eBay shops

Hi!

Yes, you can use Auctiva to create listings for your ebay store and you still enjoy all the benefits like schedulings listings in advance.

There are several threads that discuss the store fee hikes that go into effect tomorrow. I will try and find some for you if you are not already aware. Many are closing their stores and many are staying..I am hanging on for a couple of months to so how things go.

Stores with really low priced items will be alot harder to be profitable so it also depends on what you are selling. I know many sellers with hundreds or thousands of items are closing shop as it will costs too much to just have a store. We use to say that you have to have at least 100 items in your store to make it worthwhile and I am not sure if that number is changing but it is a good mark (I have yet to achieve just because of the lack of time with twin 3 year olds. But I hope to get there soon for this Christmas season.)

Please feel free to come back and ask any more questions you might have, we are all here to help!

Marcia

Thanks Marcia
What about the minimum duration of opening an eBay shop? I was thinking about opening a shop from 25 Aug to 25 Dec 2006. Is that possible?
I purchased a lot of bracelets, necklaces and earrings that look so stylish and lovely. I thought that they will be sold out within a month! I sold less than 25% of them in 2 months! I noticed that what is available in eBay is much much more than the demand! Do you think they will sell before christmas?

There is not a minimum duration for a store on ebay. They bill you on a monthly basis ($15.95 for a month) and I believe that they will even give you a credit if you end your store midway through a month. So I dont think that having one from now until the end of the year would be a problem.

It is hard to say if all your items will sell before Christmas but this would be the time to try as the buyers are starting to come out. I know that jewelry can be hard as there is so much on ebay. You just have to work really hard to advertise and make your products stand out and deliver really good customer service to keep them coming back for more! If ever you want the folks here to look at your listings/store to give some suggestions/feedback, they are very helpful!

Marcia

Footnote: Items priced 25.00 and up are great for a store. Anything less and you're best to not use the store..the fee's will kill ya.

You can close a store anytime you want. Ebay charges from month to month, there is no commitment. If you close your store at six weeks, you'll receive a two week credit.

If you use a store, use everything you've got to get your products noticed.

Best of luck,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Suthrnjewl:
Footnote: Items priced 25.00 and up are great for a store. Anything less and you're best to not use the store..the fee's will kill ya.

You can close a store anytime you want. Ebay charges from month to month, there is no commitment. If you close your store at six weeks, you'll receive a two week credit.

If you use a store, use everything you've got to get your products noticed.

Best of luck,
Donna

Here is the new eBay Store fee schedule below.



Insertion Fees

Starting or Reserve Price 30 days Good 'Til Cancelled*
US$0.01-US$24.99 US$0.05 US$0.05 / 30 days
US$25.00- and above US$0.10 US$0.10 / 30 days

*Good 'Til Cancelled listings will be charged the relevant fees every 30 days.

Note:The Insertion Fee covers a single listing(with any quantity of items in the listing), whether you list 1 or 1, 000 of the same item. For example, you have a listing with 10 items for $5.00 each. The Starting Price for the listing is $5.00. The Insertion Fee for this listing would be $0.05 per 30 days regardless of the item quantity of this listing.

Final Value Fees
Closing Price Final Value Fee
Item not sold No Fee
US$0.01 – US$25.00 10.00% of the closing price
US$25.01 – US$1,000.00 10.00% of the initial US$25.00 (US$2.50), plus 7.00% of the remaining closing value balance
US$100.01 – US$1,000.00 10.00% of the initial US$25.00 (US$2.50), plus 7.00% of the initial US$25.01 – US$1,000.00 (US$5.25),plus 5.00% of the remaining closing value balance US$100.01 – US$1,000.00
Over US$1,000.01 10.00% of the initial US$25.00 (US$2.50), plus 7.00% of the initial US$25.01 – US$1,000.00 (US$5.25),plus 5.00% of the initial US$100.01 – US$1,000.00,plus 3.00% of the remaining closing value balance(US$1,000.01-closing value)


I'm not sure I agree that listing items under $25.00 is a bad thing. I think it all depends on what you're paying for your inventory. If you're paying $5.00 to sell a $10.00 item, then that's not a great deal. As for me (I'm fortunate), I purchase all of my merchandise for under a dollar each. So, to list an item for let's say $15.00 is still a good deal for me. If the item sits in the store for an entire year at .05 per month that's .60 cents. If it sells, that's $1.50. It could sit in the store a year and sell on the 364th day for a total of $2.10 in fees. If I listed the same item in 'auction style' format and it failed 2 times that would be a fee of $1.90. A difference of .30 cents. I think the eBay Store fees are hitting the sellers who sell higher priced inventory worse. They're stealing a lot from higher priced sellers. It's unreal.

A $50 item is going to cost $1.20 for 12 months and $5.00 once sold. For a total of $6.20. I guess, that's not too bad IF you're purchasing the inventory LOW, to sell high. However, if a seller paid $20 to sell a $50 item that cost them a total of $26.20 (excluding PP fees), that's too much invested. At this point, they'd have almost $30 invested to make $20.

At this point, larger eBay Store sellers need to begin to wean themselves off of eBay. Sellers really need to invest their time, energy and focus on creating and maintaining their own websites. An eBay seller could potentially pay hundreds and possibly thousands in eBay Store fees. An eBay seller can have an off eBay website with all the bells and whistles. You can legally incorporate aspects of this off eBay website into your listings and About Me page. It really is A LOT of work. However, it is what's required.

I want to create a Citymax website this year. A lot of work and not much time. Sigh.....


Okay, enough of my 2, 4, 6 cents.

Mags,

That posting was a least worth a buck twenty five. <smile>

For me? If it's not over 25.00 I'm not going to put it in my store...for now. As you well know nothing is ever written in stone.

I'm still sitting on the fence as to whether or not to bring my clothing ID out of summer retirment to upload my clothes. Or just put everything into the jewl ID (and keep the store)so if it doesn't sell I can place it into my store and hope that someone stumbles upon it with the eBay searches out of whack...who knows?

Anyhoooo, I'm going to put items at auction with a BIN and if it doesn't go the first time, I'll relist with the free relist. If I can sell it for over 25.00, it'll go in my store if I decide to keep everything.

I've put a few items up on Overstock. I signed into the account and found a credit waiting for me. Several others have taken items from eBay that didn't sell and are having success over at the O auctions. I'm trying it out. I've already had more questions from customers on a few of the items than I've had on ebay...so it may just be the way to go.

Overstock loads into Googlebase automatically. 12.00 for a store with 100 items..it's worth a try.

Later Gator,
Donna