I'm just wondering if any online merchants opened one to expand their business, and found it to be effective. I'm also wondering if being an 'anchor store' (a $499 per month cost) also made a big difference as I'm looking to expand our business and was told to look into this. Thanks in advance for your thoughts, I appreciate it! Ian
If you name it wisely it can help ranking - another top 10 spot you wouldn't be able to get with just one site. Go for the cheaper shops first to experiment, IMO a lot of the 'premium' stuff at eBay can be found elsewhere for free.
I really dont see the point in promoting eBay. With that kinda money you could setup your own online shop. When I used to sell on eBay I found the traffic to be the worst type. There all bargain hunters looking for the cheapest price.
Yes but AdWords etc. fees to market your own shop can easily exceed eBay's fees - remember that eBay is a MASSIVE hub with millions of purchase ready customers with a lot of money. They are already in the buying phase. It's a targeted traffic goldmine that is relatively cheap and easy to tap in to.
Yeah but if you stop selling on eBay what have you got? You market your own brand, at least your building something of substance. Dont get me wrong, you can use eBay to generate traffic, even just with normal auctions and linking to your own site in your About Me page, but I wouldn't build my business model solely on the reliance of eBay.
I think Ian wanted to add an eBay store to his existing setup, I believe that's best. Like you say, dcristo, just having an eBay shop is eventually only going to make eBay rich, not yourself. So yeah, combine to two and leech traffic frmo eBay to your own.
Correct T0PS3O, I do currently have an online retail store where we sell our products, which is already doing well. We've also added an affiliate program through ShareASale.com which is slowly growing. I'm just looking for an effective way to continue to grow our business and have heard that adding a store on EBay to compliment our main retail site may be effective. I'm just trying to find out from anyone if it does indeed work, and if the $499 monthly "anchor store" fee has been profitable to anyone who is running one. Ian
seen the new ebay fee hike ups, they take 10% of your final price lol...I think I would be looking to start up my own store imo...
I used to have an ebay store. I closed up shop on ebay about a year ago. They always are raising their prices and with increased shipping costs at Canada Post for items I found it harder and harder to compete with the US sellers. In my opinion ebay is gouging their sellers.
I just use osCommerce and run my own store. It's impossible to compete on ebay unless you have a niche. Otherwise you're "competing" with the never ending flow of idiots that are willing to take a loss just to get a customer.
I appreciate the feedback but I want to make sure we stay on the track of my original quesion. For those of you who do have one, is there anyone here who like me has their own e-commerce site that has found success in opening an E-Bay Store to grow their current business and obtain more qualified leads?
I have experience selling products on eBay while trying to push similar products on a website. Due to eBay's linking rules, more screen real estate on eBay doesn't help. The only effective way to convert eBay eyeballs to website eyeballs is through emails in response to questions or sales. As someone mentioned, the eBay bidder is a lot different from a website shopper. Bidders are notorious deal seekers. If there is any chance of getting an item cheaper from the auction, most will ignore your website. Make sure you can convert eBay traffic to website sales before getting into an anchor store. Try a free store first. Most people search for items rather than browsing eBay proper, so the anchor store won't get you a lot more exposure. Try listing enhancements. Make sure you do everything within eBay's strict rules to get people to your website. Good luck, Ty
Thanks for the feedback tkroll, that's good to know. I have a relative niche store, and will heed your advice and try a smaller store to see how things go before expanding it. I'll have to also take a look at E-bay's linking rules to see the best way to incorporate our main site into it. If you or anyone else has any good suggestions about that I'd certainly love to hear them. Ian
I have seen a seller stating "buy it here or buy it cheaper (1c usually) at our store". One way of getting some extra traffic I guess.