IMO websites only work for rare hard to get items, unless you have those, you're best to leave your generic items on ebay. Another note - websites have far less traffic than the other ebay styled site and we all know how much traffic that place gets.

You're exactly right!

To be successful in your own online store you need to find a product range that is a specialty niche.

Buyers need to have a reason to visit your website as opposed to just buying from ebay if the price is the same. They must benefit somehow over the ebay competition. Offering a lower price or some other incentive can attract them to your store instead.

The other issue is with buyer protection. On ebay the buyers are treated like royalty and have multiple avenues protecting them from fraud or returning items. In your own store it can be a challenge to convince buyers to have the same level of trust that the ebay brand has already built up.

It also needs to be worth your while, if you are usually selling small low priced items then your own store is likely not worth it because it will be difficult to generate the same volume of sales that you do with the small items on ebay.

You need to ensure the items you are selling are higher priced items with a good profit margin. This way if you only sell say 5 items a week, then these 5 items bring enough profit to be worthwhile. 5 items with $2 profit margin on each is obviously not sustainable.

Good luck everyone