Does anyone here operate (or have operated) an eBay Store?

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

We are looking for options for DW Lauri to market the dog collars that she makes outside of the shows that we do occasionally around town.

Building a website or online store seems so daunting at this point. Neither of us are tremendously well versed in web design and while we could probably learn, our time is limited at this point. Paying someone to build the website would be out of the question right now due to financial difficulties (unless there is a 99 cent web design business out there )

We were looking into the option of an eBay store instead of running all of the collars through regular auctions, which can be quite a lot of work.

Has anyone had any experience with running an eBay store? We would love to hear all of your stories, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Thanks!

 

[Seahunt]

I worked for a place for a while that had both eBay auctions and an eBay store (and a website too) beside their "regular" business - I can tell you that they only dabbled in eBay for about a year because the eBay fees (insertion fees, final value fees, gallery fees, listing upgrade fees,Turbo Lister, Sales Manager Pro, Featured Store,Paypal, etc. etc.) were killing their profit. These fees can really add up! Of course, they had over a thousand items in their store also I didn't work directly with that part of the business, but with "office-osmosis" (listening to them discuss by the hour!) I have just a couple things to mention, hope it helps a little!

Just off the top of my head, I guess I would first make sure that you will be able to price your collars effectively - in doing a search it looks like there are 26,889 dog collars listed right now. I would look through and make sure that you can at least match what is listed right now (don't forget to add enough to cover the fees!), and decide if you will have enough buyers at your price to be able to sell any. How about postage/shipping charges, etc.? Be sure to look at the bottom line - still attractive to buyers?

Next I would think about how to make your collars stand "heads and tails(!)" above the other 26,000 - how are you going to "herd" the buyers to your store? Is there something about them that is so unusual that buyers will be "panting" to purchase your collars? (Sorry for all the silly doggie references, just couldn't help myself! )

The place I worked for actually had the most non-internal sales on their website (fees there included website start up, monthly website fees, pay for keywords to bring you up in searches, payment processing/credit card processing/Paypal fees,etc.), then the eBay auctions, and then the eBay store. The auctions seemed to bring a sense of urgency to the buyers. The store was able to bring in customers that saw the item on the auction - in the auction description it mentioned that the eBay store also had these in different sizes/colors with a link to the eBay store where they could look through the store listings and purchase. (Most of the store listings were listed with "good 'till cancelled" so that they did not have to relist until the item was sold or they went in and cancelled, so that saved time).

JMHO I think lots of new eBay buyers just look at the auctions, and don't even know the eBay stores are there! When you do an eBay search and put the item description in, the auctions come up, but the featured stores are pretty far down on the far left, and I don't know if most buyers go there. We had MANY customers email and ask if something was available, and would have to answer with a link to the listing in the store...

Are you sure you can't find an inexpensive website deal? Maybe someone on this board could point you toward a deal? Though on search there are 7,890,000 dog collars listed on Google - yikes!

I sure don't mean to discourage you or anything! It's probably one of those things you'd have to try for a while on eBay to see how it actually goes. My thoughts are just something to think about before you get started... Good luck in your business!

 

[barkley]

got an idea on how to get a free or next to free website design. if you have a local highschool or community college that does good computer classes you might contact one of the teachers and see if they have a student with skills and training in web site design. students who want to work in a particular job field LOVE to get "professional experience" they can list on a resume, and some teachers will also allow them to use the experience for a credited class project.

we tried this when we wanted a landscape design for our back yard. the prices the pro's charged were way more than we wanted to put out, and someone pointed us to the landscape architecture program at a local college. we hooked up with a student who did a stunning design in exchange for taking before and after shots of the yard for her portfolio (and the project she used for credit in the class).

another avenue for sales might be marketing them to non chain dog specialty shops or grooming places. if you offer something unique they may be willing to take them in on a commission basis.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I worked for a place for a while that had both eBay auctions and an eBay store (and a website too) beside their "regular" business - I can tell you that they only dabbled in eBay for about a year because the eBay fees (insertion fees, final value fees, gallery fees, listing upgrade fees,Turbo Lister, Sales Manager Pro, Featured Store,Paypal, etc. etc.) were killing their profit. These fees can really add up! Of course, they had over a thousand items in their store also I didn't work directly with that part of the business, but with "office-osmosis" (listening to them discuss by the hour!) I have just a couple things to mention, hope it helps a little!

Just off the top of my head, I guess I would first make sure that you will be able to price your collars effectively - in doing a search it looks like there are 26,889 dog collars listed right now. I would look through and make sure that you can at least match what is listed right now (don't forget to add enough to cover the fees!), and decide if you will have enough buyers at your price to be able to sell any. How about postage/shipping charges, etc.? Be sure to look at the bottom line - still attractive to buyers?

Next I would think about how to make your collars stand "heads and tails(!)" above the other 26,000 - how are you going to "herd" the buyers to your store? Is there something about them that is so unusual that buyers will be "panting" to purchase your collars? (Sorry for all the silly doggie references, just couldn't help myself! )

The place I worked for actually had the most non-internal sales on their website (fees there included website start up, monthly website fees, pay for keywords to bring you up in searches, payment processing/credit card processing/Paypal fees,etc.), then the eBay auctions, and then the eBay store. The auctions seemed to bring a sense of urgency to the buyers. The store was able to bring in customers that saw the item on the auction - in the auction description it mentioned that the eBay store also had these in different sizes/colors with a link to the eBay store where they could look through the store listings and purchase. (Most of the store listings were listed with "good 'till cancelled" so that they did not have to relist until the item was sold or they went in and cancelled, so that saved time).

JMHO I think lots of new eBay buyers just look at the auctions, and don't even know the eBay stores are there! When you do an eBay search and put the item description in, the auctions come up, but the featured stores are pretty far down on the far left, and I don't know if most buyers go there. We had MANY customers email and ask if something was available, and would have to answer with a link to the listing in the store...

Are you sure you can't find an inexpensive website deal? Maybe someone on this board could point you toward a deal? Though on search there are 7,890,000 dog collars listed on Google - yikes!

I sure don't mean to discourage you or anything! It's probably one of those things you'd have to try for a while on eBay to see how it actually goes. My thoughts are just something to think about before you get started... Good luck in your business!

I didn't go into a lot of detail about the collars but they are unusual and currently there is nothing we have seen on the market like them. They are not just normal, run of the mill collars you can buy at PetsMart or Petco and each one is one of a kind. DW Lauri puts a lot of work into the beading and stitching to be sure that they will be a good quality that will last for a long time even on tough dogs.

We tried regular auctions a few times, sold a few and received great feedback for what we sold. Here is the problem though. Dog collars range in even number sizes from 8 to 30 inches. Then you have different colors from black, blue, red, green, purple, pink, teal, etc. Then you consider the color and type of beads used on the collars.. When you have limited time to be constantly listing items, it's hard to be able to have enough items listed to cover everyone's needs or wants - get what I mean? It would be nice to have a way to only have to list an item once until sold. That way hopefully we could list several active auctions all the time and link to the store with a notation about "need another size or color, check out our store at ******. Otherwise we are shooting in the dark and hoping that when we list a red 14 inch collar that the person clicking on that auction just happens to need that size and not an 8 inch or 20 inch.

Barkley, that is a good option to look into. (the idea of going through a school to get web design help)

On the subject of selling in stores, actually the Pet Expo this weekend brought us 2 new interested retailers. One is an upscale Pet Boutique/Grooming salon situated in the middle of an upscale area of Richmond and the other is a obedience training school. Both checked out Lauri's work and asked to meet with her about selling her items in their stores. We will definately be selling in the boutique, we still need to talk further to the school. We were hoping to have an outlet that we get 100% of the profit in addition to retail outlets, if you know what I mean.

 

[Poohnatic]

Your item sounds like it would do well in boutique type pet stores. That may be the more cost effective avenue to target. Yes, it requires a little more research (the internet is your friend), but the costs are much smaller overall. Repeat orders,etc.

We've got two pet boutique places here in my small town outside of Tampa-from the times I've been in there buying stuff for my friends dog, your product would fit right in.

If you can take some really good pictures like you would use in a listing and make a nice flyer (color), you could target those retailers that would be interested in selling your item.

Suzanne

 

[loveysbydesign]

I had an Ebay store for my loveys but now just list a few ata time on the regular auctions. You can do your own website for pretty cheap through Network Solutions. That's who I use and it's really very, very easy. It's all template based so you just fill in the templates with text and photos. I've been using them for 3 years now and have never had a problem with them! Also be sure to register your business's name with oyur state so that no one else can use it. It's fun being an entrepreneur or as I call myself "mompreneur"! Best of luck to you on your newest venture!!!

 

[Seahunt]

I just received this info in my email from Yahoo, maybe something like this would work? At $29.96 per month for your own personal web store:

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