Suggestions for more sales...tips

Hi,

I normally just delete the whing kind of posts from fustrated sellers but this is important enough to respond to. I have only been at this for about a year and a half but I have enough experience to know that this fee raise is eBay's way of getting out all of the 'little guys' who only want to sell a few odd things.

1) What must be done is to shift to a no-fee auction service - such as Yahoo! Auctions

2) Advertise more globbally - I am trying listing some of my ads on Google Checkout which is free.

3) Look for some either more or better merchandise. That's a lot harder than it seems. There are a whole lot of 'sell-it-on-ebay' kind of stores.

If anyone has any better ideas, please post them here. Just use a tag that indicates so, so that it doesn't get deleted unread.

RON

Have you used yahoo auctions? and if so, any success? I never seem to see much action/bids when I check it out.

Has anyone had any luck with yahoo?

Thanks!

Well if anyone uses yahoo auction let me know how you actually set up to get verified. I have tried setting up with yahoo account BUT it just doesn't work. Durring the set up it ask you to either put your social or your driver license # in there... well I did my driver license... and it said "you use the wrong format" so I retyped... and they came back with "wrong format" but it wouldn't tell me what is the right format.

Long story short... i e-mailed them for help.. they weren't helpful... It's quite irritating. I couldn't get set up and still can't now.

I dont think ebay is trying to weed out the little guys who only sell odds and ends..it doesnt matter what you sell you still pay them monthy and to weed the little guy out would not be in their best interest. I dont think it was right the way ebay just slammed the store owners with the new rate hikes. However, It was a smart move on ebays part to try and get back to what it was founded on. "Auction style listings". They said this was an attempt to relevel the field and I believe that is exactly what it is.

The compitition of new product sellers on ebay has become unbelievably out of control. I honestly dont see how any store owners that sell new items can make a dime on ebay. This competition has drivin the prices way way down, hence lower final value fee's for ebay..and you know they arent going to stand for that..lol. They want to get back to competitive bidding wars where the final values are much higher..I honestly dont see how raising store selling fee's will accomplish this...but then Im no marketing guru either.

I guess their reasoning is they will win either way. If they raise store seller fee's, sellers will have no choice but to raise prices on buy it now type auctions and in return, higher final value monies will be generated for ebay. On the other hand, I suppose they also figure this will make some seller's want to go back to an auction style listing, since it is cheaper in cost to list that way, instead of the buy it now style with the sharked shipping charges to recover product value that has pretty much takin over on ebay. No matter which way a seller goes..ebay wins.

please keep in mind these are mere speculations on my part. I guess we have all tried to make some sense out of it in our own minds. Just my thoughts, Good luck on all your endeavor's and I wish you lots of $$$$, William

Nobostore - I never had to give that information to Yahoo to be verified for their auctions. I only had to do their Wallet with a method of payment they could use to collect payment on their invoices or that we could use to pay for purchases. Not once was I asked for a SSN or DL#. I'd be concerned that you are in a scammer site and not the real Yahoo.

JerZGirl,

Actually I have also experienced what Nobostore is referring to on Yahoo and so has some folks on the Ebay boards. It is a really wierd glitch on Yahoo where it asks you to submit your DL or SSN# to verify who you are but when you submit it goes nowhere. I have not bothered trying it again as I hate giving out that kind of info anyhow.

Marcia

quote:

I dont think it was right the way ebay just slammed the store owners with the new rate hikes.

I wholeheartedly agree! They claimed the "essence of eBay" was being lost when it was THEM who introduced the store concept in the first place. Additionally, merchandise sold in stores was generally higher priced than in auctions. But, in their rate increase announcement, they mentioned that revenues had fallen with so many people going into stores rather than auctions. Well, I believe that's on them as well - they did little to nothing to guide paying customers to the stores so that their revenues might remain stable. I realize that they began on the auction concept, but if they're going to bring in a secondary concept, then they need to support it.

For the most part, a different buyer perused the stores than those who pursued the auction bargain. They should have taken advantage of that difference and done what they could to guide those buyers to the stores to increase sales in the stores (and thus, increase revenues for eBay). Instead, they held store "owners" responsible for their faltering cash flow and increased the rates for stores alone.

As for their claim that the hikes were only averaging 6%; mathmatically, perhaps, but in reality, the hit could be tremendous for quite a few. Increases from 2 cents to 10 cents for just listing fees alone is 500% increase. Someone with 200+ listings will take a minimum hit of $16 just in listing fees. That combined with all other fee increases is a major hit, no matter what percentage they ultimately calculate. And for those who were in more for fun than profit, it removed the fun entirely.

My solution? I closed my store as did my friend. I am moving to Yahoo. I will still buy on eBay, but I will not likely sell there again.

quote:

Originally posted by marciay96:
JerZGirl,

Actually I have also experienced what Nobostore is referring to on Yahoo and so has some folks on the Ebay boards. It is a really wierd glitch on Yahoo where it asks you to submit your DL or SSN# to verify who you are but when you submit it goes nowhere. I have not bothered trying it again as I hate giving out that kind of info anyhow.

Marcia

Well, thanks! I've never experienced that and, like you, I'd never provide that info. I'd be too afraid someone had hacked their system and was trying to gather it for identity theft (boy, would they be disappointed with mine!! LOL)