Katie Sween

eBay Stores – The Basics by Katie Sween eBay Stores Marketing What are eBay Stores? As a seller, how can you benefit from having one? There have been many enhancements made to eBay Stores over the last year. When eBay Stores first launched in 2001, they offered sellers the Store Inventory format, which was the first time sellers could list items with a set price, similar to a retail store. Now, with the Fixed Price listing option available on eBay, in addition to Store Inventory, many sellers may ask, “What is the point of having an eBay Store?” In this article, I'd like to recap some of the most important benefits that eBay Stores provide.

In addition to offering the Store Inventory Format, an eBay Store offers a suite of tools to help you scale your business on eBay. Our rule of thumb is that any seller that maintains more than 25 listings at a time can benefit from a Store. A Store allows buyers to see the full breadth of your inventory from one customizable destination, plus it offers merchandising and display tools to help buyers easily navigate through your items. This becomes particularly helpful the more items you have listed.

The major benefits of eBay Stores can be classified into four groups:

• Branded Destination (Storefront)
• Listing Management
• Marketing and Merchandising
• Robust Reporting on Store Activity

Here's how these eBay Store benefits can help make your business more successful:

Branded Destination (Storefront)
You get your own professional looking Web site on eBay. You can build custom pages in your Store, select Store colors, themes and layouts to suit your business. You can also merchandise your items by setting up custom categories. A unique URL (www.stores.ebay.com/your-store-name) makes it easier for buyers to find you. A search engine within your Store makes it easier for them to find the items they are looking for once they're in your Store.

Listing Management
Store Inventory format listings (exclusively for Store sellers) come in longer durations than those available for Auctions or Fixed Price listings, including a Good ‘Til Cancelled duration that lasts until you end it. This allows you to keep quantities of the same item or slower-moving inventory available on eBay without having to relist. The two higher-tiered Store subscriptions include Selling Manager Pro, eBay's online listing tool for high volume sellers, for no additional charge. This tool makes listing large quantities of items faster and easier.

Marketing and Merchandising
Store sellers are included in many Stores-specific marketing opportunities, including on the eBay Stores homepage, and on Search Results pages. In addition, when a buyer uses eBay's main search and the search results show ten items or fewer, then Store Inventory items from eBay Stores will automatically be displayed. We've also made it easier for internet search engines to read the contents of your eBay Store pages and include them in their search results. This increases the likelihood that your eBay Stores will appear in search engine results when buyers search the Internet for products you have listed.

Robust Reporting on Store Activity
Store sellers receive monthly Sales Reports, outlining their sales by category and listing format. Stores Traffic reports provide sophisticated traffic information to help sellers understand how much traffic their Store and listings receive, and what keywords visitors are using while searching in their Store.

For more information on eBay Stores, please click here.

Next month: Customizing your Store. Learn about the features in Stores that make it easy to build your own branded Web site on eBay.