Ebay stores: How to use them to buy and sell
Ebay
Stores are another method of e-commerce for auction
sellers who want to sell fixed priced items... Plus, bidders can return to
favorite stores for items they regularly buy!
Open your own ebay store
Also see:
Using ebay for Online
Auctions
It's not just the little guys who are seizing the auction bull by
the horns. Time honored brick and mortar businesses, from midsized
companies like
Ritz Camera to Fortune 500 mega corporations like Coca-Cola, are jumping on
the bandwagon and setting up an
ebay storefront.
The cool thing is, even as Joe or Julie average seller, YOU can
do the same thing, and operate an
ebay store on a level playing field with the big guys! An ebay
storefront is sometimes overlooked by ebay sellers- even Powersellers. But
it's a great way to have your
fixed price items showcased continually, without having to constantly
re-list your items.
You can set up eleven different custom categories to advertise
your fixed price items, and they do not have to match ebay's own category names.
Be creative- It's YOUR store.
You can also set-up a section of the store for your store
policies. Here is where you describe the 'fine-print' about your shipping
methods, returns, etc.
Last but not least, there is a link to your
feedback section- you can also tailor make a section of your 'about me' page to
include feedback, where you can use html code snippets (don't worry, ebay shows
you how) to adjust how many feedbacks you want shown.
An important section of the ebay stores and to ebay in general,
is the ability to set up an 'about
me' page at your
storefront, where you can link to your
Half.com listings (see our article on Half.com)
and your regular ebay auctions- you can even set up those regular auctions to
automatically appear in your ebay store.
The reverse of this is equally important: Be sure to
link from within your auction descriptions to your storefront, as well as to
your 'about
me' page on ebay and your
Half.com
listings.
This is an incredibly powerful method of seeing more sales roll
in, as you are cross selling and linking to several different areas at once.
You're paying for that ebay store... use it! See an excellent article on
cross-selling here.
You can also post a link to your own regular website from your
ebay store, which is why so many big companies have a storefront- It helps them
build their brand name in front of millions of
ebay users!
Another nice feature to your storefront is that you include a
store logo (up to 310 by 90 pixels). Pre-designed logos are available on
ebay, or you can use your own custom art displaying your current or future
company's logo. Also, you can further tailor the look and feel of the
store: several color schemes are possible with the store's background template.
All of this can of course, be updated or edited at any time.
You can even use ebay's product merchandising feature to link individual store
items to specific auction listings, giving you yet another way to cross sell to
your current customers; these additional listings are displayed at checkout,
showcasing goods the customer might not have otherwise been aware of.
A recent feature added by ebay that enhances the effectiveness of
your store, is a monthly report sent to you via e-mail, breaking down the types
of goods sold with dollar amounts, categories sold, etc. The data is
analyzed in different ways, via graphs and 'pie-chart' style figures, helping
you track and analyze your sales trends. Very convenient!
It's not just sellers who will like ebay stores- for casual
bidders and serious collectors alike it's a great resource and addition to ebay.
You can save a favorite store in your "favorites" section of "My ebay", making
it easy to find it again. This is great when you happen to find reliable
sellers, who package items well or consistently sell the types of collectibles
you're always hunting for.
To get a feel for how dealers from different areas group items in
their stores, see our "featured ebay store" box at the top right of this page.
Open your own retail style e-commerce site
Start your OWN auction site! Get pro software here...
