posted on December 6, 2001 04:34:38 PM
Alright I'll try again... Left the same topic earlier no comments Does that mean no interest in E-bay Stores???? Question is have you got a e-bay store if yes what do you think.... Have you sold anything thru the store, are people finding you??? Asking for comments folks.....
posted on December 6, 2001 04:51:51 PM
Mitch,
I hope you get an answer, b/c I've been wondering, too. Been selling used PB's on ebay for about a year and buying stuff before that.
What's the general idea behind it? People go there to find things that they wouldn't in an auction? Seller put stuff there they think they can't sell in an auction or can't sell for as much or what?
My sampling of sci-fi titles shows that it's a bit weak, seems to me. If I was gonna look for something it'd be in the regular auctions. I'm interested if anyone's had any luck selling there or whether this is another stupid ebay trick.
Terry
posted on December 6, 2001 05:02:38 PM
I do not have an Ebay store and right now have no plans to open one. My opinion is open to change though at any time.
posted on December 6, 2001 05:43:11 PM
ask yourself if you were a bidder,there are so many items on ebay auction,do you really need to visit a store??
prices are also higher in a store.
why detour??
ebay had tried great collections and it flopped,auction for america and ebay stores,these are all flops,i think ebay just have to stay as auction venue
posted on December 6, 2001 06:01:42 PM
If you have a store and a potential bidder clicks on "sellers other auctions" all the store items are listed with the auctions. Nothing worse than seeing page after page of store listings when your looking for some real auctions.
dendude
posted on December 6, 2001 06:12:16 PM
I have no plans to open an eBay store, why should I when I have my own website! eBay is an auction venue and should STAY AN AUCTION VENUE. Fixed priced items are for my website and auctions are for eBay. Besides their "rules" do not apply to my site and in my opinion most serious eBay sellers should consider getting their own dot com. Dont get me wrong eBay has been another great outlet for my sales but it is just that, "another outlet". As it has been said on these boards many times. "Do not put all of your eggs in one basket".
posted on December 6, 2001 08:20:12 PM
I have had a few sales from the store. People find the items in the store by accident.
But, the cost is 5 cents for a 30 day listing - which I think is refunded, and the $9.95 per month charge has been waived until 1-1-02. I'm not sure about a FVF.
posted on December 6, 2001 08:25:30 PM
ebay store is not a store,since when do storeowners have to remove or relist an item after 30 days,try amzn z shop or yahoo shop.
have you ever walk into a store and see shopowner taking everything from the shelf and put them back just because they have been sitting on the shelf for 30 days
posted on December 6, 2001 08:27:47 PM
the time you spent asking this question and reading the answers,why dont you just open a store and find out for yourself??
personally i think it is kind of late to do so if you want to catch the xmas $$$.
posted on December 7, 2001 04:37:51 AM
I think the stores are a waste of time.i have a store,put it in the search engines,link from my website etc..i have never sold a thing from it. Hardly any hits..unbelieveable..
free till Jan. bet it will be free after that too or people will be closing en mass.
in fact,be sure & check your credit cards guys,they actually charged me twice 9.95 in October for my store that is free till Jan.
only took them about 5 days to credit me,
but gheesh..wonder if it happened to others & they never caught it..
i would concentrate on the auctions,the store will just take up valuable time right now.would take many months to advertise & get people coming to it..a website is much better..good luck
posted on December 7, 2001 08:56:39 AM
I've been on eBay since 1996, and I have gone to one e-bay store, found it looked just like the auction, and have never gone to another. I am primarily a seller, and have 5 web sites, and much prefer a web site to any eBay store. I want my fixed price items displayed, advertised, etc. etc. the way I want them and I feel they will appeal most to customers, I don't want to be limited by eBay's ridiculous rules.
I agree with the person who said, with all the stuff on the eBay auctions why would anyone waste time visiting a store.
Web sites are not the end all, it took us a couple of years to really get a good position on the Search Engines, and start to really make money via our sites. It takes consistent adverting, but we have done very well through our established sites, and wouldn't consider closing them for a pseudo-store on eBay or any other auction site.
It is your decision, but I wouldn't waste my time with a store even if it is free.
posted on December 7, 2001 09:05:53 AM
AW has storefronts, Paypal has storefronts, everybody jumped on this bandwagon but storefronts are losers It's a nice idea but the people who find the storefronts are usually looking for something else, like more auctions or a search engine that covers the web. I have never had a sale from my AW or Paypal store, which are free, so why pay ebay for the same dubious privilege.
posted on December 7, 2001 11:38:19 AM
hi,
just a FYI, I tried the ebay store for a while, I sell lingerie. I have found it's not worth the time or money because everyone is out for a BARGAIN, not a retail sale tag. I only sold 3 items in 3 months when I did have the store. My auction items went for well ABOVE the store price tag, but I found thru my customers the "original" asking price for the auction is much more enticing and they are willing to go up in price when there is a possibility of them losing it to someone else!
Hope this helps,
any questions, feel free to find me at ebay, my user id is boogerhollow.
Tiff
posted on December 10, 2001 11:35:35 AM
Ebay's stores are based upon an old idea, the web mall. It actually has not been implemented very well, either. Think of it as a mall in the low-rent district, except the rent isn't low. With most web malls, you'll just pay a monthly fee. Granted, in most cases it will be more than ten bucks a month (especially for the good ones), but they won't nickle and dime you with listing and final value fees. Most malls will not make you repost (and pay again) your items every month. The only place where you might come out ahead is with Billpoint, which is cheaper than a lot of web mall-affiliated merchant accounts, but there are ones that are cheaper too.
The big thing for me is that IF ebay would drive traffic to my ebay store it would be worth it to pay them. Thus far, they have not given much effort to driving traffic to the stores. Whether it's their auctions, stores, or whatever, we're paying them to bring us customers. That's why they're big, they've got the customers for us, all we have to do is show up. It hasn't worked that way with the stores yet. Why should anyone bother setting up a store at ebay, paying ebay, and then bring their own customers along? It's so easy to find an e-commerce host, set up your own store, and bring your own customers along. Actually, the customers part is the most difficult, setting up a store is easy. When you set up at ebay, you're restricted by their rules, when you set up your own store you go by your own rules. A customer you bring to your ebay store is ebay's customer, while the customers you bring to your own store you don't have to share with anyone. When you run your own store you don't have to worry about your competition turning you in for a vague infraction of a obscure ebay rule. And you don't have to worry about how often ebay changes the rules, or allows other (bigger) competition to get away with breaking the rules.
posted on December 10, 2001 08:07:44 PM
I would wait until ebay begins charging for the current stores, and see if they many any of the much needed improvements.
For example, if you have a Yahoo store, your items are included in the Yahoo search. Ebay Store items are NOT included in the ebay search.
If you want a picture (small, teeny, tiny picture) next to each listing in the store you pay the 25 cent gallery fee, but do not get the gallery benefits.
If your buyer wants to buy more than one item from you, they have to click through and fill out a form for each item they wish. No shopping cart.
I still cross promote my store, since at least I can show a potential buyer all the, say, world music cds I have on sale by clicking on to the world category listings instead of the whole store inventory. I believe this has helped sales a little.
I do not look forward to removing all my store cross links if some improvement is not forthcoming. They are in the auctions, EOA notice, thank you note in packages etc. And to think a couple of months ago I removed all the Auctiva links to replace them with the Store.
