Who has/or will start an Ebay Store?

[rae662000]

I would like for you to share the good, the bad and the ugly?

I know about the cost for insert and final value but did you make more before the store versus the fees or after because of quantity?

Also I read where if you did not have at least 100 items in your store at all times it was not worth it?

Also was the cost with generating the traffic to your sites worth the expense?

Do you wish that you stayed the other way and not open the store?

Just trying to get multiple feedback on this and I trust the opinions of my fellow Dis members the most , so fire away and if you have other useful info please feel free to share, thanks.

 

[krdisneybound]

You will get some good ideas on this thread as more people see it. I had a store a couple of years ago and feel it just wasn't worth it. I just could not see giving the extra profit to e-bay. And it depends on what you sell and how much you sell.

Good luck to you in whatever you end up doing.

 

[welovedis]

I opened by store in the fall and have seen decent sales, however, I don't have it stocked with 100+ items, usually between 25-60 or so at the most and have seen quite a bit of traffic in the past few months.

I opened it when they offered 1 month free, so I figured, what the heck. I've done way better than break even with the fees & have moved items that did not or probably would not sell well on auction.

Sometimes you stock the store with items just to get them out of the way and you'll be surprised at what will sell. Bathing suits have been flying out of my store lately, these are items I got for next to nothing at end of season sales, and I'm making a bundle of profit even after the fees and paypal's chunk.

I usually try to run some auctions each week in order to generate for interest and traffic, but I've not had anything up for auction for a bit and still have store sales, at least 1 a day or so.



I'd say give it a shot, if it doesn't work out then close it down. But at least you can try!

 

[Donna]

It didn't seem worth it to me since the stuff never showed up in searches. You depended on the buyers looking into your store "window" from your auction items. I would definitely try it though because i think stores depend alot on just what you are selling. You might find it works well with whatever you are selling. You can always close it after reviewing your sales reports. that was one thing i DID like about the stores, you get some great sales reports data.

 

[PatMcDuck]

Also, I have heard IRS looks at people with stores more closely....... I guess they assume with a store, people are selling more than their own excess garage sale like junk.

As for the seaches, it seems like now sometimes store items do come up? On the bottom, it will say similar item available in these stores, and list the items? Or am I nuts?

 

[welovedis]

As for the seaches, it seems like now sometimes store items do come up? On the bottom, it will say similar item available in these stores, and list the items? Or am I nuts?

No, not nuts. It depends on the number of items that come up when you search. If there are only a few that show up (& I don't know the exact number) then the store items will show up (listed & gallery pics) under the auction searches. If there are a larger number that show up, it will list the auctions, but below that will be a link to search store listings for the same item. You can also click on a link to search only store listings when doing an advanced search.

 

[JerJan]

Ihad a store for over a year and closed it in October...it just wasn't worth it. Every time I turned around they were raising the fees they got alot more and I got a lot less!

 

[kilee]

I started a store w/ that free promo too awhile back. We kept it going for about 6 months. I found the store items just weren't selling real well even though I put a lot of effort into driving business there. So, we closed it and went back to regular auctions. We kept a lot of records over those 6 months to figure out which was going to work best for us. I think a lot will depend on what type of items you sell.

 

[rae662000]

I appreciate your opinions, it just when I look at the fees for the items I have listed I am around 10% just for ebay, does not include paypal. I'm just wondering if I should look into the store option. I haven't been doing it that long and I know there is a learning curve. They are offering the free month again and I was wondering what was the experience like for others.