According to eBay, "over 75% of eBay users say that opening an eBay store has significantly increased their sales" (eBay, 2007). Quite simply, if you buy and sell on eBay, either as a hobby or full time job, you are falling behind if you don't have your own eBay store.
Of course eBay charges a nominal fee of $15.95 a month however, the tools as resources you get access to can more than justify the cost. In fact, many of the tools can be used to help your non-eBay store related sales!
Build Your Store: The entire process is done through an easy to use interface that allows you to customize your store with very little effort. You can categorize your products and manage your inventory, all with the click of a button. In addition your store design will assist in your branding efforts. eBay offers great customer assistance, should you run into any difficulties.
Control Sales: Another benefit to starting your own eBay shop is having access to the eBay sales management tools. You can easily adjust prices on the fly and offer limited time only sales. It's all about marketing your products and if you have an easy way to get new information to your customers, you will be one step ahead of the competition.
A Complete Package: In addition to the features listed above, an eBay store comes with a host of in-house marketing tools. Each tool is designed to help you drive traffic and increase your sales. Add that to the built in tracking system and you are looking at a set of resources that you would be crazy not to make use of.
There are a host of testimonials available on eBay to "entice" you into opening your own eBay shop. Unlike most added features on other products, starting your own eBay store is actually a good idea and in the end you are only out 15 dollars. Opening your eBay store cannot hurt or decrease your sales in any way.
If you have not tried to have your own eBay shop, it's never too late to begin. The process is simple and user friendly. If you are serious about starting an eBay store, click on "Sellers," then "Open a Store" once you are on your eBay home page. There are 8 basic steps in setting up your store:
1.Choose a color theme.
2.Click continue.
3.Enter your store's name
4.Give a description of your store.
5.Choose a few graphics to help the appearance of your store.
6.Click Continue.
7.Sign up for the basic store ($15.95 a month).
8.Click the supplied link to further customize your store.
Set Up Ebay Store
1. Owning an eBay store gives you your own unique URL to promote.
Having your own link to promote means you can promote your eBay store from your auctions, about me page, email signatures, forum signatures, blogs, articles, eBooks, newsletters etc etc.
2. You look more professional.
If you look like a professional seller you will sell more. Obviously a lot of factors count to looking professional such as excellent feedback but having an eBay store adds to the professional look. Also, a fully stocked eBay store gives you a professional look and with eBooks this is easily achieved at low cost.
3. You can sell multiple store items for a few cents per month.
That's right, you can list an eBook with a 1000 items available and this can cost only a few cents per month. In fact you could list 1000 different items in your eBay store as store inventory items for around $30 per month. The minimum price to do this with 1000 auctions would be almost 10 times the expense.
4. You get to send out store newsletters.
Yes, you can build your own eBay subscriber database. Every time someone leaves feedback for you on eBay they get asked if they would like you to be added to their favourite sellers list. If they accept they can also subscribe to your store newsletter. This means you can send out mailings to your past customers. Plus you can also set up eBay to send out regular mailings on your behalf every 2 weeks.
There is also the option to add a link to your store newsletter and store favourites in all your auctions. This is a crucial promotion tool eBay provides, just look at the top right corner of any of my listings to see these links in action. This means you can add people to your eBay mailing list even if they don't initially buy from you.
5. You can 'feature' your most profitable items.
By adding your most popular items to the featured section of your eBay store you are gaining maximum exposure for the items that earn you the most money.
6. You can personalise your eBay store to differ yourself from other eBay users.
With a little HTML experience you can add categories, logo's, graphics, pictures and a lot more to give your eBay store a more personalised, professional look. Even if you are not familiar with HTML you can still create an attractive looking eBay store.
7. You can track sales and traffic.
Depending on your store subscription level you can track a whole host of features such as store traffic, your most viewed items, search terms used in your store, where your visitors came from and a lot lot more.
8. You can link to your store from all your auctions.
If you use all the tools eBay provides you can have up to 10 links to your eBay store from every auction you run. Without an eBay store you can have 3 or 4 links at the most linking to your other items.
9. Your store and store items will appear in the major search engines.
Google 'planetsms' and you will see number one is my website and number 2 is my eBay store. You can add keywords to your eBay store and there is also more chance of your listings showing on google. In fact Google 'planetsms eBook collection' or even just 'eBook collection' and see what you get :-)
10. You can ask people to 'Visit me eBay store'.
Sounds silly doesn't it? It's a simple fact that more visitors = more sales and no one can deny that. You can ask people to visit your store in your auctions, about me page, email signatures, forum signatures, blogs, articles, eBooks, newsletters :-) etc etc etc.
There you go, 10 reasons why you should have an eBay store. I have probably missed out a lot more and maybe even some more important reasons why you should have an eBay store but I'm sure you get the picture.
Both Joshua Watson & John Thornhill are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Joshua Watson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Blogging, Investments and Body Building. Joshua Watson is the author and webmaster of and. Joshua Watson's top article generates over 1220000 views. to your Favourites.
John Thornhill has sinced written about articles on various topics from Kids and Teens, Site Promotion and Internet Marketing. John Thornhill trades on eBay under the username planetsms and earns over $1000 per week on eBay on autopilot. To see how he does it visit his eBay store at
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