eBay

somethingwhite2016 · ‎05-20-2018

So I decided to open the Starter Store in order to take advantage of what ebay had promised; Better visibilty, 100 free listings, mark down manger, etc. etc.

Over a week passed and I do not have a single sale! It seems like my listings became completly invisible with no views and watchers. That is really and truly a big disappointment.

Unfortunatley I signed up for yearly membership. Othersise I would have cancelled it by now. However if it goes on the way its for another week I will have no choice to close the store and take the penalty and will never look back. Way to go ebay!

treasuresoftime419 · ‎05-20-2018

Stores are just easy projected income for them anymore...
They hardly "care" if you sell anything....they make more $ that way....
I have come to realize it is only a great little carrot they dangle in front of you...

irinahat · ‎05-20-2018

@treasuresoftime419 wrote:
Stores are just easy projected income for them anymore...
They hardly "care" if you sell anything....they make more $ that way....
I have come to realize it is only a great little carrot they dangle in front of you...

Not true. Without my premium store, my listing fees would be absolutely through the roof.
Plus, the perks of having reduced auction/fixed price prices for me is also a life saver.
For me, I've come to realize that the best and the only way to have good visibility and to increase sales is to keep listing.
I make great sales, but then again, I have 1,130 items up right now and I try to list at least 10-20 new items daily.
A lot of my inventory is hard to sell and is stale, plus, many things are in a saturated category, which is why I constantly try to keep finding more stuff to sell. I have some things in my store that have been in my store for 3+ years and some of those things only get 5-10 page views a month.

I also have some stuff that I'll sometimes list for $400-600 and it'll be sold within 10 minutes.

If I had a smaller store, I could see how I'd be struggling because so much of my inventory has not sold in so long, and if I had a store of 100 items or less full of that stuff... I'd be wondering why nothing is selling either. But I've personally witnessed insane jumps in views, bidding wars, and sky rocketing prices happening in my store over some in demand and very popular items I'd haul in after a weekend garage sale run.

Some things would fly off the shelves faster than I could pack them.

It's easy to want to blame everything but the fact that in order to make profit on here, it requires work, price checking, constantly adding to your inventory, constantly keeping your inventory diverse, fresh, and trying to at least have some items in your store that are currently popular and in trend.

orangehound · ‎05-20-2018

@somethingwhite2016 wrote:
So I decided to open the Starter Store in order to take advantage of what ebay had promised; Better visibilty, 100 free listings, mark down manger, etc. etc.

eBay doesn't promise better visibility simply because you have a store (do they??). They just give you some tools that you can use to improve visibility, such as putting things on sale.

lex-talon · ‎05-20-2018

Last week, ebay sent me an offer for a basic store at $4.95 per month. They told me, "You're ready for this." No Thanks.

somethingwhite2016 · ‎05-20-2018

Good for you lx- talon. You did your homework right. I feel just stupid stupid stupid to fall for it.

bradandamber · ‎05-20-2018

We also downgraded to starter store. Sales this time of year are not that great depending on what you sell. We dont care . Will sell what we can and if they want to punish because they gave us this option then so be it. No sales at least 5 bucks a month is less that a Netflix sub. lol

4097x · ‎05-20-2018

I don't know why your sales are dropping, but I opened my "Starter Store" four days ago and it still doesn't work. I've called eBay twice to fix the problem, but as of tonight anyone wishing to search what I am offering in my store will receive the message, "This page does not exist. Please continue to shop on eBay."

At $4.95 per month, you receive 100 free listings, presumably on top of the 50 free listings you receive anyway. That's not a bad deal even if the Store doesn't work. Essentially you're paying five cents per listing on top of the free 50 listings. If ever the Store search does become operative, lumping your items into categories might encourage more sales than you would have received without the Store. It might not be much, but it's something. One extra sale could pay for your Store's subscription for the year.

Maybe eBay will figure out what is going wrong with my particular Store, but if others also are having the same problem, contacting eBay will alert their technicians and maybe they'll get on the stick. EBay's commission is 10% of everything that's sold and it's hard to believe any company would prefer to be complacent for $4.95 per month instead.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎05-20-2018

@4097x wrote: ... you receive 100 free listings, presumably on top of the 50 free listings you receive anyway. ....

No, stores don't get those 50 free insertions. Those are only for sellers who don't have a Store subscription. A seller who chooses a "Starter" store will have a total of 100 free insertions.

4097x · ‎05-20-2018

Thank you for clearing that up. I just started my Store, which doesn't work four days later, and I figured the free 50 insertions I had been receiving each month would be accompanied by the 100 free insertions I received with the Store; that is, 150 insertions for $4.95. Well, I guess it's 10-cents for an extra 50 listings for the next 12 months. I can roll with that, but I'm disappointed no one from eBay thought it appropriate to point that out when they made the offer for me to open the Store. Whatever the case, I wonder if I'll receive a legitimate apology for buying a Store that doesn't work. Some of us still believe in ethics, as well as making money, and now it's time for eBay to shine. Thank you, again.

cargo11 · ‎05-20-2018

NOt only will they not tell you - YOU lose the 50 free listings each month - you may lose the 100, 200, 500 listing promotions as well - since you now have a store. If you were selling in your store there would not be a problem, but if you get less sales in a store then you would have with those 50 listings - THEN, there is a problem.

somethingwhite2016 · ‎05-20-2018

Wow! Boy o boy, I did not know we were not going to even get 50 Extra listings or any free listings that comes up. That makes thing even more heartbreaking.

I did not see it anywhere to be mentioned. The only thing I noticed was greener grass ahead of me by opening this SO called store. So basically I paid to be INVISIBLE and also paid the subscription fees! I just feel terrible and naive . Way to go ebay!

Anyone knows how much the penalty would be to close early this dead end and invisible store?

pauls-parts · ‎05-20-2018

Wow I just checked your listings. I don't know how you can do it selling items as cheap as you do. With the time it takes and the fees. Well keep it up.

lintbrush* · ‎05-20-2018

I have a premium store. I still get free listing offers.

I've seen lots of sellers complaining of very slow sales recently. There are always going to be posts like that. I haven't sold much this month. Some of that's on me; some of it is on the buyers. Spring has sprung - people are out doing activities.

The store is a good thing. It's searchable. It has your own category choices. It offers vacation settings.

While you don't get the free 50, you now have 100 (so an extra 50 for $5). If you didn't have the store, listings over your free 50 would be .35 each. That's $17.50.

It can't sell if it's not listed.