eBay store vs Auctiva Store vs Ecrater

superflautistMember

Hello you wonderful people.

I'm very new to EBay and Auctiva and I'm in the process of starting a business selling craft materials. I'm selling stuff on eBay to build a customer base that I can then convert to my external website by including promotional material with my Ebay items.

So I was wondering which is better Ebay store or Auctiva store? I haven't opened an eBay store yet but understand you have to pay £30 per month for a featured shop and in return you get reduced listing fees and shop inventory. Is it worth it? I would have thought you would need to be selling 50 or so items per month to make a saving on fees. I'm selling nowhere near that at the moment. Do people find that their sales increase after they've opened a shop? How important is your feedback rating? For example do you have a personal policy of only buying from people who have a rating of more than 98% and a score of 100? Or is it more like 99% and over 500?

Also has anyone shunned the eBay shop and just gone all out promoting their acutiva store instead? How did you get on?

I've heard ECrater mentioned a few times, firstly does anyone know if you can use this in the UK? Secondly if you've got an ECrater store please could you post a link so that I can take a peek?

Thank you all in advance for your words of wisdom.

6/25/0712:27 PM

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choochooguyMember

Why not start with a basic ebay store at £6 a month and see how it goes. You can easily upgrade.

Watch out as FVF's are higher for store inventory sales and you need auction listings to direct buyers there.

This is because eBay stores are not included in search results automatically unless there are very few auction hits. I think very few buyers know they can search stores as well.

You need to work out what the breakeven point is between selling your wares by auction, buy it now and store inventory based on insertion fees and FVF's. This will vary depending on the value of your wares and their popularity.

There is no one common approach to suit all your items and certainly not one for all sellers.

6/25/073:32 PM

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superflautistMember

Cheers, I'll bear that in mind.

6/27/075:21 AM

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rickbradfordMember

Also, please be aware that the Auctiva store is not a "store" in the same sense that an eBay Store is. The Auctiva storefront is only a collection of whatever listings you have up at eBay -- whether they be auctions, fixed-price, eBay store listings, etc.

As for eCrater you can definitely use it from the UK but prices will only show in US$.

Here's what my eCrater store looks like:
http://shop.poopsheetfoundation.com

6/30/077:47 AM

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superflautistMember

Thanks for your reply.

I thought that there might be something like that after reading the heated thread about Auctiva inventory - or lack thereof.

So my normal auctions and fixed price listings will appear in eBay search results, my auctiva store and my eBay shop and my inventory items only appear in the eBay shop. It looks like I'll have to do some maths and a bit of experimenting in what to list to drive traffic to be eBay store. I'll also have to include a link to my eBay store in my descriptions so that people visiting the auctiva store direct will be more likely to go to the eBay store.

It's all beginning to sink in now.

Thanks for your help.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

6/30/072:59 PM

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choochooguyMember

Hi almost there, all your items for sale on eBay will appear in your Auctiva store, i.e. auction, fixed price and eBay store inventory.

And your eBay store inventory items will appear in a standard eBay search if there are very few auction items found, and apparently prioritised on the size of your inventory list, bigger the better

6/30/073:53 PM

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