The following guest post is brought to us by the Internet Marketing Center, which can be found at: www.internetmarketing.com
When you hear the word eBay, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s just a place to offload all your unwanted junk for a few extra dollars. And yes, eBay is great for selling CDs you don’t listen to anymore or that t-shirt you never wore, but it’s also so much more.
Anyone who has used eBay knows that auction sales (the cornerstone of the original eBay concept) are just the tip of the iceberg. Sellers can also list their items for a fixed price, sell from a store, take out a classified ad, or just about any other sales process you can think of. eBay really is like a giant online mall… offering any manner of products in any number of ways.
But why should you care? Especially if you already have a working website.
Well, having a sales website is a bit like owning a shop in the center of Manhattan. You’re smack-bang in the hub of activity, and there’s certainly a constant flow of high volume traffic around you… but how many of those people are there with the specific purpose of wanting to buy your product?
Not that many, unfortunately. Most people are just going about their daily business… often with no thought at all about making a purchase.
However, if your store was in a mall near other shops, there may be fewer people walking by, but those shoppers are at the mall specifically to buy
And if your store is near other shops that complement yours, then the people walking by are even more likely to want what you’re selling.
The same is true online. Think of eBay as a mall. The people who visit eBay are looking for something to purchase, so they’re already in the right frame of mind to potentially buy your product.
It makes sense to have your item appear before this targeted traffic of people who want to spend their money, doesn’t it?
Of course, eBay isn’t free. There are fees involved, as well as the time it will take you to set up and manage your eBay presence. And eBay frequently changes its policies as well, so you need to make sure you find the right way of selling your items to make your time and cash investment worthwhile.
If you’re new to the site, it can be a bit overwhelming to navigate through the various options, but opening an eBay Store is one of the best ways for you to move your sales onto eBay with the least amount of time and hassle.
12 reasons to open an eBay Store
eBay Stores (as opposed to a standard auction listing, for example) allow sellers to show all their listings at once and establish a business identity through customized pages. Most eBay Stores include store inventory items — fixed-price items not available in regular auction listings on eBay.
With an eBay Store, you can offer a whole selection of products in one place, which makes it easier to manage.
There are three tiers of Stores, depending on the features you want and the amount of merchandise you have: Basic, Featured, and Anchor.
Here’s why an eBay Store is likely the best choice for you:
- Less work than auction listings: Once you have your eBay Store set up, your items can remain for sale until you take them off. This means you don’t have to worry about auctions coming to a close or relisting products time and again.
Opening an eBay store can save you time with special features, such as automatic relisting of unsold items. You can set your Store Inventory listings to last for longer durations, including 30, 60, 90, 120 days or “Good ’til Cancelled.” These listings automatically renew upon auction close if the item doesn’t sell.
- A fixed (and personal) URL address on the Internet: With an eBay Store you get a permanent URL that you can link to from your main website, blog, or homepage. This is a great way
to drive traffic to your listings. - Lower selling costs: You’ll save money on listing fees by running an eBay Store. Relevant fixed-price store listings cost $0.03 per listing per month with Gallery image. Here’s a link to all the fees: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html.
- Sales reports and traffic reports: You have access to reports that tell you what keywords buyers use to find your store, what pages they view, and more.
- Accounting Assistant: Lets you export transactional information to QuickBooks for easy accounting… a great time saver.
- Help Line: Dedicated phone support from live eBay representatives.
- Sales management tools: Selling Manager (Basic) and Selling Manager Pro (Featured and Anchor) help you save time, improve customer satisfaction,
and scale your business as you become more popular. - Repeat Customers: The personalized and more permanent nature of your store also helps you keep those customers coming back for more, and repeat business is the best kind.
- Email marketing tools: Store owners can use eBay’s tools to collect opt-ins, manage lists,
and send email promos created
in five templates.
10. Better credibility: A professional-looking eBay Store gives you added credibility as an online retailer. Plus, you will have access to eBay’s Business Resource Center, where you can download templates for professional-looking business cards.
11. Virtual shopping aisles: As an eBay store seller, you can create up to 20 custom categories within your store to merchandise your listings effectively.
12. Save money: eBay Store sellers get special discounts on eBay fees and receive promotional offers and free subscriptions to some services. You also will save money on administrative costs,
as eBay helps you keep track of your sales and print shipping labels and invoices.
How to open your eBay Store
Opening an eBay Store is easy. To qualify, you need one of the following:
- A Feedback score of 20 or higher. This means you need to have sold items and received feedback on at least 20 of your sales.
If you’ve never sold on eBay before, you can use this as an opportunity to get rid of some old items from around the house in auction listings. You might not make a load of money from it, but you’ll get an idea of what it’s like to trade on eBay.
- Be ID verified (costs $5)
- A PayPal account in good standing
Once you qualify, you choose from three levels of eBay Stores:
- Basic: Costs $15.95 per month. You get the essential tools to set up an eBay Store website with multiple listings and 1 MB of image hosting. This is the most cost-effective choice for smaller sellers with
a limited product range. - Featured: Costs $49.95 per month, and includes additional tools for medium-volume sellers, 50 MB of image hosting, and listing on the eBay Stores page.
- Anchor: Costs $299.95 per month, so it’s exclusively for those looking to aggressively increase their eBay businesses.
Go to http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/start.html for more information, and simply follow the instructions there to start your own Store today!
