Starting eBay Store? Good Idea or Not?

[moxiedrinker]

I am wondering if there is any advantage to starting an eBay Store. Any advice is welcomed!

[tulsarosary-01]

Honestly, probably depends on what you're selling.  If you are selling new items, you will be competing with Amazon and China and they can almost always do it cheaper both for cost of items and shipping.  If you are selling vintage, used or artisan items, you may be in business.  There is a list of top selling categories for ebay that you may wish to consult.  Good luck.

[greatstuff80]

If you are new to ebay, be very aware as a newbie you will be a scam target and ebay does little to help you.  During disputes ebay usually sides with the buyer to spite any thing you may say or do. Read some  of the issues sellers are talking about here. Read and understand ALL the seller rules. Do the seller education stuff. 

Do NOT start with high end , expensive items. Scammers target new sellers offering that. Good luck if you try it. I stopped last year due to all the glitches and wild changes. 

[m60driver]

Depending on your number of listings there might be a financial advantage in having a store.  You will have to do the due diligence and do the math yourself.  Apart from that, having a store allows you to have several categories which can make it easier to manage inventory and does encourage window shopping by potential buyers in those categories, especially advantageous since Ebay, in their infinite lack of wisdom, removed many such listing categories.  You can also create quantity discounts within those categories.  And then there is the quarterly shipping supply coupon which basically pays for one month a quarter for my basic store.  So yes, there can be advantages but only you can make the final decision whether the cost of the store has value to you.

[dhbookds]

Suggest you read up on the various classes of stores.....there are some slight FVF savings on Basic Stores and above.....

But.........Do not open one until you use up your free listings and are able to consistently maintain a higher # of listings...... (my opinion).  Now if you are selling $1000 items, even with 10 listings.......the fvf savings could be worth the cost of the store...........but that's something YOU have to determine........

[heckofagame]

Also remember that you are still limited to your monthly item quantity and sales allotment totals, even if you open a store.

[mybigsale]

@moxiedrinker 

There are some marketing advantages.

1. The easiest way to decide is to make it a purely financial decision.

2. Starting a store does not change your selling limits. Check your selling limits and verify they will not limit the store subscription level you choose.

3. Review the available eBay Store subscription levels. Look at monthly payments and how many free fixed price and auction insertions are included and other eBay rates.

4. Review your current monthly insertion costs and eBay rates.

Compare your current monthly costs with what the costs would be if you had a store subscription.  Choose the lowest level subscription that is saving you money and is large enough to keep you closest to using all the included listings. 

As your store grows, upgrade when you have the need for more included listings (and saves you money in relation to the number of listings you have).

Selling limits | eBay

Choose your subscription level (ebay.com)

[fairdeal*lb]

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@moxiedrinker wrote:

I am wondering if there is any advantage to starting an eBay Store. Any advice is welcomed!

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The following thread should offer some insight:  

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-is-a-Casino-Be-Honest-Do-You-Look-at-Your-NET-PROFITS/m-p...

[uncseniorsportsfan]

If you are only going to be listing auctions - there is no advantage.  You should have a lot more items to list than you are currently listing as well.   Stores work best if you are selling related items or have multiple quantities that attract repeat customers.   You also need to factor in the store subscription fee. 

[coolections]

You only have 57 items so unless you plan to add a couple hundred more items then no need for a store.

[luckythewinner]

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@moxiedrinker wrote:

I am wondering if there is any advantage to starting an eBay Store. Any advice is welcomed!

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eBay has a whole page dedicated to explaining the benefits and costs of an eBay store.

There is no single answer that magically fits every eBay seller.

Each seller must do the math and determine whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

[inhawaii]

It depends on the seller and what you are selling.

You have to work the numbers and figure out if a store is the best thing for you. 

However I can offer this opinion.

Having a store does help sales.

I sell a very wide variety of items.

I often get customers who will buy 2 or 3 totally different items.

A power equipment part, a DVD and some Hawaiian candy.

I know it's not a coincidence. 

They came to me looking for one item and ended up buying others.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

possible financial benefits

I sell coins primarily. Without a store, I paid 12.9% FVF for Coins/Paper Money.

I now subscribe to a "Basic Store Subscription" monthly for $27.99 (cheaper annual but not committing). With my store subscription, I pay 8.8% FVF for coins/paper money, except bullion, which i pay 7%.

I did the math. I need to sell something like $682 per month total transaction value (item, shipping, sales tax) in order to break even on my store subscription. Anything beyond $682 in total sale value, I SAVE money. I did more than $682 this weekend alone. Starting a store was a good financial decision for me. 

I also get marketing, the option for more free listing insertions, shipping materials vouchers, etc. That's all icing... i just wanted to save money on my FVFs because 12.9% was killing me. 8.8% is roughly 2/3 the fee I paid before. Sell $3k/month and I'll save nearly $100 in fees, all for an upfront $27.99 payment monthly. No-brainer!

[uncseniorsportsfan]

I suspect its the candy that keeps them coming back. 

[lepke1979]

Depends. If my math is right, you gotta sell a few thousand a month to break even on final value fee savings each month. But that's also dependant on the categories you sell in I guess.

But you can do markdown sales and coupons. And your "free listings" a month can go up quite a bit. And you get a large number of free listings with media (books, music, movies, and trading cards for instance). Only useful if you sell those though.

The quarterly coupon on shipping supplies is nice. But the supplies themselves are a bit overpriced. But better than nothing I guess. Mixed on if I'd rather the monthly fee be less though. Have gotten a few things I might not normally buy just to have on hand that has come in handy. So I guess it has its place.

Business policies or whatever it's called can also be nice. Pretty sure you need a store to use it. Need to mess with it again. Enabled it a while back then undid it after after a couple hours trying to get things set up right for shipping. Was having trouble with international for some reason and decided to deal with it another time.