Ebay store

I have operated three ebay stores for years. My wife runs them nowadays, but still does about $40,000 in gross sales a year.

Ebay stores have changed a great deal in the last couple of years. They used to be a lot more useful for building a brand and marketing to customers like a website. But now they are less important for marketing purposes because ebay changed their search algorithm to include store listings in regular searches. So now everybody that lists regularly on ebay has a store, even if they don’t do anything to design pages or anything like that. They just sign up, pay a modest monthly fee, and in return they get cheaper listing rates. (Fixed price listings without a store are 50 cents, with a store are 10 cents). The result is that stores have lost their luster in the eyes of the customer.

The exception to that rule is if you plan on specializing in a specific genre. If you want to sell nothing but baseball cards, opening a store is nice because once a customer decides they like your stuff, they will shop in your store and that means you won’t be competing with the other listings on ebay. Another benefit of a store is that you can develop a mailing list for marketing on ebay.

If you plan on listing a few items a week, pass on the store. If you plan on running a ton of listings all the time, open the store. It will save you a ton in listing fees.

Let me know if I can answer any more questions. Cheers!

-- It's the best woodworking show since the invention of wood... New episodes Wednesdays at: http://www.stumpynubs.com

I tried to sell something on ebay. I spent 48 hours trying intermittently to get a listing to take. I finally was able to get ebay’s attention and they said “oh. there is something wrong with that.” That’s all I’ve heard.

Meanwhile, I listed it on the LJ swap forum and within 8 minutes had a completed swap!

I’ll try ebay again, someday.

DanK

-- Dan Krager, Olney IL http://www.kragerwoodworking.weebly.com

Stumpy, thats a good bit of info. I figure about 80% of what I’m going to sell will be in one category, much of which is in new condition.
When you say modest fee for opening a store, do you happen to remember what the total was and can you renew this month to month or are you locked in for a certain amount of time?
When buying myself I find that alot of items get started at 50% of cost and some get priced at .99, I know why they do the later. I think putting a reserve on things shy’s people away? I was wondering what is your preferred sales technique? Letting auctions end on weekends is something that a friend told me has helped him make better money on his items. Any other sales tips you’d care to share would be much appreciated.

DanK, like I said if it was wood related I definitely wouldn’t be doing the Ebay route as their fees seem steeper then they used to be.

-- ***Pat*** Rookie woodworker looking for an education!!!