Is having Multiple Stores a benefit if your store is 50% of one category?

[etrader61]

I have a store with an average of 350 items (etrader61 Collectibles). Nearly half are coins, numismatics. The other half is like a department store as I am downsizing my life at 72 years old. After 4 years of monthly and yearly statistics, my sales of non-coins is about 34% and 66% are coins.

Sales are down do to the economy and I wonder as a technique to increase sales overall is to have 2 stores. 

I am a 1 person store so will costs and time spent beat me up? Some of you have multiple stores, is it worth it? Or is better organization, pictures, and so on is what I need to do?

I would love to hear any Pros and Cons on this.

Thank you,

Roger 

[mam98031]

I first like to know what you thing the pros and cons are.

What do you think another store would gain you?  Other than another store fee.

[joseh1445]

If you only have 350 items.  I will not get a second store.  That's just me.  

[mam98031]

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@joseh1445 wrote:

If you only have 350 items.  I will not get a second store.  That's just me.  

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Excellent point.  The cost of a store doesn't really do you any good unless you are going to be listing at least 251 items on a regular basis.  Unless the OP has a bunch of stuff they haven't yet listed and will continue to have that stock to list, splitting things up is not likely a very good idea.

@etrader61   Remember a store does NOT have to be product / category specific.  In fact it is likely a benefit to have the variety.

[chapeau-noir · Accepted solution]

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@etrader61 wrote:

I have a store with an average of 350 items (etrader61 Collectibles). Nearly half are coins, numismatics. The other half is like a department store as I am downsizing my life at 72 years old. After 4 years of monthly and yearly statistics, my sales of non-coins is about 34% and 66% are coins.

Sales are down do to the economy and I wonder as a technique to increase sales overall is to have 2 stores. 

I am a 1 person store so will costs and time spent beat me up? Some of you have multiple stores, is it worth it? Or is better organization, pictures, and so on is what I need to do?

I would love to hear any Pros and Cons on this.

Thank you,

Roger 

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@etrader61   Hi, Roger!  Having multiple stores is no big deal (I sell on multiple platforms and find it hardly more difficult than just one - when I had two stores here for a year or two it was no trouble at all), but I think it would do you a disservice. First off, as has been mentioned, you really don't have enough items to be paying for a second store. Second, I feel there is no need to be segregating markets - I've mostly sold everything in one store (same one I've had for years) save for my clearance store for a while, and have had more than a few people purchase across markets. For instance, for a long time I sold vintage hats (hence my moniker) and books, then bike parts, hats and books - I had more than one customer purchase a hat and a book, or a bike part and a book, once I had someone purchase bike parts and boots I had up. I really don't believe in segregating markets just because of that - just make sure you have good, clear categories set up in your store.

[joseh1445]

@mam98031 

A stupid question?  Why are you always answering questions?  You are always here?  

[powell-memorabilia]

Not sure if you are confusing stores with selling ID’s.  Personally, I’d have one store with the coins, one different selling ID with the department store approach.  That other selling ID will cost nothing.  

But, depends on how long you’ll be decluttering.  If you have listed all of the non-coin items that you have to sell, just let it ride.  If you have two more years of listing odds and ends, set up that new selling ID.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Maybe  your best strategy would be to have two separate selling IDs (each with 250 free insertions per month) and no store subscription at all. Do the math: compare your Store subscription costs over the past 3  months to the amount that you have saved in final value fees. Then if you still want to separate the coins, keep them in the current Store (with that nice 4% savings on FVF rate) and set up a separate new ID for your other items.

[luckythewinner]

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@etrader61 wrote:

I would love to hear any Pros and Cons on this.

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I have 1200 - 1500 items on six selling accounts and I pay ZERO store fees. 

[mam98031]

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@joseh1445 wrote:

@mam98031 

A stupid question?  Why are you always answering questions?  You are always here?  

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It isn't a stupid question.  I sent aside some time around late morning / mid day to pop in and see if I can help with anything.  And then again in the evenings before I go to bed at night.  

I am also a Mentor which is an Ebay volunteer.  I don't work for Ebay, I'm paid nothing by Ebay, I am just in a program of volunteers that come to the Community to help other sellers using my experience and knowledge of the site.

If there is anyone reading this that wants to become a Mentor, just ask, I'll give you the information so you can apply.  It takes a bit of time as they fully vet everyone that comes into the program.  

[mam98031]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@etrader61 wrote:

I would love to hear any Pros and Cons on this.

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I have 1200 - 1500 items on six selling accounts and I pay ZERO store fees. 

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The cons of that would be you could have your FVF lowered by about .90 % if you had a Basic Store.  Which will pay likely pay for the store fee within the month.  And then there are the other benefits of having a store.

[luckythewinner]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@etrader61 wrote:

I would love to hear any Pros and Cons on this.

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I have 1200 - 1500 items on six selling accounts and I pay ZERO store fees. 

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The cons of that would be you could have your FVF lowered by about .90 % if you had a Basic Store.  Which will pay likely pay for the store fee within the month.  And then there are the other benefits of having a store.

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I am a hobby seller with 1200 long tail, low-demand, low-priced items that I sell because I enjoy the music memorabilia niche.

A basic store would not get me 1200 listings, so I would need a premium store. For the fee savings to pay for that premium store, I would have to sell $6000+ a month. I don't even do that in 6 months. 

[ms.rodriguez*]

Bless you if you have the energy at 72 to still do ebay.  Why not get a 2nd ebay account?  I will not give ebay a cent for a store. If I have too, my posting ID will become another selling ID.   A second account should be 250 listings. For some reason, this ID only gets 200 free listings instead of 250. Perhaps that limit is lower because Ebay already knows that I have the other 2 selling IDs.  

Before I get bombarded that it should 250 free listings, I can post a photo where it clearly shows that this ID is entitled to 200 free listings per month.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@luckythewinner wrote: ... A basic store would not get me 1200 listings, so I would need a premium store. .... 

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What category are those memorabilia listed in?  The Basic store subscription includes 1000 free insertions in (almost) any category, plus 10,000 free fixed price insertions in "select categories" which include the Collectibles  and Music categories. Plus 250 free auction-format listings in ten "select" categories including Collectibles.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-fees?id=4809#select

[ednkarens]

Pretend you have two brick and mortar stores right next door to each other.  One store is a coin shop and the other has everything else you want to sell.  If you saw more people going into one store than the other, wouldn't you want those people to visit your other store as well?

For the sellers that have more than one store, I have a question: Does eBay have under Seller Information the name of your other store(s)?  This would be a nice feature for someone with the same ID having more than one store to help people find what other items you sell.  

Another nice feature for the seller with the same ID and multiple stores is if you can promote an item and then direct where you specifically want it to be displayed.  IE: You want to promote a rare coin and you only want it displayed in your other store's listings.  However, expect to get much less views than having it promoted everywhere.