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If you're eyeballing the online auction market for soaps, movies, Pokemon cards, handmade doll clothes, comics, toys, purses, and needlework patterns, then check out the eBay Stores maintained by Katiyana, Carol, Les, and Hazel. All four of these sellers, and thousands more who regularly sell any array of items normally listed in eBay auctions, now benefit from an eBay Store.
Store setup is a breeze. "The eBay Store online video tutorial walks you through the concept and the process," says Katiyana, whose eBay Store at http://www.stores.ebay.com/katiyanascollectibles generated 18% of her total eBay sales for 2003.
Start at http://www.ebaystores.com and then click on the Audio Tour link (in the right-hand column). Adjust your speakers and take notes - if you need to. Soon you're ready to access the Basic Store Information form (click on "Open Your Store Now"), where you'll establish your eBay Store. You must have a minimum feedback rating of 20 or be ID Verified in order to open an eBay Store.
As easy as it is to use, the form has some of those eBay-typical stodgy limitations. For example, your Store name can't be longer than 35 characters, which isn't a whole lot. Take the name "Abigail's Precious Gifts and Collectibles." This uses 37 characters - too many.
Conjure a concise name for your Store that gets right to the crux of your business. Know in advance that your Store name, sans spaces and punctuation, becomes the tail end of the URL that eBay assigns you. Whenever possible, URLs are best kept simple, especially if you plan to include a link in your auctions, signature lines, or on printed matter. The mantra: When naming your Store, less is more.
While you're at it with concise composing, work up a summary of your business to entice eBay shoppers to your wares. Make the summary descriptive, creative, irresistible, and catchy. Oh, and make sure it doesn't exceed 250 characters. Just how much text does that allow you? Barely enough, considering that in this paragraph alone, it took me 314 characters just to explain it.
Next, you'll enter your payment information, business address, phone number, and Store specialties (in 200 characters or less). Then you'll enter your merchandise categories. These work just like standard eBay item categories except that you create and name them yourself. You'll section your goods into your own categories as you build and add to your eBay Store inventory. You can update your categories and add listings at any time.
Once you get down to listing your wares, it won't take long at all. "My eBay Store looked fine in less than two hours. I just picked my color scheme and I was done!" says Hazel of her selling venture at http://www.stores.ebay.com/flutterbeessoapsandstuff.
This sentiment was echoed by Les, who set up http://www.stores.ebay.com/MightyBeanzCollectiblesandMore roughly two years ago on the very first day eBay made the offering to sellers. "It took me about an hour to set up my Store. I spent most of that time getting the colors right," he admits, "but the effort's been worth it. This past week alone, I made 55% of my eBay sales from my Store. Apparently my customers feel right at home there."
If you need it, online help isn't hard to find. "The discussion board for eBay Stores is a great resource of information for Newbies," offers Katiyana. "Experienced Store owners volunteer their time to help others. They're very open about answering questions."
OK, so we know that setting up an eBay Store is fast and easy, and sellers are seeing results. But what about cost? "It's only 5 cents a listing, and a penny for a gallery picture, and they can run for a month," says Carol, who maintains an eBay Store at http://www.stores.ebay.com/collectiblecachecollection. This is far less costly than regular eBay auctions, which start at thirty-five cents plus optional image and enhancement features, but you will have to pay commissions and a monthly fee. A Basic Store costs $9.95/month. See more information about fees at http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/pricing.html.
"Coming out of a retail environment, I have a stock room of leftover goods from my B&M (brick & mortar) store," Carol said. "If I list something in a regular eBay auction and it doesn't sell, I put it aside and don't list it again for a few months. This gets costly. Now, I can keep my inventory listed in my eBay Store and use that as my stockroom."
The eBay Store concept has apparently caught on. Checking message board signature-line links at http://www.auctionethics.com and http://www.otwa.com reveals that many regular eBay sellers have opted to establish a Store.
Sig links are just one way to entice potential business. It's important that eBay Storeowners develop a marketing plan, since opening a eBay Store does not guarantee traffic. We'll talk more about promoting your eBay Store in the next issue. And in future issues, we'll discuss setting up stores using other storefront services, including some of the services found on the AuctionBytes Storefront chart: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/stores.
Editor's Note:
See information about eBay's recent changes to Stores at
http://pages.ebay.com/storesredesign.
eBay is holding a workshop Monday (11/17/03) at noon pacific time called, "New and Improved eBay Stores." In this workshop, eBay staff will be answering questions regarding the newest features in eBay Stores.
To get to the Workshops Board:
- Go to http://www.ebay.com
- Click on Community at the top of the page
- Click on "Discussion Boards" in the "Talk" section
- Scroll down to the threaded Workshop Board on the right side of the page.
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