posted on July 25, 2006 04:13:41 PM new
Many ebay store sellers appear to be rushing to leave ebay, or reducing current ebay inventory. I have read threads concerning new stores and abandonment of the ebay store model.
I would like to suggest an alternative business plan. This alternative plan retains an ebay store, while driving traffic to the ebay store, from an off-site store (huh).
ebay has a program known as, "Store Referral Credit" which will pay 75% of a store's FVFs.
What is a Store Referral Credit?
"Store Referral Credit is a credit that Store sellers are eligible to receive when they successfully drive buyers to their eBay Store directly from a location outside of eBay. With Store Referral Credit, eBay will give you a 75% credit on your Final Value Fees when your marketing efforts generate sales of your Store Inventory format listings." (ebay).
By directing, or driving sellers to your ebay store items from your off-site items, you can effectively lower your store FVFs by 75 cents on the dollar. Not bad. In fact it's very great.
Take a minute and think. What are the strengths of ebay? Name recognition, tons of traffic, many buyers, variety of merchandise, secure payment system, feedback system, overall image of vibrant market place, and an aura of security for the individual shopper.
There are many positives that I've missed and even some negatives. I'm sure they will be supplied by others.
Can the ebay experience be duplicated on our off-ebay sites? No. I believe that we can spend a fortune and never make the average internet shopper feel secure on our sites.
However, we can create an off-ebay site which could be used to direct traffic to our ebay store, rather than try to send it off ebay.
Let's take my Vendio store as an example. After some research, I have discovered that 40% of my ebay traffic and sales comes from my Vendio store. Why?
Vendio does perform as promised. The feeds to Froogle, and gBase have resulted in my Vendio store items being prominently placed on the search engine pages. The buyer clicks onto my Vendio store item page, looks around, probably decides that they feel insecure with a purchase, then follows my Vendio store links to my ebay store, where the same item or similar is purchased. Please note that the item descriptions are identical in both stores.
There is some work involved here. However, the plan appears to be inexpensive, as it is not really necessary to buy keywords at the start. Let Vendio do its job from the start, and then check on search page placement for "specific" items.
Make your Vendio store your catalog of both ebay store items, and those slow selling items that you just can't even give away, but continue to list for sale.
Now, I am not a big fan of the Vendio store, and even a lesser fan of many of the other sites. However, the Vendio store is ready to run, easy to use, feeds into the major searches, and only cost $4.95 a month. Such a deal.
There is a lot to digest here. I'll stop and jump in with more later.
posted on July 25, 2006 05:27:25 PM new
This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
If you have gotten the eyeballs of a customer on your off-eBay website, why would you drive them to eBay to get a discount on a FVF when you can sell to the directly from the off-eBay site and pay NO FVF?
If people are going to your Vendio store, then by all means make the stuff on your Vendio store look presentable so they buy it. Why give your customers to eBay, when it should be the other way around?
The difficulty with off-eBay sites is getting the customer to visit. If you've jumnped that hurdle, the rest is easy. What you propose defeats the entire purpose of the web-store.
Dr. Arcane, revelator of mystical secrets http://www.drarcane.com
Got questions about the secrets of the universe?
posted on July 25, 2006 05:34:00 PM new
I've been thinking along the same lines. I'm planning on cutting out my auction relists, sending unsold auction items directly to my Vendio store where they can be viewed with my eBay items. I plan on contacting all of my customers and let them know that the newer items can be seen by going to my Vendio store first.
posted on July 25, 2006 05:34:36 PM new
I agree with DrArcane. If you have the ability to drive buyers to your ebay store, why not drive them to your website instead and avoid ebay fees altogether?
posted on July 25, 2006 05:38:01 PM new
kozersky: You should consider surveying your "landed on Vendio but bought on eBay" customers to find out why they ended up on eBay. There could be any number of reasons.
posted on July 25, 2006 05:39:47 PM new
Also, what guarantee is there that the store referral credit program is not the next item on the hit list? Especially when Meg and Bill figure out it's costing them money.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on July 25, 2006 06:05:44 PM newVacuum Tube Breath said it BESTEST:
"Also, what guarantee is there that the store referral credit program is not the next item on the hit list? Especially when Meg and Bill figure out it's costing them money"
posted on July 25, 2006 10:02:49 PM new
there is a hidden cost to the referral credit farce program. i do a fair amount of SEO work on both eBay stores and web sites and i always recommend to my clients that they NOT participate in eBay's referral credit program.
here's why. if you google "webmaster guidelines," you'll see very basic and very important Google guidelines. on the list is this:
"Don't use "&id=" as a parameter in your URLs, as we don't include these pages in our index."
this also goes for "?id=" arguments. Google simple won't index ***anything*** with those parameters. every SEO client i have, i advise them to remove the refid coding from their html, from sig lines, etc. if they are html proficient, and/or i offer to do that for them.
just my $0.02 worth, but those referral credits can get mighty expensive in other ways.
posted on July 25, 2006 11:04:03 PM new
I'll have to read the google guidelines so as to become familiar with them.
It is impossible for me to add the "&refid=," or "?refid=" to the item search URL that Google indexes.
I am taking the Vendio fed item and adding the ebay referral code link within the item description. The feed from Vendio contains a standard URL, with most likely their own CJ publisher code added.
I note the following at the search you suggest:
"Don't use "&id=" as a parameter in your URLs, as we don't include these pages in our index." And, "If you decide to use dynamic pages (i.e., the URL contains a "?" character), be aware that not every search engine spider crawls dynamic pages as well as static pages. It helps to keep the parameters short and the number of them few."
I take this to mean the URLs of the item description pages.
The ideal way to do this would be for Vendio to add the "&refid=" or "?refid=" link when the ebay store item is accessed from the "Auction Gallery" on the front page of the Vendio store. This does not seem to be a possibility.
Anyway, both stores share the same inventory, with the same pictures and same item descriptions. I am reworking all item descriptions to include links to my About Me page, the ebay store, and categories within the ebay store. Those interior page links will all have the "?refid=" tags added to link for the the respective ebay URLs.
posted on July 25, 2006 11:18:18 PM new
the high cost is in terms of lost visibility on the internet, due to google not indexing dynamic urls - &refid and ?refid
posted on July 26, 2006 01:14:26 PM new
theoretically, it applies only to the url of the page. however, everything i've been reading in terms of SEO indicates that the refid argument within the coding of a page also creates stumbling blocks for search engines. like i said, i removed all trace of refid from everything i have on the web. eBay is not my buddy. http://stores.ebay.com/postcards-postcards http://www.vintagepostcards.org/ http://vintage-postcards.blogspot.com/
posted on July 28, 2006 12:41:58 PM new
As I previously posted, I am changing all my Vendio store items to direct customers to my ebay store and ebay store items. Using the "?refid=store" I am directing Vendio "lookers" to my ebay store from links, "About Me," "Category Links" and ebay store "Home Page."
The ebay links are in the following paragraph: "Buy with confidence that the item you purchase will be as described. About Us. This item and additional topical stamps can also be purchased from the topical stamps category in our ebay Store."
Contrary to comments by others, the "?refid=" referral code links within the page, does not preclude froogle, and google from indexing the Vendio store description pages. The items I've changed are still ranking in searches.
As in the past, descriptions, pictures, TOS, shipping costs, and selling prices are the same in both stores. Anyone wishing to purchase the items can do so at either the Vendio store or my ebay store, with redirected Vendio checkout.
posted on July 28, 2006 04:54:51 PM new
Koz...If you are listing items that sell for less than $100.00, THEY DON'T WANT YOU AS A STORE CUSTOMER!!! If they can't run the low dollar items out of the stores with this increase, they will announce another in a couple months. They can drop that store referral credit at anytime, or alter it so it only applies to high dollar items. If you are going to stock a Vendio store, spend your time and effort promoting it and forget about trying to make a couple bucks off Ebay via a loophole that could be plugged at any time.
If Murphy's law is correct, everything East of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic
posted on July 29, 2006 04:33:44 AM new
Yeah....as I have tried to absorb the new Ebay fees whilst on vacation overseas, the threads here have been informative and interesting. Ebay it seems is essentially tossing out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to items of lower value offered for sale in Stores. This really hurts me as most of my items are not junky, but items between 10-30 dollars in value, mostly books and vinyl. For example, I sold 10 LPs of Spanish Poetry recently, but it took about a year to do so, with the values ranging between 10-20 dollars each. I knew it could and would take that long for the right buyer to find such esoteric items, but I had confidence they would sell. The same with many book titles, especially such items as Yearbooks, which need the right buyer to find them, and to sell them at auction one usually ends up with nothing, or no bids. I can't afford to sell such items under the new fee structure. With most of my stock not even listed, I have to find an alternative to Ebay, and frankly as they keep changing the playing field with virtually zero notice, I don't see how one can continue doing business with a company that can't be trusted. I am certainly going to close my store, as I examine as many options as possible to sell my huge stockpile of items which I didn't even have time to list in my store.
posted on July 29, 2006 08:48:21 AM new
Perhaps Koz is suggesting an alternative to simply closing an established store and opening another, which can entail a LOT of work and lost sales. (Designing a new site, re-listing those store items and re-directing customers to the new site -- to name just a few of the many steps necessary when dumping eBay and starting fresh on a new site.)
I don't have thousands of items listed in my store, as many of you do, but I am certainly not interested in moving each and every one of those items, one-by-one, to another venue, and then waiting to be "found" by browsing customers.
Using Koz's idea, one could leave the current listings in eBay while establishing a new store elsewhere, and at the same time recoup a portion of the eBay costs through the referral program mentioned.
It has been several days since Koz originally posted this idea, and the idea has struck a note with me. I can see how I can get out of the chaos that is now eBay (I absolutely HATE wasting my time revising my store listings to meet eBay's changes and be found in searches) and still maintain a minimal income from eBay store sales.
Once I have listed all of the new merchandise in my new store, and the eBay store has dwindled to zilch, those last few items will certainly be a lot easier to transfer. Meantime, I’ve not lost my entire eBay income, and have had time to accustom my regular customers to my new location...
posted on July 29, 2006 06:04:48 PM new
"Using Koz's idea, one could leave the current listings in eBay while establishing a new store elsewhere, and at the same time recoup a portion of the eBay costs through the referral program mentioned."
and at the same time, receive pennies from eBay while effectively retarding indexing of your listings elsewhere in search engines by inclusion of the refid code...
posted on July 30, 2006 07:09:24 PM new
Vintagepostcards - I am confused.
Let's see if I have this right. You advocate that the store referral links should not be used because an URL with "?refid=" or "&refid=" will be ignored by the search engine crawlers. You believe that this is true even if the referral codes are within a page.
You wrote in previous posts: "theoretically, it applies only to the url of the page. however, everything i've been reading in terms of SEO indicates that the refid argument within the coding of a page also creates stumbling blocks for search engines. like i said, i removed all trace of refid from everything i have on the web. eBay is not my buddy." And, "Using Koz's idea, one could leave the current listings in eBay while establishing a new store elsewhere, and at the same time recoup a portion of the eBay costs through the referral program mentioned." " ... and at the same time, receive pennies from eBay while effectively retarding indexing of your listings elsewhere in search engines by inclusion of the refid code..."
Strange it is indeed, that when I go to Vintageads4U's Vendio store, choose two ebay items at random, and put them into a google search, I find that they rank at the top of the search page.
I say strange, because the two ebay items at the top of the google search page, have the "&refid=" referral codes attached to them.
I just have two questions? (1) where could that code have come from. Is Vendio attaching the code? If not Vendio, who? And (2) why weren't Vintageads4u's items ranked lower? They both had the code, which you claim would negate search engine placement.
There are many more. However, I will just note these two.
Here are the items and their respective URLs:
- 1886 Peck & Snyder Roller Skate Ad ~ Smith & Wesson - "http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7222651334&category=37829&refid=store"
edited by kozersky, so as to correct a mistake he made in confusing ebay stores and their owners. Other edits were to correct spelling and composition.
[ edited by kozersky on Jul 30, 2006 08:16 PM ]
[ edited by kozersky on Jul 30, 2006 08:20 PM ]
[ edited by kozersky on Jul 30, 2006 08:28 PM ]
[ edited by kozersky on Jul 30, 2006 10:37 PM ]
posted on July 30, 2006 08:41:22 PM new
pssst Koz - we have two Vintage ladies here - VINTAGEADS4U (the Vendio store lady) and VintagePostcards. I think you are looking at VintageAds Google results and VintagePostcards is the one who has contributed to this thread.
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posted on July 30, 2006 09:14:58 PM new
I would love to here about those that have Vendio Stores only and no ebay store. Do you feel this is helping you with sales? I do not have any store, I just sell on ebay, and no web site and am wondering which way is best to increase sales. Website. Ebay store. Vendio Store. Just from browsing here and posting on ebay websites, I can't find too many happy campers with ebay stores. Don't know much about a vendio store. Anybody care to share some opinions??? Thanks.
posted on July 30, 2006 09:20:41 PM new
pssst, Koz,
neglus is right (thanks, neglus) - i am vintage postcards, clearly seen in the banner of my posts, and not vintageads4u. while i consider vintageads a friend, i won't ever have a Vendio store. Vendio likes to be your "partner" a little more than i care for. i like posting on the board here, so you'll have to figure that one out for yourself. let's just say that i don't view Vendio stores as a growth opportunity. to each his own.
posted on July 30, 2006 10:20:12 PM new
Well, I sure made a mistake there. My apologies to you. I guess I should post on the old f@rts thread.
I have revised and corrected the post in question. I am very sorry.
Oh, by the way, vintagepostcards, how do you explain what is happening at Vintageads4u? I thought items with the referral codes would not appear in google searches?
vintagepostcards, I might have the wrong store, but I'm still on target. The question is still relevant, and you are the one who so strongly disagrees. What gives?
