Quick question about stores

[useless1049]

Hi

I've got a brick and mortar store that sells spare parts. I want to open up an ebay store to broaden our sales. My question is, is it better to first load all the products onto ebay ( as private listings ) and then subscribe to the store and put the items in categories? I know loading items will take weeks and I don't really want to pay the store monthly fee with no stock?

A quick second question - I can't find the difference in price between basic and featured store - are the prices the same? Why would anyone go for basic then?

I really appreciate any help

Jon

[*sparklz*]

Basic and feature store are the same thing now.

Down load Turbo Lister and you can do all your listings there ready to send to ebay when you are ready to open your store.

They will remain there till you delete them.

[Anonymous]

I would open the store first, set up your categories, then check for updates if you are using Turbolister.

Then you can do your listings and you wont have to change them all gain before you upload. Like 30 day and GTC listings you cant do unless you have a store

The first bill from eBay will have your first month store fee and your listing fees and FVF fees. And you will also be billed for the next month in advance also. Also go with the Featured Store, but there many be changes in May with Store subscriptions but some others may know more about that

[useless1049]

Thank you very much for the reply. I'll have a look at turbo lister.

[useless1049]

Thank you for the reply.  I didn't know about being charged in advance for the store. Thank you again for the reply

[davewil1964]

No way would I open the store first. You get charged the $49.95 from the day you open it.

Get your listings set up in TL, then open the store, then upload the TL listings.

Hint: When you install TL go to Tools>Install Complete Version Update. Then set your store up. Then synchronize [sic] TL with your eBay account. This ensures your version of TL is up to date, and synchronises your TL categories with your store categories.

Back up your TL database regularly and check for updates regularly - I'd recommend daily, for both.

[useless1049]

Thank you for the reply - another dumb question. I need to make categories for my listings as there are multiple categories with unique items in each. From my googling it looks like I need to first set up the store categories before using turbo lister? Or can I load my items in turbo lister and then assign them to the correct categories?

[davewil1964]

Open your store. Set your store categories. Synchronize [sic].

If your categories are going to be radically different to the defaults, I would use the defaults. The aim is to get the maximum number of listings visible from day one. After you have your store and TL up and running, THEN tweak the categories. You can change the categories in TL, before uploading, once the store categories are set up. But you have to synchronize [sic] before the store categories become available in TL.

Whatever you do in TL and whatever you do in eBay will be synchronised when you synchronize [sic]. If that makes sense?

Sorry, I can't spell it with a 'z' without a disclaimer that that is not the way I spell it.

[phorum_junkie*]

I open and close my store every year, due to close in a few days until November.

When I re open I have all my listings ready in TL in files named the same as my store categories. I then open the store and once I have updated and synced TL I bulk edit all the listings to change from 7 day to 30 or GTC and then edit each category to move it into the correct store cat.

It only takes about an hour and then I am up and running and getting maximum use of my store fee.

If you don't already have any items ready to list then I would do as above but perhaps open the store once you get about 50 items ready and then add more over time.