eBay Stores (2)

eBay Stores (2)

Open an eBay Store to build a more aggressive presence on eBay and on the Web.

For sellers who want their presence on eBay to be more than just a collection of running auctions, eBay allows you to open a Storefront, complete with the following perks:

• Longer-lasting items. You'll be able to create fixed-price listings that last 30, 60, 90, or even 120 days. These listings don't show up in standard eBay search results, but are shown to buyers who enter your store through any of your eBay listings.
  

Your standard eBay auctions will show up alongside your eBay Stores listings as long as they started after you opened your storefront.

• Lower listing fees. eBay Stores items cost only 5 cents for each 30 days they appear in your store.
• Search for your store. A search box appears at the top of your personal category listings, allowing customers to search through only your listings. 
• Create your own categories. Include up to 11 custom categories in your store. Although these categories aren't associated with eBay's standard auction categories, they allow you to easily organize the listings in your own store. For instance, if you're selling photographic equipment, you can have a Lenses category and a Film category, making it easy for a customer who has just purchased a camera from you to pick up a few accessories to go along with it.
• Listing management tools. Use eBay's Merchandising Manager and Store Seller Reporting to generate monthly reports on your Sales and Marketplace data, helping you stay on top of your competition.
• Build a stable presence on eBay. An official storefront will help make your business look more reputable to customers. 

Aside from the expected listing and final-value fees, eBay Stores require an extra-cost monthly subscription. You can get the details and sign up at stores.ebay.com

How Customers Will Find You

Once you've opened an eBay Store, a red sales-tag icon will appear next to your user ID anywhere it appears on eBay. A bidder looking at one of your eBay listings can click the icon to enter your store and shop among your items.

You'll also receive a tidy URL in this format:

www.ebaystores.com/storename

You can then easily include links to your store in your auction descriptions, your About Me page, and any emails you send to customers. Also, any customers who go to www.ebaystores.com will be able to browse through the various stores, as well as search for specific items through all storefronts.

But probably the biggest advantage of eBay stores over ordinary eBay listings is that since an individual listing can last for several months, it will stick around long enough to show up in search engines like Google. This means that anyone who goes to www.google.com and searches for antique back-scratchers may see the seven different varieties you're currently selling.

Alternatives

eBay Stores is essentially a "turnkey" solution, allowing any seller to open a prefabricated, fully functional store in just a few minutes, but it's not the only site offering such an option. Other sites offering similar services include Yahoo Stores (stores.yahoo.com) and Vendio Stores (shop.vendio.com).

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Hacks (1)

Hacks (1)

No two people or companies do business in exactly the same way, but there is always common ground when it comes to saving money and time. This chapter illustrates some of the tools — available both for free and at extra cost — that sellers have at their disposal for increasing automation in their businesses, and shows how these tools can be hacked to better suit your needs.

A Word About PowerSellers

eBay recognizes sellers who meet certain sales quotas as "PowerSellers" and awards them a few extra perks, most relating to enhanced technical and customer support. Whether or not they're the "pillars of our community" as eBay claims (pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/powersellers.html) is a matter left to the pundits. But for many sellers running businesses on eBay, the PowerSellers program is a benchmark worth achieving.

Give it some thought before placing the PowerSeller logo in your auctions as eBay suggests. Although the program as a whole can be valuable to sellers, the logo itself can send a message to bidders that you're a big, faceless organization, and they'll be lucky if they receive any personal attention from you at all. The personal touch, after all, is what attracts many bidders to eBay.

It's worth noting that the hacks in this chapter are suitable for all sellers, whether they're Titanium-level PowerSellers moving $150,000 worth of merchandise every month, or hobbyists trading a few low-cost items every couple of weeks.

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