New store subscriptions in Feb

[jellybirddesigns]

I recently got the Ebay email about the new level of store subscriptions changing on the 14th of Feb.

I currently have a featured store for $49.95 with 300 products in stock but if I read the info correctly, I would be better moving down to the basic store which costs $24.95 and gives 600 listings.

Do you think we will we have to do the change manually on the day (or the day before)?

[pennyforum14]

Your featured store only goes up by $5 a month and you get lower FVF for that, plus 1500 listings free each month.  I guess if you don't need the extra listings, you could drop to the basic store with 600 free listings, but you'd need to work out whether the $25 a month you would save is worth the extra FVF.  It will depend on how much you sell each month. 

[clarry100]

I made up a spreadsheet to compare stores and non-stores.

You need to enter in some basic data about how many listings, average sale price, average number of sales. etc etc

You can tinker around with the inputs to find break points and the like.

For us the difference between Basic and Feature is minimal. Barely in favour of basic.

Anyone wants a copy to try out let me know. It's in an old Excel 2003 but should still work on later versions.

[jfmgray]

I also have a featured store but have over 1000 listings and will use the 1500 free listings (new and relists) each month.  The changes work out good for me to stay featured.  However your lower volume might suggest a basic store will work out cheaper, but it depends on your sale volume and average sale price (10% lower FVF for a featured store).  eBay already have a store comparison tool - worth a try but it is not yet updated for the February changes.

http://www.fees.ebay.com.au/feeweb/feeillustrator

[digital*ghost]

With 300 listings, either store subscription will provide enough free listings, so you just have to look at the turnover. 

The difference in FVF for your categories (from memory) is 0.95%, and a featured store costs $30 more than a basic store, which means in order for you to save money with a featured store, your turnover needs to average in excess of $3150 per month. 

[jellybirddesigns]

Thanks Digi, that's an excellent analysis.

It seems like I'll be better off going down to the Basic option when the time comes.

[chameleon54]

Theres known knowns, known unknowns and then theres unknown unknows. .................

My concern is the way ebay treats differtent classes of cuistomers. Customers with non store, 40 free listing accounts seem to get reasonably high visibility in searches. ( thats a known )  Store customers visibility is heavily controlled by Cassini. Stores with higher sell through rate get higher search standings than low sell through rate stores ( another known ).

What is an unknown unknown is wether Cassini rates stores based on thier status as  basic or featured. Another unknown unknown is ebays future plans for sellers. Will it faze out smaller sellers and smaller stores over time ( using search results ) or wont it make any difference ??? Will store catagory make any difference or will it simply be based on total turnover and sell through rate ????

I have a two featured stores. One is a huge winner from the changes, the other would be better revised down to basic under the new set up, but I have concerns it may affect my listing visibility.

[chameleon54]

Faze ??? Phase   oops.