Opening an eBay Store.

I'm thinking of opening an eBay store. Has anyone got good advice for this? I'd mainly deal with electronics and video games. :thumbsup:

 

Assembler, true but there's no other way round them.

 

an ebay store is maybe an good startup. But when you want to do it professional, you musst build up your own onlinestore.
Have an look on opensource shops like OScommerce or XTcommerce.
Also an good knowledge of SEO helps alot to grow up ;-).
Good luck

 

Believe me when I say it, eBay stores are v.expensive to do right and it's only getting more saturated in the landscape, hard to differentiate (I know, I have eBay certification from a past job, don't ask). I recommend you use openCart or similar, host on something list hostgator and google up SEO techniques.

I'm with assembler, unless your turnover is expected in 4 figures per week, you will not be profitable.

Just my 2 cents!

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Will keep it in mind, seems a better idea to open up my online store instead of using eBaty.

 

Design your own onlineshop, open up an eBay shop with "youronlineshop.com" as a name, make the prices a bit higher on eBay than in your onlineshop.
Make a good service and fair prices, business will take care of itself, guaranteed.

 

Note: you can't reference an external site (.com etc) on your eBay store. It's against rules.

I feel so dirty for knowing that.

 

Hence why you name your account after your store site, but yeah, I feel dirty too.

 

:lol:


I agree with the rest, go for an online store with an open source script. osCommerce, ZenCart, etc., are really easy to install, use and mantain, plus you have a lot of support and plugins in their respective communities.

 

I cant believe that after all these years there is not one serious competitor to ebay...

 

Everyone moans about eBay but no one acts.

Mostly out of convenience:

"If you want to sell quick, eBay is your best bet"

"Millions of potential customers, at other platforms there are just a few thousand"

etc.

It is a vicious circle: they don't use other platforms because of their low member base <-> other platforms stay at a low member base because they don't use them.

 

I can think of a way around that: FB connect

 

Never tried it myself, but others have spoken well of selling on Amazon, and being able to sell things at a higher price there than ebay. You can sell your own stuff on play.com too, worth checking out.

Personally I regard selling on ebay as a last resort, only used if I can't sell anywhere else. Its a shame really, but ebays constant rule changing and fee increases are just too much of a hassle.

 

Well, I've gone against the eBay store after the remarks on here and elsewhere. I've been chatting with some very helpful members on here and running through ideas. It'll be a website instead of an eBay store.

And the name (thanks to kiff!)?
(Logo is WIP)

 

What?

Go for a simpler name, trust me...

 

Really, you don't like the name?

 

Good luck.....but I think eBay is the best option to start with. I opened my own online store once and one thing I didn't realize before I did that was the fact that your store will be unknown on the internet. I bought some magazine ads, other advertising, and in the end spent probably over $1,000 just to get a trickle of traffic. One day I looked at all of my inventory sitting on the shelves and realized, "I could have all of this sold in a week on eBay."

Also, setting up your own store, unless you know exactly what you're doing, will be time consuming and expensive unless you go for a freebie sales platform with no modifications....which, naturally, will make your store less attractive to potential customers. You could easily find yourself 3 months into the project with no sales and some expenses you weren't expecting to pay.

If your eBay store is successful then you can move up to your own website, but for starters, especially someone just getting into sales, I'd recommend eBay.