Power Sellers Unite

cohibastore.com · Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Posts: 4908

I'm curious what changes other folks who had ebay stores made after the recent price increases and dropping of the keywords program.

The keywords program was working really well for me.

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

Most of the former ebay store owners I've been in contact with have closed their stores and moved to either amazon, overstock, bv, ola or jsut started posting thier stuff on ebay's auctions only

I did notice the other day that store items are showing up under auction searches again. :shock: Maybe it was just becasue there were not many items offered under auctions :?

angelsolutions · Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:25 pm Post subject: Re: What changes have you made?

Some of us closed our ebay stores and went full steam to our own stores. :angel:

Now things are in OUR control!

And mr kitty-gato, my luv....it's the <30 item rule. Trust me, if store items were back in regular search, alot of us would probably go back! LOL

sylvia

dixielady060303 · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 46

My response was very simple: closed my store permanently, refused to buy, sell or list on Ebay!

LurkeyLou · Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject:

I list a lot less items under $15.00, and list a lot less "off peak". Really let the listings dwindle over the last couple of weeks and will take the next couple to ramp up.

If I put an item out and it doesn't sell by the 4th (not necessarily consecutive) run, I don't list it there ever again. If it sells on the 1st run, it becomes primary inventory. If it's luke warm, selling the 2nd or 3rd time out, it becomes store inventory.

I'd never used the keywords program w/ my previous id. Other sellers told me they found it a good value, so I'd planned to try it this 4th quarter. I'm disappointed, but like many others, am moving away from eBay. I expect to maintain only a 4thQ presence, if any, in the future.

flags1776 · Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:38 pm Post subject: Re: What changes have you made?

Good question and hard to know the right answer which is probably different for each seller.

I am a seasonal business and the holiday flags I sell are for my on-line stores only. My local business is primarily commercial accounts.

Prior to the store fee changes, I had ordered most of my holiday flags. Now I want to move them so I can reassess what I will do in January with the ebay store. My ebay business increased in September mostly due to my increase in auctions items. My sales are still over the same time last year so I am hopful for a good October.

I have also spent more time on eCrater, there had been little activity there in the summer so my time was spent elsewhere. That has picked up as well so I am not sure if ebay customers are feeling more comfortable shopping on other venues or again if it has to do with my seasonal products. Though EC is easy to list, it is still growing and does not have the traffic of EB. Sales are harder to track and manage.

the-hroost · Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 91

I closed my ebay store in August (just before the price hikes hit) because there were suddenly NO visits. I still list auctions, but use them to (I hope) drive buyers to my webstore. I did love my store: I used it to park things there that I knew would not sell at auction, but were just waiting for the right buyer to come along. I hope my webstore will serve the same function....

<p>

GeorgiaRose · Joined: 05 May 2006 Posts: 112 Location: Ringgold, GA

Reduced my store listing to 5%, adjusted my prices to accomodate the 500% listing fee increase and FVF increase and opened stores on 4 other sites, started blogs, joined forums, joined groups, :type: subitted new sites to search engines, researched, marketed, and prayed - intend to keep it up too!! :butt: EB

Lets hope for a great weekend, :D

Rosemary

bgnagn1 · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 683

I had over 800 items in my store when they announced the fee hike. Since then I have taken over 500 items off, registered at a lot of other sites, and then started checking them out.

I now have a store at Ecrater with more items in it than in my ebay store. I also just started another store at bidville yesterday and will try it for 6 months just to see what happens. I think to be fair you need to give a site at least 6 months to prove out. AND advertise in any way and everywhere possible. I even have my grandkids put a blurb on MySpace for me.

Carol aka bgnagn1

http://1finetreasure.ecrater.com

http://stores.bidville.com/1finetreasure

maxxgraphix · Joined: 18 Sep 2006 Posts: 39 Location: Kentucky

Closed and went Elsewhere. Idiots, thinking everyone will bow down and do thier bidding.

Greedy jerks. They don't care about customers what so ever.

buzybee · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 35

Since most of the items in my eBay store were single quantities priced between $3.00 and $5.00, I couldn't afford to keep it open after the price increase. Up to when eBay 'unincluded' store items in their search I was very happy with my sales. After, they just died. I am currently using eCrater, Yahoo and Bidville. Sales have been slow, but my best selling season is in the winter and they have picked up some this week. At Bidville I have had only one sale and I think I'll discontinue there. I'll still use eBay whenever I have merchandise worthy of the auction format - but it won't be any $3.00 to $5.00 items. When I ship eBay items, I send the buyers an email directly (not through eBay) and invite them to visit my other sites.

I'm old enough to remember when American cars were the be-all and end-all of everyone's desires. Detroit sat there fat and happy thinking they had it made forever. Now they are struggling to survive. Evidentally eBay management is too young to remember 'cause they're making the same mistake. Rome didn't last forever, either, but I'm not old enough to remember that!

tropictrading · Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 13

I have ended hundreds of items and have piles of stuff to list. Have set up on ioffer, ecrater & hibidder. I am splitting my inventory and will now have speciality sites and an anything and everything site. Each site is in various stages of listing :roll: :roll:

hibidder - divadolls - dolls & doll accessories & tropictrading - variety

Ioffer- tropictrading, variety

Ecrater - Kidzstuff- toys, clothes, baby gear, childrens books, etc.
Divadolls, dolls & accessories

Have watched greedbay disintegrate into a shadow of its former self. I have never seen the stores board so negative and people so fast to flame others. I do not post much over there. I have also watched the buyers disappear and the quality of buyer seems to be going down. I have had more trouble with buyers over the past 3 months than I had in years. It appears that the best sellers are indeed leaving the sinking ship and the buyers are as well.

It is very sad to watch a once vibrant marketplace implode from greed, scams, assorted lies and schemes. I used to love it, now I have come to the sad conclusion it is time to go elsewhere. My presence is still there, however I do not want to be associated with the site it is becoming and more and more, I believe I will be gone in January.

Meggy & Bill would do well to pick up a couple of history books and read up on Rome, Enron, etc, etc, - hey I bet I have one for sale :D

buzybee · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 35

tropictrading wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")

It is very sad to watch a once vibrant marketplace implode from greed, scams, assorted lies and schemes. I used to love it, now I have come to the sad conclusion it is time to go elsewhere. My presence is still there, however I do not want to be associated with the site it is becoming and more and more, I believe I will be gone in January.

Amen to that. I used to be one of eBay's most enthusiastic supporters. I even bought some of their stock. I'm an optimist and not one of those people who can find fault with everything including a sunny day, but now I have no idea what those people at eBay are thinking. They seem to want to keep growing by going into markets where they aren't succeeding instead of concentrating on what worked in the past and making it better instead of letting it go to the dogs and the scammers. Their stock went down after they increased the store subscription fee over a year ago and it took another hit after they increased the store listing fees. It doesn't seem to be recovering, either.