having a shop vs selling without a shop

[jjba6541]

I and my sister are thinking about starting a shop soon Ebay and combining our listings.,,Obviously Ebay Are getting rid of their small time sellers and only giving the shop sellers  more exposure.

Our sales have gone to almost nothing in the last couple of years  from being very happy with our multiple sales. before that,

We are both long time sellers on Ebay being very  disheartebd with sales in the past year,

What are the benfits to changing to a shop.

[jellybirddesigns]

Whether or not you have a shop doesn't matter unless you are selling things that people actually want.

Unlike the old days, when you could just chuck up a listing with average pics and a bit of info, these days are really different.

Buyers are far more savvy and sellers need to have attractive listings that have great pics, good information, good spelling etc.

For me, a shop is more of an investment and it needs fairly constant attention and tweaking to stay "current".

Having a shop with a nice banner and a memorable name/Ebay ID is also a way of branding yourself on the platform.

[chameleon54]

I appreciate your question related to opening a store, but the reason given for having reservations was that your sales are very slow. I took a look at your listings and you have some good items that I thought might sell.  ( I often sell similar items of music collectibles and started out selling records and books ). While your prices are a bit on the high side, they are not silly by any means, your titles and photos are good, but the rest of your listing is not doing it for me.

You put valuable, general item description and information in Seller notes, below condition description where most buyers would not think to look. 

When you go to the general description section where I would expect to find this information, all that is there is a mountain of terms and conditions.. There is also very little information about the condition of the item anywhere. Your stuff is collectible and item description is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING a buyer wants to know.

If your sister / friend has similar items to you, having a bulk quantity of similar listings in a store may help with sales, but tidying up your existing listings and ditching the large number of terms and conditions would have a much bigger impact.

Terms and conditions from one of your listings

I accept returns and Refunds within 30 days of recieving item..Buyer pays return of item..If you are not happy with Item recieved.PLEASE contact me before Ebay .

Payment within Australia via Bank Transfer {Preferred} Or Paypal

Payment out side Australia is paypal

If Free post is offered in listingit is free only within Australia.

I DO POST OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA BUT POSTAGE IS NOT FREE FOR COUNTRIES OUTSIDE AUSTRALIAPostage will be added to final total.Please Note

Postage is slow within Australia and Internationally at this time.please be patient.

Offers..Ebay is entering that offers can be made on products.I dont accept offers ...any that are seen on my items are falsely made by Ebay..I will not respond

.Postage ... Australian Postage ...Free postage only if advertised in ad at top of page...Postage stated does not always include tracking.

International postage..is added to account at end of auction..Stated postage does not always include tracking

[*tippy*toes*]

Open a store, give it 6 months, and see how it goes. If it doesn't turn out to be a viable option, then close it. You won't know unless you try.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

On this ID there is no point as you have sold very little in the last 12 months so you are considered a new seller and may have restrictions. However you have 108 listings so perhaps not.

Once the restrictions are lifted then you need to work out the numbers but as a rule of thumb, to make a store viable you need to list at least 100-200 listings and have a good turnover.

As to exposure, you don't necessarily get anymore with a store than non store accounts.

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What restrictions? They might go back to the 21 day funds hold with PayPal, if it's been more than 12 months since they sold anything, but that would be it. Listing limits and whatnot stay the same, regardless of how long since they sold. If they could previously list 1,000 items, that doesn't go away and revert back to 10, which you seem to imply at times. 

[gumleaf_goodies]

I've been on ebay since 2006, initially as a buyer only, but in 2012, decided to also be a seller. I had good sales on both IDs when ebay were offering those 100 free listings on a regular basis but when they stopped, sales tanked as I only had 40 items listed per ID.

So I took the plunge and started a store, which allows me 600 free listings every month so I never have to worry about paying listing fees. Sales have been pretty good except for the last week or so but even so, will keep the store for now. So as others have suggested, try it for a few months.

You may need to follow chameleon's advice too if what he has written is an indication of the waffle and repetition in your listings. I also think your prices are a little high, but I wouldn't be buying  CDs or records anyway (too many of my own to get rid of), so what would I know?

[digital*ghost]

Free listings, branding and marketing options, slightly lower FVF, and custom store categories (especially if you have items that can cross-promote each other) are the biggest pros of having a store.

Slightly more professional presentation is kind of neutral, in that there's pros and cons (just in my personal experience; YMMV) - you can cultivate a professional image with the additional branding / marketing options, but a lot of people will both treat you like any other "schleb" eBay seller, but still place higher expectations on their dealings with you (i.e ebay is in this weird place where a lot of people remember the older times and everyone was a novice / amateur, and the site's reputation still suffers from that a bit, but online commerce is no longer in its infancy and big box retailers have been on here for years. The kinds of service standards offered [but not always provided] by national retailers are also part of a buyer's expectations, particularly if you present yourself as a store). This (thankfully occasionally) results in the odd experience of some buyers worrying they are buying from their personal stereotype of "typical eBay seller", but expecting to be treated like they've bought from a gold-standard business whose motto is "customer is king", lol. 

Still, some subtle things are definitely implied when your items are framed by a store (eg that you will be more regularly available, that you'll be more consistent and professional etc). [Again, just in my experience]. 

[kopenhagen5]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

On this ID there is no point as you have sold very little in the last 12 months so you are considered a new seller and may have restrictions. However you have 108 listings so perhaps not.

Once the restrictions are lifted then you need to work out the numbers but as a rule of thumb, to make a store viable you need to list at least 100-200 listings and have a good turnover.

As to exposure, you don't necessarily get anymore with a store than non store accounts.

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What restrictions? They might go back to the 21 day funds hold with PayPal, if it's been more than 12 months since they sold anything, but that would be it. Listing limits and whatnot stay the same, regardless of how long since they sold. If they could previously list 1,000 items, that doesn't go away and revert back to 10, which you seem to imply at times. 

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Performance standards can also invoke restrictions/limits. (OP's DSR stars are not showing yet)

If you have more than one seller account, you may be able to raise your eBay seller limits by linking your more established seller account to your new one. If your accounts can be linked, you’ll see that option when you select Request higher selling limits in the Monthly selling limits section of My eBay’s All Selling view.

It’s important to maintain high seller performance. Falling below eBay’s minimum performance standards can cause restrictions to be placed on your account and how much you can sell.

One way to boost your seller performance is to increase your visibility for relevant searches. The best way to increase your relevance is to make use of as many item specifics as you can.

[chameleon54]

Sorry for continuing the critique of your listings, but I think this could make a big difference to sales. 

I used to have a few terms and conditions in my listings eg. a statement about combined post, international post etc. but as time has gone on, I have trimmed my listings down to the absolute bare necessities. I suspect with the rise of mobile phone usage and shorter attention spans these days, buyers just want the nuggets and don't want to mine through a pile of waste to find them.

A lot of this stuff is already covered by ebay settings. eg. 30 day returns, payment options, international postage, postage options etc. 

There's no reason to repeat it all and possibly make up a few of your own which you cant enforce anyway in the listing terms and conditions. It makes the listing look cluttered, like walking into a room packed full of junk and can tend to make sellers look pedantic and difficult to deal with.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@kopenhagen5 wrote:

On this ID there is no point as you have sold very little in the last 12 months so you are considered a new seller and may have restrictions. However you have 108 listings so perhaps not.

Once the restrictions are lifted then you need to work out the numbers but as a rule of thumb, to make a store viable you need to list at least 100-200 listings and have a good turnover.

As to exposure, you don't necessarily get anymore with a store than non store accounts.

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What restrictions? They might go back to the 21 day funds hold with PayPal, if it's been more than 12 months since they sold anything, but that would be it. Listing limits and whatnot stay the same, regardless of how long since they sold. If they could previously list 1,000 items, that doesn't go away and revert back to 10, which you seem to imply at times. 

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Performance standards can also invoke restrictions/limits. (OP's DSR stars are not showing yet)

If you have more than one seller account, you may be able to raise your eBay seller limits by linking your more established seller account to your new one. If your accounts can be linked, you’ll see that option when you select Request higher selling limits in the Monthly selling limits section of My eBay’s All Selling view.

It’s important to maintain high seller performance. Falling below eBay’s minimum performance standards can cause restrictions to be placed on your account and how much you can sell.

One way to boost your seller performance is to increase your visibility for relevant searches. The best way to increase your relevance is to make use of as many item specifics as you can.

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Not having visible stars showing doesn't mean you have fallen below eBay's minimum performance standards. It just means that you haven't had 10 or more buyers give you a star rating within a rolling 12 months. I don't have visible stars on any of my accounts, because most of my buyers don't leave feedback (which I'm happy about). I have not fallen below any standards. I have never had a selling defect.

A lot of low volume sellers don't have visible stars. They are not below standard, they just don't sell very much, or like me, their buyers don't leave feedback or a star rating.

[chameleon54]

I,ve looked further at the listings because I really think your items ARE the stuff buyers want and should be selling. I list similar items at times such as your fanzine magazines, eighties Australian Jukes etc. and they are going well for me. I,m also selling them for similar prices to your total cost, so something is not working here.

My first reaction when looking at your listings was that the prices where slightly high, but then after a lot of further looking, noticed they all offer free postage. Once the postage cost is factored in, the prices are actually generally, very reasonable. Is the free ( included ) postage cost making the listing look too expensive for those who are just scrolling through hundreds of listings on ebays default search ?

I cant answer this one for sure, but it is waving red flags to me.