posted on January 10, 2007 05:56:36 PM
Thank-you for your replies.
Fluffy, I recently closed my one and only
eBay Store. It used to do OK, but in the
last 8 months or so sales have been few
and far between. My old store had a wide variety of items, and I was wondering if having individual stores with the same type of items would have better sales. One drawback would be fees of $15.95 per store.....
posted on January 11, 2007 04:33:06 AM
A good store designer could develop a home page for your ebay store that could lead the customer into "custom boutiques". Marketworks used to do this.
Underneath this home page everything is really the same, it is just the illusion that you have three or four stores when you only have one.
posted on January 11, 2007 07:10:05 AM
I can understand the need and desire to have 2 or 3 stores under one ID.
I often watch sellers that only sell one type of item - like vintage clothing or Mid Century Furniture.
I think if you sell all the same types of items in each store buyers get the impression (true or not) that you are an expert in that area.
posted on January 11, 2007 08:46:14 AMin the last 8 months or so sales have been few and far between. My old store had a wide variety of items, and I was wondering if having individual stores with the same type of items would have better sales
Okay. Let's look at how bidders typically browse.
Do they:
1) Go to eBay Stores Home and search for a book store, or do they...
2) Use Search to look for a specific book, keyword or specific topic?
It's pretty well established by nw that 2) is how most bidders browse.
Your idea would be a fine one if eBay Stores were a mall, but it's not. And even if it were a mall, odds are your small store would be eclipsed by the many other book Stores.
To test this:
Go to eBay.com.
Select (on the left-hand side) eBay Stores.
Choose Books from the Stores Directory.
Choose type of books (I chose Antiquarian & Collectible).
Look at the results. Good golly! There are 454 pages of results, with 25 Stores per page. That's 11,350 book Stores in the Antiquarian & Collectible category ALONE. The Stores with the most number of items are ranked highest.
You don't stand a chance.
So there is really no point to having three separate Stores. It doesn't buy you better positioning in Search results, and they will never be found if the bidder comes in through the Stores front door.
Whereas if the bidder uses Search, she can drill down immediately to *your* Store. And for that, you can have books, jewelry, postcards, the kitchen sink and last year's white elephant Christmas gifts all under one roof.
fLufF
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[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Jan 11, 2007 08:47 AM ]
posted on January 11, 2007 10:13:40 AM
What kind of books are they?
Have you considered Amzn marketplace?listing is free but every 60 days you have to relist if they are not sold.
posted on January 11, 2007 10:35:41 AM
Excellent points, Fluffy. I didn't realize there were so many book stores on eBay.
Whew! There is an endless amount of them.
Interesting enough, my former eBay Store started to tank around the same time
eBay Express came into existence. It makes
me wonder if all these complaints about search being screwed up as a result are true.
I suppose it's all a moot point if eBay really intends to pull the plug on the Stores in the near future.
hwahwa, the books are mostly late 19th
century and early 20th century books about
history, military, and travel, both U.S. and Europe. Also non-fiction, out-of-print books from the 1920's - 1940's.
I thought Amazon required books to have
an ISBN ? The older books don't have an
ISBN.
posted on January 11, 2007 10:51:50 AM Excellent points, Fluffy. I didn't realize there were so many book stores on eBay.
I didn't either until you asked the question. I was more than a little shocked myself. I've got books piling up around here and I have no idea what to do with them.
