Ebay shop - would it be worth it?

VictorMeldew

Hi, I've recently started a small business on ebay selling around 5 different products. So far I've sold about 4 items a week and made around £80 a week. All the items I've sold have been on buy-it-now, and have cost around 2.00 to list. I'm wondering what are the advantages of eBay shops? I know ebay have got help pages on this, but thought I'd get a more unbiased view on here.

Is it worth me opening an ebay shop or should I just continue as I am?

windswept

For the small amount of product lines you sell, it's NOT really worth having a shop, I have over 60 lines in our shop, but still have 10 - 15 things on BIN for visibility.
It also depends on whether you feel that you are missing sales by only having normal listings, and on the categories you list in - this can have a huge impact on visibility, I went from one category of kites to another for all my small kites, sales have doubled!
you could always try the free month and see if it's worth your while. If you have lots of watchers for your items, it may be worth it if you can supply the extra goods.

Dave_Brooker

VictorMeldew wrote: »

Hi, I've recently started a small business on ebay selling around 5 different products. So far I've sold about 4 items a week and made around £80 a week. All the items I've sold have been on buy-it-now, and have cost around 2.00 to list. I'm wondering what are the advantages of eBay shops? I know ebay have got help pages on this, but thought I'd get a more unbiased view on here.

Is it worth me opening an ebay shop or should I just continue as I am?

Shops are a bit of a waste of time now, items don't appear in searches and given the cost of your items listing fees won't be all that much cheaper.

Shop final value fees are higher, so you might not save much at all...

cazmanian_minx

My sales are split 50:50 between shop sales and BIN sales (I don't run auctions). I think it really depends on what category you're selling in - in my category it's common for people to buy a number of items at once from the range of goods I sell, so having a shop works really well, but in other categories it might not be such a useful tool.

Caz

StaffsSW

Volume sellers should have a shop, simply because the very cheap insertion fees offset the higher FVF's. A listing costing as little as 9p will continually renew itself every 30 days until sold - compare that to listing 3 or 4 times a month on a normal BIN?

The exposure has been reduced as many listings do not show up on seraches unless it is a niche item with strong keywords, however as mentioned above, a few normal, but well designed BIN's, Auctions or featured listings with plenty of links back to your shop will take full advantage of the facility.

It is really only for volume sellers though - 4 items in a week netting £80 is not really viable for shop listings. I have about 150 dvd's in the shop as a norm, with up to 300 during busy periods. Add another 100 or so auctions and this will give me a good stock turnover with multiple purchases from individual buyers.

You need to analyse your strategy of selling to ensure that a shop would be worth your while - but the 30 day free trial is useful, if only to see how it works and to get some of the useful features like traffic reports and mass-emailing.