Item catogories without a store?

[clubesquire]

I think I’m asking the obvious, but nonetheless I’m going to ask, because of the wealth of info here 🙂

It appears not possible to have item categories unless I take out a store subscription. Am I right? If so, is there otherwise any way of keeping certain listings grouped together?

I see the benefits of a store, especially if you have diversified listings that number above 100, but it’s just more important than ever to consider the costs here these days. I’m even considering standalone shopify - driving traffic may be a deal breaker there though. But, traffic here can be very fickle too at times, and certainly it’s very competitive.

Any help, or suggestions at all will be of benefit to me at this time guys. Please don’t assume I know anything. What I do know has all emanated from here anyway.

Just a bit of background. We can diversify immediately and long term with items such as, pipes, pipe accessories, lighters, pocket knives, hunting knives, coins - antique and otherwise, chiming mantle clocks, antique radios, all manner of memorabilia, photographic art, car and bike accessoriesand so the list goes on. Within that mix would be a garage full of normal everyday household, hobby and enthusiast  items that we no longer have a use for. We would certainly maintain listings above 100.

We own the domain REMOVED and it’s a registered business name. We need to think about using it, or somehow incorporating it within Club Esquire. REMOVED is ultimately what we become - meaning that we sell all sorts of ‘stuff’. I’m wary of making too much of this public at the moment, but I can’t expect your suggestions without giving you at least some background, and it’s the opinions and direction of some in these forums that I value above most all.

Whats your thoughts please folks?

Mel.

[kopenhagen5]

Without a store your items will still show in the seperate categories they are listed in to the left in the margin.

To see this select your eBay ID then at the top items for sale and you will see how buyers see it.

At present you only have 9 in collectables.

Select mine and you will see the different categories appear.

Keep in mind with a name change that you are already known as clubesquire by previous buyers and watchers.

[digital*ghost]

A store will give you more marketing and branding potential (it will also allow you to keep your user name, and name the store something different - i.e. you could name the store "Stuffology", if not already taken, and retain cubesquire as your user name.

100 items is a ball park figure but not set in stone, you have to do the math based on your average number of listings, the category (or categories) you list in, and the average sales + selling price. (eg A store could save a seller a bunch on fees even if they only list and sell one item, due to final value fee breaks, though in collectible categories, the fee break is minimal). Of course, above a certain number of listings, a store is the most cost effective way to go regardless, just in saving listing fees (at $1.50 per 30 days, if you have 55 or more individual listings on a continual basis, you'll want a store). 

[brerrabbit585]

It depends what you mean by grouped together. I often list items with a similar theme together (at the same time) but of course ebay can advertise your items on your other listings so people only see one of them on its own.

At least if they look at your other items all the similarly themed ones will be together if they're sorting by newly listed or ending soonest. A friend of mine used to sell one particular product and she used to list a different brand each day so they were all together. The brands she didn't have enough of to warrant their own day all got listed together on one day. You might have to end and relist some listings to get them in the order you want but once you have them all together in their groups you just wait for the right day to do any new listings.

If you have enough characters in the title to do it you could make sure everything that comes under a particular theme has the same keywords in the title, so long as they're relevant to the listing, which they should be, eg. smoking paraphenalia could all have one or two keywords in the title that covers every item related to it. You know your terminology/items better than me but if you've got the relevant words in the title you can say in the description "if you want to see my other .... items, click on the link to my other items and then type .... into the search box".  They may come up in a search if those words are in the description anyway.

I'd be a little bit wary of putting everything on the one ID if you have a big range of valuable collectables as people will get your address when they buy from you. I'd perhaps have more than one ID that specialises in a specific area. I know you'd lose the benefits of combined post but a lot of collectors are very specific in what they collect and wouldn't buy from more than one category at a time anyway.

I've only got 400 listings at the moment and I've been considering ditching the store and just using the 40 monthly freebies, but I have auto relist and I can do 40 a month that run for 9 months. I think you said previously you don't have auto relist, or that you'd lost it, so I'd say a store may be worthwhile for you, but you need to do your sums. $330 a year might not be much to some people but it's a lot of you don't actually need a store. All craft items come under collectables and I pay 9.5% plus GST in final value fees. I worked out that I only save 5c in fvf's on a $10 item (+$2.50 post) by having a store, but it costs me extra for the store.

For some sellers their store categories aren't all that much different to ebay's categories but it depends what you sell.

I would ask a mod to remove the word you've put in that you want to use because if you don't, someone reading here might grab it before you can use it.  Just because it's a registered business name may not stop them from being able to use it as a store name on ebay (or a username), and you don't need the hassle of getting them to change it anyway.

[clubesquire]

Thanks guys 🙂

Melina.

[gumleaf_goodies]

A discussion of the cost of a store and the savings in fees associated with it came up the other day with a friend. When I pointed out that ebay have so many free listings available these days to non-store sellers, it becomes hard to see the advantage of a store, particularly when monthly profit after FVFs is in the range of $200 per month per ID as mine is. I have two IDs currently each with over 400 items, and these cover a wide range of categories (one has items in 17 categories the other 15 categories - although the majority of items fall into 3 or 4), and I honestly cannot see the advantage of having a store on either of them.

 Yes, you have to be organised to take advantage of these sort of offers, but they come up so regularly that I haven't had to pay listing fees for years. 

[digital*ghost]

I agree if the cost of listing is the only benefit a store has to someone, a store may not be appealing, but it also depends on whether the seller has use for the other tools eBay provide with a store, but clubesquire has a business account, and may not get a lot of the promotions non-business accounts do. Plus, it also depends on how consistent they want to be with their listings, and where they want to spend their time (holding out for promotions, ending listings, relisting, losing watchers, and / or sales history, is not an effective use of time for some sellers, though it can depend on the inventory - the more multiple quantity items (as opposed to one-off items) a seller has, the more likely a store sub will provide more benefits. At $25(?) a month and 600 free listings, it can be worth it to just keep things consistent. 

The seller-created categories are actually an excellent marketing tool if you have the kind of items people like to spend some time just browsing and seeing what you've got. They can be more specific than eBay's categories, and cater to how buyers actually like to refine the items they are looking at. You can also have a "clearance" category, or a "new arrivals" category, or a host of other interesting, attention grabbing categories. (Years ago, I kinda wanted to open an ugly clothing store - just imagine the fun I could have had naming store categories for that....  ) 

The store front banner also allows you to put your name front and centre, and be remembered as "Really Interesting Store" rather than "some seller on eBay". Store names are more likely to be googled for alternative (i.e. off-eBay) options than member names, which are barely noticeable. You have more customisable options, which allow for more marketing / branding options.