Store vs No Store

[vintagetreasure86]

Hello everyone...

I am selling in a very niche market and generally doing pretty well...smile... I have been doing auctions with them automatically relisting and reducing price occasionally... 

Currently I do not have a store, thinking about doing a basic one... my thought is that my items would display better and would have a vacation option for message and to hide any fixed listings I might have... and to uncheck box to automatically relist items for auctions... 

When I am reading online I am seeing lots of posts about eBayers having a store and then going back to no store... and so I am wondering...it makes me rethink the idea of a store...and also see that if you have a store and go back to no store that selling seems to drop off...almost like there is something that is being done behind eBays scenes so listings do not show as well... ? anyway...appreciate some input and thoughts from others who have stores or not, and who may have had one and then changed back to no store and the reasoning...smile...thank you so much... I look forward to hearing from any of you who would like to offer some input...smile...take care... 

[mr_lincoln]

@vintagetreasure86   Food for thought on Stores:

1. What is your "average" sale amount?  I waited until my "average" sale was at or above the monthly store fee and then opened the store.  At the time it meant one "average" sale per month paid the store fee.  When eBay started offering $ 25 per quarter for branded supplies it meant $ 25 off the quarterly store fee cost (that's the way I chose to look at it.

2. You can "test drive" a store by going month to month opposed to committing to a full year.  It will cost a little more but will give you flexibility if it turns out you don't want a store.

3. If someone finds one of your items and selects "See other items" they are NOT put in to your store, they are shown a list of all that you sell.  If they select "Visit store" they will be placed on your Store's home page (if memory serves).  All the store does is organize your items in to Store Categories (that you create).

4. You will pay less in FVFs as a Store owner.

[vintagetreasure86]

Thank you for your post...a starter store fee is low... so not concerned about price...more concerned about if it will really be a benefit... and if I decide I do not want one and change back, will my SEO not be as good... so many stories out there and not sure what to think...smile... so benefits in your thoughts are less final value fee and organizing your store better... and of course I like the vacation hold and hide listings feature... do you have any experience with that? again reading many stories how it does not help or did not work etc...smile...appreciate any thoughts...much appreciated...smile... also if I open a store and choose a different name for the store than my user id, will that hurt traffic that already knows how to find me? have a couple of watchers...thinking name needs to be the same as my user id for SEO purposes... all of the fee info out there seems confusing to me...smile... again,appreciate your thoughts...thank you...smile...

[lamber9347]

@vintagetreasure86 - Here is my personal take on this subject. 

I started selling back around 1998 and never intended to have a store. Over the years I slowly increased my sales. I'm always looking for opportunities to save money, I'm a huge cheapskate.  I started tracking my items sold, my individual listing fees, my FVF's, PayPal fees, etc. 

Then I compared what they would have been with a store and immediately I could see that it was cheaper for me to have a store listing. At first I only signed up for a monthly store, but again I looked at the offer to have a store for a full year for another discount and I signed up then. I have had a store now for many, many years. I allow it to renew every year and I have no regrets. 

I do not work and I travel quite a bit. With a store I can utilize the vacation option very easily. Sometimes I leave for long weekends and Ican easily stop my sales. Everyone has their own theories on having a store but I am quite in favor of one. It was my best option and has saved me money. I don't have to add up how many listings I have left as I use the middle store. Plenty of listings for me to use. 

When they went to all fixed listings it was a no brainer for me, no stress, no worries about going over any limits. Just imagine how much easier those transitions were for me as compared to others. So all I can tell you other than my experiences is to do some math and have a good look at your fees. Then you can better decide if it's a good option for you or not. Take others advice but make sure that it will work for you personally, then you can decide. Best of luck to you.... 

[clemowbooks]

You have two items listed and it doesn't look as if you often have more.

You get 200 Free Listings now without a Store.

This is a recent change from 50 Free Listings.

Why spend $25 a month to list two items?

With only (or ten or 100) items at a given time, you can if you want to close for a few days or months, you can just end your active auction listings that do not have bids, and they will go to your Unsold Items List for 60 days.

When you get back , you can relist them with a single click.

Any watchers will be notified when those items are relisted by the way which might ginger them up a bit.

You would do better having all your available products listed all the time.  If you browsing customer doesn't like the first thing he sees, he may like one of the other 25 or whatever that you currently have sitting on the shelf unlisted and invisible.

if you have a store and go back to no store that selling seems to drop off...almost like there is something that is being done behind eBays scenes so listings do not show as well... ?

People come to the Boards because they are having problems.

It is equally likely that the seller dropped the Store because he didn't have enough sales to support the $25 subscription.

The rise from 50 Free Listings to 200 Free Listings may have made a difference to some small sellers with less than 200 items for sale.

 I have opinions about the uselessness of Auctions too, but Collectibles is one category where they do seem to work.

[slippinjimmy]

A Starter Store won't do much for you, you get 250 free listings instead of 200 and you can "roll your own" vacation settings for Fixed Price by utilizing the Out Of Stock option without a Store (not quite the same but close). You do NOT get any reduction in Final Value Fees for a Starter Store (Only Basic and higher).

Based on your sales in August from what I can see you sold enough to warrant and pay for a Basic Store, depending on the category you list in you will save at LEAST 0.85% on FVF's. You also get a lot more listings but there is a downside, as a non-store seller you can use your free listings for Fixed Price or Auction in just about any category. With a Store the free listings are for Fixed Price with bonus free Auction listings in selected categories. Toys are on the list BUT only the sub-category Collectible Card Games, your trains stuff would not qualify so if you want to continue with Auctions you'll have to pay extra for them if you have a Store.

Stores are really designed for sellers who list with Fixed Price (plus the lucky sellers who can actually use the Auction categories) with enough sales volume to mostly cover the cost of the Store with the FVF discount.

A Store is also helpful if you run thousands of listings and want to more easily separate them for the ease of buyers by creating your own custom categories.

There are other benefits such as the ability to do promotions etc. but for most people the bottom line is can I save money or can I list more with no additional cost.

It is definitely NOT a magic thing that increases your visibility and sales.

[clemowbooks]

also if I open a store and choose a different name for the store than my user id,

With the exception of a few returning customers who have you on their Watch List, I doubt many Search by seller name or store name.

It's actually quite difficult to do that.

Searches are mainly of titles, followed by Item Specifics and then from Descriptions.

On one of my IDs, I suddenly realized that ID was also to name I gave 20 years ago to my Store on another ID.  So don't worry about it.

And fees:

I used to have a nice chart from eBayCanada that gave the fees very clearly but it seems to have disappeared.

This is more confusing but...

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling-fees/store-fees?id=4122

[vintagetreasure86]

Thank you for your comments... I had around 18 to 20 and unchecked the auto relist  box so they would run out as am headed out of town... I am a very niche market and things generally sell really well... many of them...not all of course...

I do wonder if a store would help display items better... so if I have 20 or 30 items that they can then see other items more easily in case there is interest...

With regard to your comment... With only (or ten or 100) items at a given time, you can if you want to close for a few days or months, you can just end your active auction listings that do not have bids, and they will go to your Unsold Items List for 60 days. When you get back , you can relist them with a single click....when I look at ending listing these are the reasons...

The item is no longer available for sale.
There was an error in the listing.
There was an error in starting price, Buy It Now price, or reserve price.
The item was lost or broken.

What would I choose... there is nothing for vacation unfortunately... and have read that eBay might not like a seller ending listings... that it could cause a flag if done often... and cause some sort of penalty?  which of course would not want to have...

I was thinking of a starter store to help display items better and do a vacation hold and hide listings... as I do travel a lot... 

Appreciate your thoughts...thank you so much...smile...

[vintagetreasure86]

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments... while I did not respond to all of them individually there were pearls of wisdom in each of them...smile... so thank you so much... smile...and take care... 

[clemowbooks]

The item is no longer available for sale.

Would be my choice.

It's the closest to the situation given a very short list.

EBay does not like Auctions with bids ended and have penalties for that.

Otherwise.

Meh.

Basically what eBay watches for is the seller who gets a decent bid on an auction, then ends it and sells to the high bidder-- and doesn't pay any fees to eBay.

With Fixed Price, this is unlikely.

The seller has a price the buyer can pay immediately, and often has Best Offer available.

With Best Offer the seller can even set an "always accept" and a "never accept"  and never have to talk to the customer at all.