Pushing People to Your Store

If you set up an eBay store, how are you going to get people to visit it? There are two ways
people can arrive at your store: through eBay’s efforts, and through your own.

If you wish, you can create a domain name and point it to your eBay store—for example,
instead of typing http://stores.ebay.com/really-cool-toys, your clients would only have to type
really-cool-toys.com. To learn more, click the Register your domain name link in the Manage
Your Store area of your My eBay page.

In the early days, eBay Stores was a little-used backwater. These days it’s much better
known, and eBay is doing more to let people know it exists and push people toward it. eBay will
direct people to your site in the following ways:
■ By including a little eBay Stores link in the Specialty Sites box at the top of the eBay
Home page.
■ By including various eBay Stores links in the Other Ways to Browse box at the
bottom of the main Buy page.
■ By including the Visit this seller’s eBay Store! link in
the Seller Information box at the top of the items listed
in auctions by eBay store owners.
■ eBay store items are included in search results when eBay can’t find enough auction
listings that match.
■ Products are included in the More on eBay box in auction search results .
Of course, since this is your store you’ll have your own URL—http://stores.ebay.com/
storename—so you can guide people directly to your store. This way, you can market directly to
people, and cross-promote from your eBay listings. For instance, you can
■ Promote your store in all your auction listings, prominently and multiple times.
■ Promote your store in your eBay auctions About Me page.
■ Use various eBay marketing tools
■ Market directly to existing customers through postcards and e-mails.
■ Use Pay Per Click systems.
■ Include your store’s URL in ads.
■ Promote your store to customers with in-packaging flyers.
Remember, this is your web site. You can promote it in any manner you see fit.