lindajean
|
posted on September 30, 2003 08:23:09 AM
I received my email last night that store listings will be free the 30th through October 2.
Too bad I don't do well with stores and cancelled mine
Wish they would either include the items in search or just give up on the whole concept.
Anyway, for those with a store heres a chance to save a little
|
ahc3
|
posted on September 30, 2003 09:08:32 AM
I also don't have a store. I really can't see how this would benefit me. If I sold items that I had many of, it might be beneficial, but I tend to do one of a kind things. I would much rather drive them to my website and not pay ebay for listing or final value...
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on September 30, 2003 09:12:04 AM
I always felt that way but if they did that there would be a dramatic shift of items to the ebay stores and a dramatic decline in the regular auctions. I think ebay makes a Lion's Share of it's profts on listings and relistings. A $5 item earns ebay a FVF of 25 cents but also a 30 cent listing fee plus options ( 10 days = 10 cents , gallery = 25 cents, etc. )
If the ebay store owners could sort of unite and collectively promote the ebay stores search engine themselves it would go a long way to increasing sales at the stores.
Do yo think ebay would have a fit if the sellers put a link to the ebay store search engine in their auction descriptions?
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
lindajean
|
posted on September 30, 2003 09:41:31 AM
That would be a good idea. I don't think Ebay would mind the link since they promote the stores so much.
I just know I tried it one month. Had 300 listings and sold one item.
Not worth my trouble trying to keep up with what's listed here and what's listed there since I sell one of a kind items.
If I wanted cheap but no sales, I would just use Yahoo where I still have over $1,000 in feedback credit!
[ edited by lindajean on Sep 30, 2003 09:42 AM ]
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on September 30, 2003 10:38:21 AM
From what I've read on other boards it takes about a month for the search engine spiders to find the new ebay stores and list them by the key words found in the store description. A one month trial may be too short. That may be part of the reason that the first month is free at the ebay stores.
Now would be a good time to open a store for Christmas. There may be lots of 'seasonal' ebay stores.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
replaymedia
|
posted on September 30, 2003 11:23:07 AM
I always sold enough store items to make it worthwhile, maybe 3 or 4 items a month. Not what I would call a smashing success. Until just last month.
I took some time off in August and cut way back on my regular auctions. I still actually managed to make around 20-25 store sales with no auctions running.
SOME were repeat customers, but not most of them. I have no idea why.
I wish they'd shop my website instead, but I can live with it.
-------------------
Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
|
neroter12
|
posted on September 30, 2003 01:45:03 PM
Realplay,
Some people like a certain seller's service or quality of merchandise.
I know I always look back for this one guy I bought something from...but he is a dealer in a mall as well, and his auctions run scattered (some weeks he runs some, others he doesnt), but I've noticed after awhile I forget to look for him because he hasn't been running any auctions (or at least I am not catching them on the right week or whatever)so if he had a store, I might look.
For me, I've thought about a store for but I think its hard to get traffic to it, unless you have your repeat customers. (When I am looking for something, unless I see a reminder I hardly ever search the stores.)
|
deltim
|
posted on September 30, 2003 02:09:57 PM
I have had a store for a couple of months now. I was always of the opinion that since I had my own website and was selling one of a kind items, that it wouldn't be worth it.
But I have made $40-$50 each month so far in my store. It is a great way to "put away" those items that aren't selling for what you want, but you know they eventually will. And also the cheap items. The ones I have tried twice at under $10, I just stick them on a dusty shelf in the store. Someone might eventually buy them. (now remembering where I stashed that item when it does sell 6 months down the line, that's another story).
Also, I think it is worth the price of the store just for the nifty sales report they send out each month. It has a great breakdown of how many items I listed, how many I sold, the percentage of successful items and the average selling prices for each category. I haven't had time to analyze my sales reports yet... but when I get the last one I immediatly could see why I didn't have enough money to pay the house bills... my sell through rate last month was horrible.
But as for free store listing days... big deal. I am not going to bust my tail to try and save a couple dollars. At 5 cents per listing, it is not worth my effort to go out of my way to get things listed there.
|
meffle
|
posted on September 30, 2003 07:32:41 PM
Hi all,
Just thumbing throught the message center and saw this post. In case you didn't know, "every day is a free listing day" in a Vendio Store. A Vendio Store is about half the price of an eBay Store each month, has no listing fees, and items that sell are charged only 1% (with other options for flat rate sales fees of 10-20 cents).
I'd love to hear why sellers may prefer eBay Stores over Vendio, since we always want to make our services better. Thanks for listening to the brief promo and request for suggestions. Take care.
|
dadofstickboy
|
posted on September 30, 2003 07:42:33 PM
In case you didn't know, "every day is a free listing day"
Hi: meffle!
In case you didn't know!
No day is a FREE listing day,Either here or there, on Ebay!
I have a store here and there!
Niether SELL!
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on September 30, 2003 07:44:48 PM
Ebay does zilch to promote their stores but every ebay store is just a clickable link away on current regular ebay auctions.( ebay provides three different clickable links per auction page to the ebay store )
That would be the main advantage plus buyers see it as a true extension of ebay in the ebay format rather than a website store not affilliated with ebay.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
wendywins
|
posted on September 30, 2003 07:51:00 PM
With my customers, there seems to be a "comfort zone" inside of Ebay. Now we all know that Ebay is "just a forum" but I think alot of bidder have a certain amount of trust in the system. I have an ebay store with a constant 400+ items and sell over 100 items per day.
I run 5-10 auctions per week purely for advertising my store. Seems to be working well!
One of my competitors quit ebay and opened up their own website. Their prices are FAR lower than mine for the same merchandise and I have seen only an increase in business and I believe that comes from being on Ebay.
I don't think people have as much trust with an outside website or store. Just my opinion...
BTW, I saved a Whopping $0.40 today on listing fees Haahaa
|
dadofstickboy
|
posted on September 30, 2003 07:54:55 PM
wendywins:
BTW, I saved a Whopping $0.40 today on listing fees Haahaa
Good for you!
Hope you let the IRS know!
|
wendywins
|
posted on September 30, 2003 08:09:50 PM
The IRS doesn't care what I save, they care about what I make them! They'll get their fair share with the sale of each item LOL!
|
dadofstickboy
|
posted on September 30, 2003 08:14:53 PM
Well:
If you saved $00.40 you must be rolling in dough!
Keep up the good work!
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on September 30, 2003 10:19:52 PM
Hi: meffle!
In case you didn't know!
No day is a FREE listing day,Either here or there, on Ebay!
I have a store here and there!
One of you two guys has to be wrong. If it is meffle ( what the heck kind of name is that? ) that is wrong maybe we'll get an apology.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
meffle
|
posted on September 30, 2003 11:33:57 PM
Hi AuctionAce,
meffle is the kind of name that's very hard to pronounce . . ..
I'm not exactly sure what dadofstickboy meant, but I'm guessing that time is money, and it takes time to list items. Also, since there is a monthly fee, it's not exactly "free."
I meant to point out that Vendio doesn't charge any listing or insertion fees. List as many items to your store as you would like for $4.95. Pay only a small success fee when you sell.
While many Vendio Store owners experience brisk sales, they are also aggressively promoting their stores as well. While we continue to pursue additional promotional opportunities for all Vendio store items, we expect the most successful sellers will also promote their individual stores in their e-mails, flyer inserts in sent packages, etc.
I hope that clarifies my earlier message, and I will apologize if my message led to any confusion. Also, I appreciate all the comments related to Vendio Stores, so we can feed them into our development process. Take care.
|
Dragonmom
|
posted on October 1, 2003 07:27:24 AM
I had a vendio store, and it did okay for me. I switched to my own domain because I could control the visual atmosphere better- and also, on a dialup service, the web interface was so slow. It was a little quicker to FTP new pages to my server.
I have thought about reinstating the vendio store but cross-posting items would be ridiculously time-consuming. I only list on ebay as advertising for my domain store, one or two items a week.
"And All Shall be Well, and All Shall be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall be Well"
|
horsey88
|
posted on October 1, 2003 07:45:26 AM
1)Fluffy lists 100 items in Ebay Store and none sells. Fluffy loses $5.00.
2)Fluffy lists 0 items in Ebay Store so none sell. Fluffy saves $5.00.
3)Fluffy lists 100 items in Ebay Store during free listing days and none sell. Fluffy saves $5.00.
If Fluffy stuck to option 2 Fluffy wouldn't have to waste any time preparing those 100 listings.
|
neglus
|
posted on October 1, 2003 07:52:08 AM
I have had an eBay store for several months - sales never have been great. Before closing it I decided to make one big effort to promote it in my auctions and have had more sales than I did in all of the previous months put together! As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I put a "search my stores" feature right in my listings (would be great if I could customize it even further by inserting a searchword but I think that is too time consuming because I list in so many categories and the link is in my custom listing text and doesn't change).
I also added the wording: "search my stores for postcards listed at bargain prices"...I think that was the ticket!
I don't think it is worth the effort to bust butt to save 5 cents/listing to take advantage of the eBay free store LD!!
One buyer put in her feedback "visit this sellers store for great deals" or something like that..wish I could keep that feedback at the top!!
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on October 1, 2003 08:37:36 AM
That's a great idea neglus. Both increased store sales for you and it also helps all ebay stores overall as buyers get in the habit of visiting ebay stores.
Would that idea work with a non-ebay store? Probably against some ebay linking rule.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
MAH645
|
posted on October 1, 2003 10:24:39 AM
I keep business cards at the flea market with my Vendio Store link on them. I give them to all the out of state people who visit my booth. Seems to work well.
|
AuctionAce
|
posted on October 1, 2003 12:02:54 PM
Some stores are naturals and do very well no matter who hosts them. For instance, a seller selling posters could run a few poster auctions and link to their ebay store and save a lot on listing fees.
Non-ebay stores can be linked via their ebay ME page --- link to the ME page and then to the non-ebay store. The ebay stores have an edge though.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
|
kurzonis
|
posted on October 4, 2003 02:15:50 PM
I have a great suggestion (if it hasn't been said already) for the Vendio team.
There's a great feature on Andale where instead of a simple button link to your store, Andale puts in a thumbnail gallery of items you have in your store. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
This method would REALLY drive people to your store. A simple ''Come see my Gallery'' button just won't do.
Please consider this feature! This would definitely make the Vendio store a keeper for me.
|
