posted on September 19, 2002 07:13:47 AM
Hi,
I tried a StoreFront when they were first introduced to AW, but at that time it really wasn't profitable. I averaged about 1 sale per week. Since then AW has made what sounds to be wonderful impovements to storefronts. I am considering starting one again, and I would love to hear comments from others that are currently using this feature.
posted on September 24, 2002 07:15:36 AM
Hello,
I'm surprised nobody has responded to your query. I have not had success with my Storefront, and am considering just closing it rather than incur a monthly fee. For the past year, I have sold 2 items from it. I average 10 new auctions per week, and generally have 75 items in Storefront. Anyone else have a story?
Joette
I am new to auctionwatch. I am in the process of evaluating the software during the 2 week trial. At the time I started this, the stores section was free. A few days after I signed up I is when they announced they would be charging. As of right now, I only have 4 hits to my store and no sales. I can not justify paying for something that looks like it is not going to be profitable.
What I need is for someone to tell me if the other services are worth the monthly fee. The idea here is to make money, not spend it. I forsee, after paying fees to ebay for listing, paypal for handling payments and now adding fees for auctionwatch, not making much off this deal.
posted on September 24, 2002 09:24:40 AM
Reply to Debra..........
I highly recommend using AuctionWatch for listings, on just the standard plan. Nice templates, all the photos you want, good tracking & post sale options, etc. I will happily continue to use it unless they have cost increases on the above services.
I may drop the Storefront now that it has the new fee because it just doesn't generate sales for me. I believe the tiny icon at the bottom of each listing is not attracting attention, and I'm sure because I've asked my buyers about it, and they don't even notice it. I have also sent emails to my customers in groups, with no increased activity from the Storefront. So as long as Ebay won't let AuctionWatch have more visibility than that little Icon, I cannot justify any monthly cost for it.
I haven't tried Ebay's "store" plan, so I have no basis for comparison. Also, I began with AuctionWatch, so never really listed straight to Ebay. However, I think AuctionWatch is great in all ways except the Storefront.
Joette
posted on September 24, 2002 09:28:11 AM
Joette - I too am surprised that no one has commented until you did. Thank you so much for your input!
Debra - I have been very pleased with the other services that AW has to offer. I hate paying that extra bit of money, but the time that it saves pays for itself many times over. I am now able to list many more auctions and therefore I more than double my sales. And I do love being able to launch my auctions when I'm not even at home!
posted on September 24, 2002 10:16:23 AM
Thanks for your input!
I have been very pleased with what I have seen so far from auction watch.
I hate to ditch the storefront since I have spent so much time getting it set up. I really think its a cool idea, just does not seem to be a profitable one. I will continue to use it as long as it is free and make up my mind once the charges start. Who knows, maybe AW will change their mind about charging or include it into some package.
In the meantime, I will keep exploring the product. I like being able to lauch at a certain time. I am just now getting to the point where auctions are ending and so now I can evaluate the post sales items. Hopefully, I can get through that without any problems.
Sonja has been a great help with my other questions.
posted on September 24, 2002 12:42:54 PM
Hi everyone,
I would like to point out that the keys to successful selling through an AuctionWatch Store are leveraging your buyer traffic from auctions and actively promoting your Store.
AuctionWatch Stores are an easy way to make the most of your auction buyer traffic. Since your store is integrated with Checkout, you have the opportunity to upsell other items to your auction buyers - without paying the fees of expensive marketplaces.
Plus, with your free Gallery included with Store, buyers checking out your listings will also be exposed to your Store items.
Additionally, you can drive buyer traffic to your Store by promoting it to customers and search engines:
1) Send the URL to your customerbase by using aWatch's Customer Management tool
2) Submit your Store's URL to search engines. Be sure to include meta tags and a description to increase your Store's visibility.
Overall, items sold through an AuctionWatch Store as far less expensive to list than other marketplace alternatives.
posted on September 24, 2002 04:22:45 PM
I have had my storefront URL smattered in all of my e-mails and on my website for many, many months. Barely any sales, but I had another use for storefront. I processed auctions from venues not supported by Auctionwatch through my Storefront for purposes of paperwork.
I too am disappointed that the eBay auctions link is like a tiny little afterthought in the left hand column. It does not stand out.
The more categories I add to Storefront, the harder it is to see the eBay Auctions link. In fact, a shopper might have to scroll down to see it. Would a buyer know to do that?
Not an ideal design. Perhaps Auction Gallery could be moved *above* storefront categories?
Or (even better), as mentioned in another thread, could we be given the option to place our auctions in our storefront categories?
posted on September 24, 2002 04:46:29 PM
I have had great success with my store. I use the Storefront template on Ebay auctions and that allows people to just click on it to access the store. I offer free shipping in conjuction with a storefront purchase and mention that in my WBN. My items are low cost and the shipping is neglible (so that might not work for you). I work with collectors (ie., Guinness, Michelin, Barbasol items) and my storefront allows me to gather things a customer group might want. I use my customer list to let them know that are new items of interest. I do a lot of International sales and repeat business that way. I just started a Google ad with the store and am getting about 45 hits a day but no sales yet. THESE ARE PROBLEMS WITH STORE:
(1) Can't search for 4 letter words; for example have a client that collects Best Tractor ads. When he goes to my store and puts in the word Best...he gets nothing. If he puts in both words Best AND Tractor then he gets all tractor items. So the search on title needs work.
(2) No key word search...just title. Some of my items sell through their description, not the title.
(3) Stores look messy if you have more than 20 or so categories...categories are not in alphabetical order and in fact the order makes no sense.
(4) I get some people who say they cannot access the store (TODAY, I received this:Hi-
I could only access your other auctions through ebay. AOL wouldn't let me go
directly to your webstore.). Don't know what is up with that.
(5)I have over 3000 unique items. That means anytime there is a postage change, I have to go in and physically change all of them.
(6) To use the upsale have to go into all 3000 to cross list items.
That said. My store pays for itself many times over.
BUT, would like to see my issues addressed. Good luck
(Oh yeah! I would also like to change my store from my user name to my store name..in the URL..but as we all know you can't do that unless you open a new account. I don't plan to re-enter 3000 items. So if you do start a store, pick the right name to begin with!
Good luck, baylor45
posted on September 25, 2002 03:22:21 PM
Hello baylor45,
I would like to address the issues you brought up:
With regard to searches, we realize that the search function on the Stores page is not as robust as our users would like. Note, however, that you can use Universal Search to search on keywords and 3-letter words, etc. If you like, you can supply your customers with a link to Universal Search so that they can perform more intensive searches and receive more relevant results (eventually, we will move this functionality to the Stores page.)
As far as categories go, I can see what you mean - there is no discernable order to them. I am not sure how categories are intended to be displayed, so please let me check on this.
Note that AOL users will occasionally be unable to access our website, which is most likely due to a transient problem within the AOL proxy system. Normally these issues clear up after a couple of days.
I will pass along your comments regarding difficulties editing your items and entering items to cross-sell. You do have a rather large inventory and I can see that making changes individually could be time consuming.
posted on September 29, 2002 07:36:49 AM
So far, AW Store fronts have done nothing for me. I have only made one sale within the past six months.
There are a lot of glitches in the system. One example.....I accidently added an item to a customer's order and could not remove the item. I can't change catergories and the stores are hard to manage. Perhaps I'll take a day and see if there's a work around some of these issues, but there are better services available without the problems.
I believe AW should work out the problems before charging a fee.
posted on September 29, 2002 11:42:23 AM
Without knowing exactly what the new fees will be it's hard to tell, but I thought I'd let you all know my recent activity. When I first started with AW I didn't take the time to fully understand each function etc - just wanted to be up and running ASAP. Last week I decided to scrap my entire store and start over, having now spent a little time to learn some of the features. I re-organized, re-entered, and re-questioned several tools and systems with the AW folks (I'm sure they're sick of hearing from me by now). After all that work I utilized the customers feature to send out an email letting everyone know how much easier the new store was to navigate etc. I have received a 10% response in purchases within 48hrs, which I think is a pretty good return. I'm going to try and utilize the AW system to it's maximum potential before I get rid of it. I think it's like anything else, you get out of it what you're willing to put into it. I think it could become a great tool if I utilize it properly. Only time will tell.! I've never used a different system, so I have nothing to compare this one to. It sure would be interesting to hear the opinion of those who have.
ps: AW folks, I still have some unresolved questions floating out there - would love
answers to some of them (specifically the mailing list issue).
Thanks.
posted on October 17, 2002 05:04:05 PM
I have had my store for 10 months and frankly have neglected it. So there were no sales.
I recently went live with my web site... www.nybaglady.com and incorporated the store into my website.
I still have some adjusting to do but my biggest complaint is the categories are not alphabetical.
I would like to have an opening feature page, so that when anyone went to the store they saw one featured item.
As it is now, it does look messy. As for profitability... the week my web site went "live" I made my first sale but I think it was generated by the choices offered at checkout.
I will go through the holiday season and see how sales go.
Paula
posted on October 17, 2002 05:18:18 PM
Hello,
The suggestion of the Stores Categories being alphabetical has been made previously and has been presented to the development team. Thank you again for your suggestion.
posted on October 17, 2002 06:44:19 PM
Hi Tara
I realize the suggestion has been made before. I do read the postings, however, I think the more people who say so may make the point more strongly.
What about an opening feature page? I haven't seen that suggested before and you didn't address that in you response.
Thank you
Paula
posted on October 19, 2002 10:41:09 AM
Also I think if they changed from calling the store ~ My Auction Watch Gallery ~ to My Auction Watch Store or Shoppe ~that might help !
I'm trying to decide between ebay's store or AW store and am leaning towards ebay's since theirs is designed better but would rather use AW since that is where I launch my auctions from and would make it all so much easier
I just wish AW would get it together & redesign for us real quick like.. since the holiday selling season is right here !
I closed my AW store because nothing seemed in order
posted on October 19, 2002 10:51:40 AM
I looked at the ebay stores but they are very pricy!
Another suggestion for the stores would be to use a smaller font when the alphabetize. That way if you have a long category like "Plus Size Sweaters" it would all be on one line and we could see it easier in Inventory, too. I have a hard time telling what is what in Inventory because most begin with Plus Size and that is all I can see.
I also wanted to mention that the new promote tool is awesome!
