Is there any evidence that it is worth paying for a store on eBay
rather than just listing your items individually? Say you have 200
SKUs, and you sell about 50-100 a month.

Also what are some good tools for bulk uploading to eBay UK for fixed
price sales. I tried the eBay Turbo Lister 2 but it seems to insist I
auction items whereas I want ONLY Buy it Now.

Hello webuserid~

The primary benefit of having an eBay Store is to direct customers to
a complete line of products that would be cost prohibative to list
individually in eBay auctions. (eBay has strict rules against
publicizing a website within eBay auctions, so simply directing
customers to a business' website is not possible.) These eBay Store
listings cost less than placing individual items up for auction.

According to Marketing Experiments.Com, "Michawl Jansma, an eBay Power
Seller and CEO of an online jewelry store...says that his eBay store
allows buyers who are looking for a bargain but not interested in
bidding on auctions to quickly and easily make a purchase. 'I use my
eBay Store to convert eBay traffic. My actual website is catered to a
different audience and I advertise products that may not be for sale
on eBay.'"

Comparing data from three eBay Power Sellers, MEC concluded that all
three eBay Stores "performed better in terms of conversion rate than
their corresponding [standalone] website. Taken together, the three
Ebay Stores converted 201% better than the three [standalone]
websites."  The average conversion rate for 2.22%, or "three times
greater than the conversion rate of the corresponding standalone
website."

In another test, MEC found that "the average amount of revenue
generated for each eBay Store page-load was $2.29. The eBay Stores
outperformed the Sellers' standalone websites by nearly five to one."


They conclude that "an eBay Store allows a retailer to leverage eBay
Auction traffic at a fraction of the cost of traditional eBay
auctions..."

("Research Brief: eBay Stores:"
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/pdf/eBayStores.pdf )



For the second part of your question: Open Turbo Lister 2, open your
inventory, double click an auction, and look to the right hand side
under "Selling Format." IMMEDIETLY under the "Selling Format" text,
you'll see a white box that probably says "Auction." Click on the
arrow right next to this and select "Fixed Price."


This should work, but you could also try these programs:

* Shooting Star: http://www.foodogsoftware.com/

* Auction Sage: http://www.auctionsagesoftware.com/

* Spare Dollar: http://www.sparedollar.com/prod_lister.php

* Action Submit: http://www.auctionsubmit.com/

Good luck!
Kriswrite


RESEARCH STRATEGY:
"eBay stores" study

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Request for Answer Clarification by webuserid-ga on 29 Jul 2006 12:01 PDT

Thank you. Why does it save money on individual listings? I thought
the shop only included stuff that you were listing anyway?

---

Clarification of Answer by kriswrite-ga on 29 Jul 2006 15:21 PDT

Hi again webuserid~

eBay Shops do show your eBay auctions, but can also show items that
are not part of your regular eBay listings. Therefore, in your
instance, you could potentially have fewer eBay auctions up, but more
items for sale.

You might also want to check out Entrepreneur's article on eBay
Stores: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,321113,00.html

Kriswrite

Sort of tangentially related to the answer to your first question -

An eBay store is also useful when you sell items which you know which
will eventually sell, but for which there is no constant weekly
demand. That is, your item will most likely sell once someone looks
for it, but that search might not come for months or even years.

This might not apply to you but I thought I'd mention it.

Have a good day.

Some eBayers think differently
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?threadID=1200020686&tstart=0&mod=1154124239229

As to the last comment, it's true that eBay is having some difficulty
reconciling the interests of "auction" listers and eBay store sellers
- probably a result of trying to be everything to everybody.

As to the question in the clarification, store listings run for longer
periods and have cheaper insertion fees than regular auction listings.
The problem is that they are less visible in regular searches. But, as
explained in the answer, if you can drive traffic to those listings
from your regular auction listings, it can save you money.

Please see the UK stores fees:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/storefees.html

I should mention that eBay stores fees have recently increased.

In general, if you are able to sell enough in regular week-long
auction/buy it now listings that you don't mind losing out on the
insertion fees for the items which do not sell, that's your best bet.

I hope this helps.

Have a good day.