Not closing my store

[misslizzysgems]

Oh I got SO angry. I called Ebay every name under the sun. I cursed them, swore at them, and yes, I still think they are money grabbing low lifes.

BUT

There is nowhere on the internet, nowhere, that has the volume and traffic that Ebay does.  And if I close my store, list my average 100-125 goods separately, do that every 7 or 10 days (tedious) and take into account all the other fees attached to auction style listings... guess what.  It's actually marginally to keep the store running even with the fee hike.

I looked into other sites.  No traffic going through any of them.  I thought about my own website.  Too labor intensive, and too expensive... far more than it costs on Ebay.

I will just work harder, rotate my listings more, freshen things up, have regular sales, keep adding new stock.  I can make this work for me and dammit, I will. Ebay is NOT going to get the better of me.

Sleep on this people, sleep on it.  I'm soldiering on.

Take THAT Ebay. I'm not going anywhere.

[surfpopper]

more and more sellers have to adapt, well I think it's at breaking point for a lot of small business sellers. I closed my store today but had the backup of increasing my sales in other areas as well as opening a store elsewhere. Each time ebay put up fees, time after time people try to adapt. THEY ARE GEARING UP TO BE ON EQUAL PAR WITH THE US AND CHARGE YOU 13% FOR THE 1ST $50 THEN ADD PAYPAL 2.9% SO 15.9% FOR THEM. Take into account the unsold items as most people don't sell 100% of items listed. I'm done with them, I will now only sell a couple of items a month. I don't qualify for the free listings as I am a business seller but a small hand made seller.

[e-clearances]

I always try to compare ebay fees to other busineeses you can take your goods to that also auction them for you.  Traditonal auction houses charge you upwards of 20% as a sellers fee as well as charging the buyers a buyers premium of upwards of 22%. So they take 42% of the potential overall value of the sold item.  Even online capable auction businesses like graysonline charge sellers 17% plus buyers premiums up to 15%. Until ebay gets to those sorts of levels then it still good value in my opinion.

[koalablue12]

All valid points, all reasonably thought out, but it is not only the fee's, it is all the extra hoops we need to jump thru - new pic's to be of an acceptable 'quality and uniformity' - rules for 'handling times to keep powerseller and TRS status, do this, do that, eBay is meant be a venue for sellers/buyers, not a bluddy dictatorship. BTW - once you have a domain and w/site in place - not that expensive if you know what you are doing, and you are doing it within your own guidelines and maintaining you own customer base, not marching to the sound of someone elses drum!

[cathy1971]

I was shocked when I heard the store fees were going to double but then I thought about it and I am not going to close my store.

Before when I had a basic store I was paying 40cents per relist and $19.95 for store. When they changed it to Featured for $24.95 and 20cents listing my fees went down. So I really don't think it will change much at all. With the 20cents listing fees it offsets they increase of the monthly store fee so I will be paying approx the same as when I had a basic store. I hope that makes sense.

Cathy

[pomaderris]

Once upon a time ebay was great...

[misslizzysgems]

I like the sound of that... no harm in going to check out BigCommerce really.  Thanks for the tip.

[sbmg2005]

We've been running our own successful website for years and just using ebay to bring in a little extra (just as well because business on ebay has dropped dramically over the last 12-18 months).

It only cost us about $10 per month which includes hosting and we use PayPal for all payments.  Super easy and we're definitely NOT computer wizzes.  I would definitely recommend giving it a go, especially in light of all the new changes coming over the next few months.

[kokomobua]

Actually setting up your own website is not necessarily more expensive than ebay fees.  I ran my own website for five years (closed down last year due to personal reasons) very successfully and cheaply - it got to the point that website sales so outstripped ebay that I gave up ebay completely (just back on here recently to get rid of the last of my stock, but will sell it at the Sunday markets after 15 Sept, for only $15 flat fee).

My original website was custom built and yes, very expensive to set up and maintain, but as I outgrew that web developer (and got a lot smarter about the costs), I switched to  BigCommerce.com.au.

It was really easy to use, (including fully customisable templates) and much cheaper than ebay fees, once you took into account listing and FVF fees.  There is a flat monthly fee for the Bigcommerce set-up which includes the hosting. You don't even have to go the merchant account/gateway if you don't want to, as the shopping cart can be fully integrated with paypal.

I am sure there are more website systems out there like that, but Bigcommerce worked really well for me.

Should also have mentioned that they have a free 15 day trial so you can trial all of the features before committing.  And no, I'm not affiliated in any way, just a satisfied customer.

[kokomobua]

We've been running our own successful website for years and just using ebay to bring in a little extra (just as well because business on ebay has dropped dramically over the last 12-18 months).

It only cost us about $10 per month which includes hosting and we use PayPal for all payments.  Super easy and we're definitely NOT computer wizzes.  I would definitely recommend giving it a go, especially in light of all the new changes coming over the next few months.

Which set-up did you use, sbmg?  $10 a month is super cheap.

[flashback_deals]

I know it's not the same for everyone, but although I'm a small seller I have always approached it from a business perspective - if eBay keep making changes that either force me to grow my business or get out, I'm going to go with the first option every time, for as long as I can.

Just like a shopfront store, sometimes you gotta move with the times and when it happens, you may have to do a bit of adjusting in how you sell, especially as a smaller seller.

ebay is known worldwide pretty much, quicksales is more aussie recognised, but the traffic is still very slow and $5 for a store there is all its worth. eBay has the traffic and is still way cheaper than a shopfront store and if you have no limits, you can list millions of items in a $50 store if you want

As much as it impacts on me as a hobby seller, I will keep pushing on - when the tough gets going, the going gets tough