Why would you want to start an e-bay store? Can it work for the little guy? The simplest advice I tell a new seller is to start a store after they have posted twenty or more items for sale. Generally, the law of averages works here (in business terms it's the sell-thru rate) and a certain number of items will not sell. These are the items we assign a fixed price to and stick them in the store. There's nothing wrong with them, but for some reason the right buyer didn't come through to search during that 3-5-7 or 10 day auction period.
Now here's how it works. Each auction I post costs X amount then I figure in the average time it costs me to post an item (most of my auctions are unique items so this takes me a LOT of time!) and the cost of the item. With these figures I can calculate whether I should repost this item in auction or just put it in the store right away.
Obviously items in auction get more exposure, but on some items it's just not worthwhile for me to relist them in auction.
Example:
cost of auction + cost of item + my time creating listing = minimum selling price
As an e-bay guru shared with me years ago, it's just not worthwhile to post anything under $9-. That also is a good rule of thumb for me. But, it's also a matter of the type of inventory you have and the type of money you need to make and the type of time you can invest in this. Another e-bay seller I know makes a nice tidy profit posting items straight to her store for less than $5- each. Her items are pretty self-explanatory to post so they go quickly and listing directly to the store is CHEAP.
A few store tips:
- if I have multiples of an item I may put one to auction and one for BIN in the store
- have a few auctions always going that will drive traffic to the store. Be sure to post a hotlink in your auction template that drives traffic to your store.
- increase your sell through rate of postings by putting items in your store if they don't initially sell in auction
- use a listing program like TurboLister
- Consider using a program list Selling Manager Pro once you start seeing more than 2 sales a day
Thanks for reading this guide. If it's been helpful, will you please take a moment to vote? Also, don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of service to you. I love to help folks get into e-bay selling. It's afforded us a wonderful life.
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