Like many sellers, I had lots of questions about storefronts and decided it was time to dive in and find out what they were all about. After immersing myself in the various offerings, I got a sense of the different models of storefronts available. There is a chart comparing the major storefronts at http://www.auctionbytes.com/stores/stores.html.
The Antique Mall Concept
Tias http://www.tias.com and Ruby Lane http://www.rubylane.com have been around for years. Many antiques and collectibles retailers are familiar with the term "antique malls," and these two companies offer online versions of that concept. You can go to the home pages of these sites and search for particular items, and it will search all of the stores on the Web site. Yet each store is independent and has its own look and feel, policies and offerings. Both sites allow you to offer your items on auction sites as well. Tias and Ruby Lane are selective about their storeowners and have strict standards. They want to maintain their reputations and brand names. Both sites tend to specialize in antiques, collectibles, arts & crafts and the like.
The "Software Tools" Concept
There are many online auction management software tools on the market, and the newest trend is to extend the software to support fixed-price selling. The same software that tracks inventory and runs reports can be used whether you are selling on auction sites, storefronts, or both. These Storefront offerings give the storeowner flexibility in how and where they sell, so you aren't locked into any one venue. Andale http://www.andale.com and AuctionWatch http://www.auctionwatch.com have provided auction tools for years, and they both introduced Storefront capabilities in February 2001. Zoovy http://www.zoovy.com is a brand new company that launched in June.
Yahoo Stores & Auction Booths
Yahoo Stores http://store.yahoo.com is a robust offering for fixed-price selling only. Their $100/month minimum charge excludes smaller sellers. Yahoo has a free Auction Booth feature for auction listings only http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/asell/asell-33.html. It is not a Storefront offering, but it displays your Yahoo auction listings in one place and you can give it a custom look and feel.
eBay Stores
eBay Stores http://ebaystores.com falls into its own category. While eBay Stores has severe restrictions, it offers the potential to attract a lot of traffic.
Establishing a Brand
If you are considering selling in a Storefront, you must devote some time to marketing yourself. Most of the Storefronts allow you to either use your own domain name or link back to your own site. For example, if I wanted to open a Storefront called Beagles Rule selling Beagle-related items, I should register the domain name and get the URL http://www.BeaglesRule.com. Some Storefronts allow you to "redirect" to their sites, so if you type in www.beaglesrule.com, you go to your storefront on their site. Other vendors allow you to integrate your name on their site, like http://BeaglesRule/VendorName.com. All the sites covered here allow you to at least link to your own Web site, except for eBay, Tias and RubyLane.
Tias and Ruby Lane, by their very nature, want you to establish your online store in their mall exclusively. In return, they advertise and bring in traffic to the stores. However, they encourage you to build your brand, promote your bricks & mortar store, and allow you to deal with customers AND potential customers. They also allow storeowners to sell on auction sites. Tias, in fact recently unveiled an "Open Source" API, which will soon allow storeowners to list on auction sites other than eBay, Yahoo!, and Amazon.
eBay, on the other hand, does not want its sellers to establish their own brands. While eBay brings incredible traffic to the stores, storeowners are locked into eBay in a very restrictive way. (Note: not enough people take advantage of the "About Me" feature on eBay. This is your one chance to promote yourself and your Web site. Here's how to do it: http://www.auctionbytes.com/Email_Newsletter/10/10.html#me2.
Other important factors you should consider to help you make your Storefront decision include flexibility, scalability (ability to grow), and price. Remember that prices and policies change. If you have established your brand, you can take your business elsewhere.
Go to for a comparison chart of some major Storefront offerings. Please note that I tried to present the most basic option in the pricing column. Most vendors have lots of other pricing options and additional features.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
