I have a dilemma . . . . Cancel My Store -or- Time Away ?

[mcrowe2002]

I am in a bit of a conundrum.  I have a store with approx 150 items listed right now.  My store subscription ends this Sat, Oct. 31 and will auto renew.  My issue is this . . .  I have a health issue that requires attention and I will not be able to manage, list or sell any items for the next 2+ months.  Should I just cancel my store, put my items in unsold and start it back up when I'm ready -or- should I just put everything on Time Away? I don't want to have to create all new listings once I'm ready to return.  Is paying for a store subscription worth it if I'm not selling anything?  If you can shed some light on the PROS or CONS of each, I would be most appreciative!  I want to think this through and not make a bad decision.  Thanks for the help!

[nobody*s_perfect]

There's no point in paying for a Store subscription for 150 listings, since non-stores get 200 free insertions per month.   Unless there's some other store benefit that makes it worthwhile to you.

Ended listings are available for relist for 90 days, so if you're sure you'll be ready to relist by then, you can just end the listings rather than using "Time Away."  Time Away has a limit of 30 days, so if you use that you'd have to revisit the listings just before the 30 days is up. You could choose to end them then, or activate them briefly and then set up Time Away again.

[wastingtime101]

eBay only stores unsold listings for 90 days on Seller Hub. Will you be back before that? Perhaps you should be looking into a 3rd party listing program that can store your listings offline and give them the fees you would typically pay for an eBay store. With only 150 listings there are probably some very affordable options.

[mr_lincoln]

@mcrowe2002   Some options / suggestions:

1. End 50 of your items before the renewel so you only have 100 and drop the store level to the Basic store (unless you already have that).  Put your store on Vacation the day before your medical sabatical starts and select an end date for when you will return ... Hide all of your fixed priced items and post a message on your store front stating you are away until such and such a time, don't mention the reason.  eBay's Seller Hub Unsold file keeps things for 90 days.

2. End all of your listings and don't renew the store subscription until you return ... eBay's unsold file will retain your listings for 90 days.

3. Run a Promoted Listing campaign 30 days prior to your departure and sell off as much as you can, then close the store until you return ending all of the remaining items.

[mcrowe2002]

Yes, I am hoping to be back by early or mid January.  And, I've already had my store on "time away" for the past two weeks.

[nobody*s_perfect]

@mr_lincoln 

1. Why would they drop 50 of their listings?  All seller levels, even non-stores, get at least 200 free insertions per month.  

eBay no longer has a vacation setting, they have "Time away" which is available to all sellers even those without stores.  TheOP's  Store is already on the "Time away" setting. But it can only be set for a maximum of 30 days.

[wastingtime101]

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@mcrowe2002 wrote:

Yes, I am hoping to be back by early or mid January.  And, I've already had my store on "time away" for the past two weeks.

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If you're sure you'll be back within 90 days, then the easier option will be to end your listings.

[mcrowe2002]

Thoughts on the customer's point of view.....  I have a lot of "watches" on my listings.  Obviously, they don't all turn into sales.  Would I lose all of those by ending the listings?  Would it make a customer mad that they can see the listing but can't make the purchase? 

Ha - am I overthinking it all?

[wastingtime101]

You're overthinking it. Watchers don't necessarily mean buyers. Leaving listings up on time away for 2-3 months will sink them in search and hurt sales when you return unless you did some drastic price reduction (or something) to get yourself a boost. End your listings and "sell similar" when you get back.

There's an option in the away settings to set up an auto-response for buyers who message you while you're away. You can set that up so anybody interested enough to message you will know what's up.

[mcrowe2002]

Great info!  I appreciate your time and effort helping me make this decision.  Thank you so much!

[mcrowe2002]

One more question..... If my store subscription renews on Nov 1, am I correct that I should cancel it on Oct 31 so I don't  incur any penalty fees?

[wastingtime101]

You can cancel it now if you want - it won't take effect until the end of the billing period. You'll still retain the store through the 31st if you cancel today and you won't risk forgetting to cancel it later.

[nobody*s_perfect]

If you downgrade or cancel your subscription, the change takes effect on the first day of the following calendar month.  If you are in the final month of an annual subscription, you can cancel at any time, and the change will be effective on November 1.  IMHO it would be prudent to do it right now, in case there are any glitches. Don't wait until the last minute.

Here's the Stores TOS where you can look up policy details:

http://pages.ebay.com/stores/subscriptionterms.html

[mcrowe2002]

👍

[reabus]

Why have a store if you list 100 to 200 items. no benefit at all. Just cancel store set time away put listings in unsold folder then just (update unsold items & time away if needed, time factor) until ready to start back. Then just relist the unsold items without a store. Don't pay for a store with no benefit. Stores only benefit the folks who list over 200 to thousands of items!