| Why would you want to open your own eBay Store? Well, it certainly isn't for casual sellers; you do have to set up your own Web page and keep the store filled with merchandise. But if you're a high-volume seller who specializes in a single category (or even a handful of categories), there are benefits to opening your own store. These include being able to sell more merchandise (through your store) than you can otherwise list in auctions; being able to display a special eBay Stores icon next to all of your auction lists; and being able to generate repeat business from future sales to current purchasers . Opening an eBay Store is an especially good idea if you have a lot of fixed-price merchandise to sell. You can put items in your eBay Store before you offer them for auction, and thus have more merchandise for sale than you might otherwise. It's easy to direct your auction buyers to your eBay Store; if you do your job right, you can use your eBay Store to sell more merchandise to your existing customers. And, since eBay Store insertion fees are lower than auction listing fees, you'll be decreasing your costs by selling direct rather than through an auction. Another benefit of selling merchandise in an eBay Store is that eBay will automatically advertise items from your store on the Bid Confirmation and Checkout Confirmation pages it displays to bidders in your regular auctions. These " merchandising placements" help you cross-sell additional merchandise to your auction customers. In addition, eBay sends all eBay Store owners a monthly Seller Report. This report is divided into three major sections: Auctions, Fixed Price, and Store Inventory. Among the data reported is the following: -
Number of total listings and number of successful listings -
Number of bids -
Gross sales -
Number of unique buyers -
Percent of successful listings -
Number of bids per listing -
Average selling price per item "Mike Sez"  | If you're serious about selling merchandise outside the eBay environment, you may want to create a more full-featured e-commerce presence than available with eBay Stores. See Chapter 22, "Setting Up Your Own Web Site for Online Sales," for more information. |
Featured and Anchor stores (discussed later in this chapter) also receive an eBay Marketplace Information report, with data for overall eBay performance in the categories in which they list. All eBay Store owners receive their reports via email at the end of each month. | 