Setting up a basic ebay store opinions?

[sellitcheap2011]

Hi! I have been running my eBay store selling my rope halters, lead ropes and horseshoe dreamcatchers for round about a year. On average I sell about $80 worth of stock each month (not including how much I need to deduct from the amount spent on materials or eBay's fees). 

I have been thinking about for a while about setting up a basic eBay store (what I can afford haha), they do charge less final fees, a lot more free fixed price listings, I won't use the auction because my products have a set price. I just would like to know if a basic store is worth it for me? I love the idea of people seeing my page and everything looks very professional, it's easier to purchase with a selection of choices too not to mention my own URL. 

Obviously, I am going to increase the number of listings I have, but will the amount I sell be enough to pay for the basic store fees + PayPal etc 

Opinions please! might set up in January :))

[brerrabbit585]

Ebay took down a listing of mine for offering a choice - same item, same price, just different colours/patterns. They gave me a violation and a link to their tutorial on choice listings.

I was wrong about getting defects for late postage but OP leaves herself/himself wide open to Item Not Received claims if their handling time isn't extended.

[chameleon54]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
You've got more than 40 listings so you either get some of the promotions for extra listings or you're using auto-relist on your listings. This means you can get a lot more listings without needing to have a store.

My suggestion is that if you can get enough listings that you aren't paying listing fees, don't open a store until you're paying more in fees than you would if you had a store. Forget about the fact that it might look more professional to have a store - note I said might! You can look just as professional without having a store.

People want to see the product, nothing else. Having your own URL isn't going to make things sell, nor is a fancy template. It might give you a warm glow but it makes absolutely no difference to buyers! Buyers can easily click on your other items and see what you have without needing store categories.

My store listings look no different to my listings on my non-store ID. Forget fancy templates that detract/distract from the product. I make sure I have clear pictures (some need updating) and a good description so they know what they're buying. Anything else is window dressing and completely unnecessary, and in many cases all it does is annoy buyers.

As for stores paying less in final value fees, I worked out that the exact same $12 item on my non-store ID would cost me 6c more in fees - big deal! I'd have to sell 457 items a month before I saved any money in selling fees by opening a store on that ID. I sell in crafts which comes under collectables for fee purposes and it's only half a percent less for a store. A lot of other categories have higher fees than the standard ones so check out the list of categories.

---

What rabbit said, - Plus, Many people believe that listing visibility can be affected by opening a  store.  While different peoples experience with this varies, I am pretty confident that non store holders sales are not regulated in the same way as some stores. ie. visibility for non stores is purely based on the popularity of items, selling history, sell through rates etc. without any further " infuences ".

Personally I wouldnt be opening a store unless you have major expansion plans and have a popular product line that is already showing consistent sales which could be built on with an expanded product range. I havnt looked at your listings and sales -  you may already have this in place.

Your idea of starting a store to present a more proffesional image and grow a business is a worthwhile objective.

[digital*ghost]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
Ebay took down a listing of mine for offering a choice - same item, same price, just different colours/patterns. They gave me a violation and a link to their tutorial on choice listings.

---

That doesn't surprise me, but by their original definition that would not have been a choice listing, either. 

[brerrabbit585]

According to the information in their tutorial it definitely was a choice listing. I don't know why they ban them though because multi-variant listings have the same function, except that they save buyers having to contact the seller, which many can't be bothered doing and will move on to another seller.

[digital*ghost]

I'm only posting this so you know I'm not crazy, or talking out of my behind... 

You can see it's from the old school version of the help pages - it actually only refers to colour, for non-customisable items, too, so I may have been wrong re: different sizes.