Many buyers get curious as to what the seller may have in their ebay store and it's just a click on the red flag store icon away.
-------------- sig file ----------- The Fluffster --- a true scrounger
posted on October 1, 2003 02:08:40 PM new
yahoo store is 49.95 with 10 cents per item,you must have a merchant account to accept credit card.when an order is processed,yahoo charges 1/2% processing fee.if the order comes from yahoo network,yahoo gets another 3 1/2% revenue share.
a few days ago,yahoo announced a new pricing plan.
the basic one is 39.95 a month with no 10 cents item fee (you can have up to 50,000 items and just pay the 39.95 per month).
there are other advanced plans starting at 99.95 a month and up.
but the name of the game has changed-they offer pay per click at 20% discount for members who join any of these plans,depending on what category your shop belongs to ,there is a rate per click.
say jewelry diamond is 1.25 per click,flower to go,1.25,arts and colletibles 19 cents,electronics 44 cents.
okay,when someone clicks on any of your product page,you pay yahoo click fee.
if an order is place,there is a processing fee of 1 1/2%.
but there is no revenue share fee for order processed.
they want you to give them a deposit say 500 dollars or give them your credit card,while you sleep,some one can click away your hardearned money and not buy a thing,the next day your 500 dollars may be gone and it is time to cough up more .
you can keep your own price plan ,but this is so new,no one knows how it would work out.
yahoo cookie the visitor,say i come to your shop thru yahoo network and look around without buying.
but i bookmarked your shop.
within a week,i come back to your shop direct thru bookmark,well,it is considered a yahoo network order and yahoo gets 3 1/2%.
things can get rather dicey as shops already pay per click with google or overture and pay referring sites.
so in the end you could lose money for processing an order if your margin is not hefty enough
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on October 2, 2003 09:01:30 AM new
The new pricing does make it more attractive. However, if you check the disk space they allow you to set up your store, it doesn't leave much room. I don't see any mention of how many products your store can have, but with the space allowed, I'd guess the total would be around 5,000. Yahoo, provide at least 500MB, and you'll get more takers!
posted on October 2, 2003 09:04:15 AM new
there are a lot of questions on this new price plans,like ratings-anyone can rate your shop,whether they buy or not??
old ratings get dropped after 6 months??
yahoo has featured shops such as barnes and noble,godiva chocolate ,walmart etc and they are featured on home page and they are in the shopping directory.
but small shops are not listed in the directory and not featured on home page.
so how does anyone find your shop?
you can advertise on your own or you can pay per click.
pay per click within yahoo shopping in my opinion pitch one small shop against another??
there are other features which do not go well with small shops,like non yahoo shop can rank higher than yahoo shop.
i am not totally clear on this new arrangement,but i know most small shops do not like it.
it is like we know we are second/third class citizens,and now we have to pay more for being second/third class citizens.
you can read about this new plan on yahoo site and email them.
it works for some shops,depends on what you sell .
burgerflipper,you go first!!!!!
posted on October 2, 2003 01:57:41 PM new
okay,i should clarify i am not 100% sure how this new plan works.
it looks like you can have a yahoo shop with 50,000 items for 39.95 and not participate in yahoo pay per click.if someone manages to find your site and buy from you,yahoo charges 1 1/2% processing fee.
so if you can drive your own traffic somehow somewhere ,this is a damn good deal,yahoo has no limits on bandwidth and has a nice shopping cart and back office .
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on October 2, 2003 02:23:10 PM new
well,if they allow 50,000 items,their bandwidth should be plenty for most of us who have a few hundred to a few thousand items to sell.
except for books,it is hard to think who else would have 50k items??prints??postcards??stamps??magazines??
one drawback is that you cannot have the order faxed to you with the 39.95 plan.
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
