eBay Store

[mol_1357]

Hi All, 

I was wondering if I can open an eBay store for certain items and list certain items in the store and also keep certain items outside the store, or have two stores?  My thought is to open one that specializes in selling certain items and brand it as such.  At the moment I sell a wide variety of items.  I'd like to keep things not related to the theme of my store separate from it.  Thanks

[bigdeals.etc]

Unfortunately no. You are unable to not have listings part of your store if you open one up. And there is a maximum of 1 store per ebay account. If you want two stores, you'll need to register two accounts. I know, it's a pain. That's exactly what I had to do years ago.

[judydu2]

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@mol_1357 wrote:

Hi All, 

I was wondering if I can open an eBay store for certain items and list certain items in the store and also keep certain items outside the store, or have two stores?  My thought is to open one that specializes in selling certain items and brand it as such.  At the moment I sell a wide variety of items.  I'd like to keep things not related to the theme of my store separate from it.  Thanks

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With a store subscription, (depending on which level you chose), in addition to your set number of "free" fixed price listings, you also get a number of "free" auctions, but only in certain categories. If you wanted to try that, you could use the fixed price listings for some items, and auctions for others, if they can be listed in the categories offered.

Two stores may be the answer though, if you don't want to mess with auctions. Two stores should help to keep your inventory branded and separated.

Best of luck to you.

[mam98031]

While you can have multiple stores, you also have to have multiple IDs.  One store per ID.  So it can become cumbersome to keep things straight.  Listings and emails.  You have to be prepared for that.  While your name and physical address can remain the same across multiple IDs, you have to have a different email address for all of them.  It can become complicated.

But before you go down that road, lets see if this is even necessary for you.  A store has a lot of categories you can set up inside the store to help keep things separated.  The higher the store level the more functionality you get.

So about how many listings are you considering running on the average month overall?

How many different categories are you thinking of?  Not Ebay categories, your categories that you want to split your inventory by.

What items do you want to keep "outside a store"?  And why?

[pargran3]

Excellent questions.

Radine

[bigdeals.etc]

I don't know about the OP, but for me when I needed to do this... it was when I started to get into the vaping accessories business. I didn't want those items intermingled with toys that I sold as well as women's undergarments. I wanted to keep each of them on separate entities.

[chapeau-noir]

I just sell everything in one big pile. I just opened a little starter store for clearance, but it's still just one big pile, just one big cheap pile, that's all.

[mam98031]

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

I don't know about the OP, but for me when I needed to do this... it was when I started to get into the vaping accessories business. I didn't want those items intermingled with toys that I sold as well as women's undergarments. I wanted to keep each of them on separate entities.

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I think that is a bit unique and would have to agree that would be better branched off to its own store.

But normally there isn't a real need to do that.  I tried it for a long time and was just creating work for myself with multiple stores.  

[bigdeals.etc]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@bigdeals.etc wrote:

I don't know about the OP, but for me when I needed to do this... it was when I started to get into the vaping accessories business. I didn't want those items intermingled with toys that I sold as well as women's undergarments. I wanted to keep each of them on separate entities.

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I think that is a bit unique and would have to agree that would be better branched off to its own store.

But normally there isn't a real need to do that.  I tried it for a long time and was just creating work for myself with multiple stores.  

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Yes by experience I totally agree with you. Juggling multiple entities is no easy feat. Usually in my business I always try to consolidate my work to make it more manageable, not split it apart. Multi-tasking is never fun and often not needed.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

Whatever you decide be sure to read all the rules and such before agreeing to anything. If you choose the yearly rate keep in mind ebay will charge you if you ever try to downgrade your store to a lower cost one or if you close it. They are dead serious about locking you down to get the better price. If you arent going to list a high number of items and save a ton of insertion fees there is no real benefit to having a store. Other than the number of free listings you get the advantages to having a store now a days is just minimal at best.

[mam98031]

Speaking for myself only.  I enjoy having a store far beyond the allotment of listings allowed for free within the level of store.

I like having a vaca setting.

I use my shipping coupon each quarter and they do save me money on shipping supplies even though Ebay's are overpriced.  I can get enough that it benefits my budget.

I like having access to the Markdown manager so I can run sales.

I especially like the reduced FVF rate I get vs not having a store.

I use the lower listing fee sometimes when I go over my monthly allotment of listings included in the store price.

And I like my store front.

I'm sure I missed something.  But for me having a store is a good value.  I respect that for others they may not see it the way I do.

[bigdeals.etc]

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[krys888]

I chose to do a branded store for the same reason. I had a second one for everything else. That lasted a few months tops. I decided to stick to my branded store and ended up dropping the other one. I’m glad I went with a branded store (all dolls & doll clothes & accessories; I chose My Doll Mall as the store name) because, yes, when followers or buyers come to my store, all the items are related and I get a lot of multiple item orders as a result. And, as one commenter said, I really like the vacation option. We travel a few days at a time about once a month or so and it makes all the difference in the world being able to just set that puppy and go! Plus, its nice not to worry about listing limits. (Ebay gives us plenty of other irritations and issues to deal with, but at least I can list as much as I want — I’ve never had 500 items in a month, but definitely more than 50.) 

[krys888]

I want to add to my comment (ran out of time to edit) that when I do go to a store that has a gob of mixed items and I don’t want to scroll through all that HOPING to find more items in the category I’m looking at, I use the filter option on the store that lets me just see items in that category. Otherwise, I would totally lose interest and tire of the scrolling and hunting. I’m assuming most everyone does that filter thing.

That said, I won’t follow someone with a gob of mixed items because I don’t want all that other stuff in my feed. I just want to see the category or categories of items I’m interested in; if that makes sense? 

[bigdeals.etc]

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@krys888 wrote:

I want to add to my comment (ran out of time to edit) that when I do go to a store that has a gob of mixed items and I don’t want to scroll through all that HOPING to find more items in the category I’m looking at, I use the filter option on the store that lets me just see items in that category. Otherwise, I would totally lose interest and tire of the scrolling and hunting. I’m assuming most everyone does that filter thing.

That said, I won’t follow someone with a gob of mixed items because I don’t want all that other stuff in my feed. I just want to see the category or categories of items I’m interested in; if that makes sense? 

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Then there's those seller's who have a store and the only store category in their store is "Other" and it has thousands of listings in it. Ha ha.