| Home > Sell > Seller Central > Advanced Selling > Stores > eBay Stores FAQ |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
General
Subscription Levels
Store Inventory
Listing Management
Store Design
Good 'Til Cancelled
Promoting My Store
Cross-Promotions
Listing Frame
Store Categories
Email Marketing
Markdown Manager
Creating a Free Shipping sale with Markdown Manager
Using Markdown Manager with Email Marketing
Accounting Assistant
Other
General Q. What's an eBay Store? A. An eBay Store is a comprehensive e-commerce solution that helps you get more out of eBay's access to millions of shoppers worldwide. By showcasing all of your merchandise in one central location, an eBay Store creates a central shopping destination where buyers can learn more about you, your products, and your policies. A red "stores" tag Q. Why Open an eBay Store? Q. Who can open an eBay Store?
Q. Is an eBay Store
right for me? Subscription Levels Q. What level Store should I open? A. The Store level you open will depend on your needs and short-term goals: - Basic
Store: an ideal solution for sellers who are just starting out
and want an affordable and easy-to-use platform to sell online. Learn more about eBay Stores subscription levels and fees. Q. Where will my Store appear in the eBay Store
Directory? Q. How can I feature my Store within the eBay Store
Directory? Store Inventory Q. What is Store Inventory? A. In addition to Auction-style and Fixed Price, eBay Stores subscribers get access to this listing format which has a longer duration and lower Insertion Fees but provides limited visibility. Additional details:
A best practice is for sellers to use the Store Inventory format to complement and extend their Auction-style and Fixed Price listings. Unlike the other listing formats, Store Inventory's insertion fee, which starts at $0.03 for every 30 days, allows sellers to maintain a large amount of live items for sale at a lower cost. Additionally, it is extremely important for Store sellers to promote and drive traffic to their eBay Store through their Auction-style and Fixed Price listings and cross-promotions which display Store Inventory listings on all of your View Item, Bid Confirm and Purchase Confirm pages. Q. Will Store Inventory listings show up in eBay
search and browse results? Store Inventory listings always appear in the main
search results at the end of Auction-style and Fixed Price results
when: Store Inventory listings will continue to be
included in specialized Stores searches in the following areas: Q. Can my Store Inventory listings be found on other
search engines and shopping sites? Q. How can buyers filter the main search results to
show only Store Inventory listings? Q. How does the sort order work for Store Inventory
items? Q. Is there a way to jump to the break between Store
Inventory results and Auction-style and Fixed Price results? Listing Management Q. How do I list in my eBay Store? A. All items listed on the eBay automatically show up in your eBay Store within 24 hours. To list an item, click the Sell button at the top of any eBay page. eBay's Sell Your Item form takes you through the process of listing your item step-by-step, including helping you find appropriate categories for your item. If you would like to list in bulk with advanced seller tools, you can use TurboLister2, Selling Manager Pro, or your favorite listing tool. Q. Which items appear in my eBay Store? Store Design Q. Can I use HTML to design my storefront? A. Yes! Store sellers can create a custom header with HTML that lies just below the standard eBay Store header. In addition, Store sellers can also build a completely customized storefront page using HTML. To take advantage of these customization opportunities, go to the Manage My Store page and click on "Store Design" in the left hand column. Sellers can also easily create links to their Store by using HTML Builder, also located in the left hand column in Manage My Store. Q. How can I make changes to my Store? Good 'Til Cancelled Q. What is a Good 'Til Cancelled (GTC) listing duration? A. Good 'Til Cancelled (GTC) is Stores fixed price listing duration that allows you to list an item and have that listing automatically renew every 30 days as long as there is quantity available. This listing will recur each 30-day period until you choose to end this listing and will maintain the same listing number for the entire life of the listing. eBay will not end this listing for you. Q. Can I add GTC to an existing listing? Q. What fees are associated with GTC
listings? Q. How do I end my GTC listing? Promoting My Store Q. How does eBay help me promote my Store to its millions of users? A. Your eBay Store is promoted to eBay's millions of users in several ways:
Q. What's the best way to get people to my Store?
Q. What is a Store Referral Credit?
Q. What is Export Seller Listings? Cross-Promotions Q. What does the Cross-Promotions tool do? A. eBay Stores' Cross Promotion tool gives all sellers complete control over which products are cross-promoted to their buyers, thereby allowing Store sellers to show the right product at the right time to the right buyer. Cross-promotions help sellers sell more because they prominently display the other items they're offering, thereby encouraging buyers to purchase additional items or higher-value items. To see how it works, visit the Cross-Promotions tutorial. Q. Who can use the Cross-Promotions tool?
Q. How can I change
my Cross-Promotions?
Listing Frame Q. What is the Listing Frame? A. The Listing Frame allows sellers to pull elements (such as their Store category list, Store Search box, etc) into all of their item descriptions pages with only a few clicks. There are three key elements (see image below): Q. Why would I want to use the Listing
Frame? Q. Does this feature replace the Listing
Header? Q. I already have a list of my Store categories and
links to my Store in my item description, why should I use Listing
Frame? Q. How do I turn on and customize the parts of the
Listing Frame I want to display on all of my item descriptions?
Q. Can I turn the Listing Frame for only some of my
listings? Q. Will the Listing Frame have any impact on my
existing listing description template? Q. What elements can I customize on the Listing
Header section of the Listing Frame? Store Categories In addition to the below Frequently Asked Questions, reference our Store Categories tutorial. Q. How many categories can I create?A. You can create up to 300 Store categories. Your Store category total includes the sum of all level 1, level 2, and level 3 categories. For example, you could have 300 level 1 categories or 30 level 1 categories with 10 subcategories each. You will want to note that eBay automatically creates a default level 1 category named "Other Items" that cannot be edited and does count towards the 300 category limit. Q. How many Store categories should I use?
Q. Can I list in any Store category? Q. Can I list in more than one Store
category? Q. How do I change the Store category for a
listing? Q. How do I move a Store category? Q. How can I change the category order in my
Store?
Q. How do I control whether I display eBay categories
or Store categories in my Store? Q. Can I control how many Store categories are
displayed in my Store and in what order? You can select from three options when specifying the order of your Store categories in your eBay Store:
Q. Will there be any impact to pre-existing links
that I have to Store categories? Q. Will I still be able to influence the meta tags
used for category pages? Q. Will categories with zero listings in them show up
in my Store? Q. How do I re-name a Store category? Q. What happens if I re-name a category? We encourage sellers to use the special Store html tags when creating links to Store categories. The Store html tags utilize the Store category ID number (which does not change on rename) to refer to the correct category page. See additional information. Q. Can I create more than one category with the same
name? Q. What happens if I delete a category? Q. Is there any way to see my entire category
structure? Q. How do I display my Store categories in my Item
description? Q. How will this new feature impact my
cross-promotions? Q. Are Store categories supported in my favorite
listing tool? Email Marketing Q. What is email marketing? A. Email Marketing is a tool for eBay Stores sellers that allows them to send email to interested buyers who have opted-in to their email mailing lists. Q. Who can I send
emails to? Q. How do I send
email to my subscribers? Q. What types of
default email layout and content are available? Q. What is a Welcome
Email? Q. How do I schedule
an email? Q. How can I cancel
or modify a scheduled email? Q. How do I change
the listings that appear in my emails? Q. How do I know how
many emails I can send for free? Q. How can I limit
sending emails to only those that I can send for free? Q. How do I send
more emails than the monthly allocation included in my subscription?
Q. How can I tell
how many subscribers I have? Q. How will I know
that my email is reaching anyone?
Markdown Manager Q: What is Markdown Manager? A: Markdown Manager is a free feature exclusive to eBay Stores sellers that allows them to discount the price of their items or add a limited time free shipping sale. Q: How do I access this feature? A: Markdown Manager will be available for all eBay Stores subscribers under My eBay > Marketing Tools > Item Promotion> Markdown Manager Q: What is the charge for using Markdown Manager? A: Markdown Manager is free for all eBay Stores subscribers. Q: What listings are available in Markdown Manager? A: You can use Markdown Manager to discount all Fixed Price and Store Inventory Listings, or provide a limited-time free shipping sale on all listing formats. Q: Where can buyers see my discounted listings? A: Buyers will see a special strike-through price and Sale logo in the following places:
A: When Creating or Editing a Sale you can select:
A: This text will only appear if the sale ends within the next 7 days or fewer, except for Auction-style listings with free shipping sales. Q: How soon will my scheduled Sale start once I submit it? A: Under normal circumstances the Sale should start at the specified time, however in some rare cases it may take up to 6 hours for the Sale to become active. Q: I selected a category to be put on Sale, but some of my listings weren't included. A: This may have occurred for multiple reasons:
A: This may have occurred for multiple reasons:
A: Your limitations to scheduling a Sale are listed below:
A: Sale Listing Limits are the number of listings that can be scheduled for any given day PLUS the number of edits to any active Sale.
A: You can create as many Sales as you like and potentially have an unlimited number of listings on Sale at any given time, however you will be restricted by the number of listings that you can actively manage (create or edit Sale) per day. Please check your listing limit per day. Q: How far in the future can I schedule a Sale? A: You can schedule a Sale up to 6 months in advance. Q: Can I edit my Sales once they are active? A: Yes, however the number of listings on Sale that you can edit will be limited to your daily listing limit (see Listing Limits above). Q: Can I reschedule a Sale once it has ended? A: You can reschedule a Sale once it has ended, but you will need to wait at least 24 hours before it can become active. This does not apply to Auction-style listings with bids. Q: Why is my Sale in the Processing State? A: When first scheduling a Sale, if you select over 200 listings to be in any given Sale, it will take some time for us to process the request. You will receive an email letting you know when this process is complete. Q: Can I create a Sale to start immediately? A: You can schedule a Sale to start as early as the next hour. Q: Can a listing be in multiple Sales? A: Listings cannot be in multiple active Sales. Listings can be in multiple scheduled Sales as long as the scheduled dates do not overlap. If the dates overlap, the listing will be in the Sale that was most recently saved. Q: How can I see which of my listings are currently on Sale? A: You can see the listings on Sale in the "Items I'm Selling" section of My eBay or Selling Manager. You can also see them by going to the "Manage Sales" page and clicking on the number by the corresponding sale to see the listings in that Sale event. Q: Can I delete a Sale? A: Yes, you can delete a Sale as long as it is not active or pending. Q: What happens if my listings end before my Sale ends? A: You can add listings to a Sale if the listings end before the Sale as long as the listings will be on Sale for at least 24 hours. Q: I list items in multiple countries; can I still put them on Sale? A: Yes, you can add listings from multiple currencies into the same sale. However if you select an amount off, it will be applied in the listing's local currency. Q: Do 3rd party applications support Markdown Manager? A: Yes, this feature should be supported by 3rd party applications; however it is up to that provider to add the service. Please contact your service provided directly for more information. Q: How is the Final Value Fee calculated for items on Sale? A: The Final Value Fee will be calculated based on whatever price the item was sold. The Sale price will be treated as the actual price in all flows. Q: How is the Insertion Fee for items on sale calculated? A: The Insertion Fee will be calculated based on the highest value of that item in the 30 day billing cycle. Q: What happens if I edit the price of a listing on Sale? A: If you change the price of a listing after it has been added to any Sale (active & inactive) it will be removed from all Sales. Q: What happens if I edit the shipping price of a listing that offers a sale on free shipping? A: If you increase or decrease the specified shipping price on an item while a free shipping sale is active, the free shipping sale will be removed. Q: How is the percent off calculated (is it rounded)? A: The percent off is calculated by ([Original price] - [Sale Price]) / [Original Price]. The decimal points will be dropped from the % off.
A: If you relist or sell a similar item, it should be relisted at the original price. Creating a Free Shipping sale with Markdown Manager Q: How do I access the free shipping sale feature? A: All eBay Store subscribers can access this feature under My eBay > Marketing Tools > Item Promotion> Markdown Manager. Q: Why is the 'Add all active Auction-style listings' checkbox grayed out? A: Auction-style listings can only have free shipping applied as an available sales discount; therefore we gray out the Auction-style checkbox when price discount is selected. Q: Why does an end date and time not apply to Auction-style listings? A: When free shipping is added to an Auction-style listing it is required to stay on for the duration of the listing. The end date of the sale is synonymous with the end date of the listing, therefore entering a sale end date in not applicable. Q: Do I need to specify an end date and time when placing Auction-style listings on a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager? A: No. If you do select a sale end date, it will not have an effect on the duration of the sale you have added to the Auction-style listing. Q: Once a sale is active, can I add new listings to an active sale? A: Listings can always be added or removed from an existing sale, as long as the listings you are adding or removing do not include Auction-style listings with bids. Q: Once a sale is active, can I add a different discount to an active sale? A: No, adding a different discount is not permitted on an active sale. Q: Will buyers watching my items be notified when I place listings on a free shipping sale? A: When a seller has added free shipping to listings, buyers watching those items prior to the discount will see a note from eBay, indicating the seller has added free shipping to those items. This note applies when a price discount, free shipping, or combination of both a price discount and free shipping are added to items being watched. Q: How will buyers know an item has free shipping? A: Buyers will see a Free Shipping icon on the View Item page. In addition, listings with free shipping will display "Free" under the Shipping column, in search results. Q: Will there be a "time left" message displayed on View Item pages? A: A "time left" message for the sale will be displayed on Fixed Price and Store Inventory format listings, on the View Item page (in the shipping costs field). The sale end time for Auction-style listings will default to the duration remaining on the listing, and therefore will not display a separate time left message on the sale in the shipping costs field. In addition, only Fixed Price and Store Inventory format listings that have free shipping applied using Markdown Manager will have a time left message displayed, due to the nature of being able to state start and end dates for the sale. Q: Can I add a price discount to my Auction-style listings? A: You may not add a price discount sale to Auction-style listings. The 'Add all active Auction-style listings' checkbox will be grayed out when price discount is selected to prevent this occurrence. In the event you add a category to a price discount sale that includes Auction-style listings, those listings will be excluded from the price discount sale. Q: Why do I get a message saying my sale was created successfully, yet no listings could be added to the sale? A: A sale is allowed to be created successfully even if some listings may not have been added. This gives the seller an opportunity to correct the listings while preserving the time spent setting up the sales. In most cases, the appropriate error message will explicitly state the reason why some listings could not be added; in the event the reason is not stated, it is due to more than one of the criteria not being met for adding the listings to the created sale. Q: Can I delete a free shipping sale? A: You can delete a free shipping sale as long as there are no active Auction-style listings in the sale that have bids. Q: What listing formats can be placed on a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager? A: Fixed Price, Store Inventory Format, and Auction-style listings without bids can be added to a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager. Q: Can I add a percentage discount to shipping or add other shipping discounts using Markdown Manager? A: No. You can only add free shipping to a listing using Markdown Manager and the full shipping costs of your first selected domestic shipping service will be set to $0.00 (Free). Q: If I already have selected free shipping on my listings through 'Sell Your Item' what will happen if I try to add the listings to a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager? A: You can still add the listings to a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager, which would give you the benefit of adding the sale in bulk or specifying a start date and end date (excluding Auction-style listings) to the listings. In the event the free shipping sale ended before the duration of the listing, the listings would be removed from the sale and would return to the original shipping costs; which in this case would have been standard free shipping. Q: Which of my shipping services will I be offering as Free to my buyers? A: The first domestic shipping service will be set to $0.00 (Free). Q: What shipping services are available for me to add free shipping? A: Free Shipping can be added to listings with specified flat or calculated domestic shipping services for all available shipping carriers. Q: What are the criteria for being able to add free shipping? A: All fixed price, Store Inventory Format, and Auction-style listings (without bids) can be added to a free shipping sale unless the listing does not have specified shipping. In addition, all listings that include insurance (optional or required), surcharges, handling fees, and global insurance on multiple quantities cannot be added to a free shipping sale using Markdown Manager. Listings with local pick-up and freight cannot be added to a free shipping sale Q: If my sale has not started yet, what can I edit? A: You are able to edit all fields while your sale is still in the 'scheduled' state, including the ability to add or remove listings that have no bids, and change or add a sale discount. Q: How is free shipping added through 'Sell Your Item' different from adding free shipping using Markdown Manager? A: Using Markdown Manager to add free shipping allows Store subscribers the ability to add the discount to listings in bulk, and allows the sale to be created for a specific period of time which can create a sense of urgency when buyers see the sale end date on the View Item page. Q: Can I add free shipping to Auction-style listings that have bids using Markdown Manager? A: No. Auction-style listings with bids cannot be added to a free shipping sale. Q: Can I search for listings with free shipping sales, the same way I can search for listings on a price discount sale? A: Yes. The Sale Items filter returns listings that were put on sale using Markdown Manager. Using the Sale Items filter (under More Buying Options in classic search or under More Choices under Buying Options in the Playground) will return all listings created on a price discount sale, free shipping sale, or combination of both. Q: Is it possible to add both a price discount and free shipping to a listing? A: Yes. You can add a combination of both a price discount and free shipping to Store Inventory Format or Fixed Price listings. Q: What if a listing only meets the criteria for one of the sale types? A: If a listing fails any part of the criteria for either promotional sale discount, the listing will not be added to either sale discount. Q: Can I send an email announcing I have placed my listings on a free shipping sale? A: Yes. An email can be automatically sent at the time your free shipping sale is activated, by checking one or more of the boxes next to your available Store subscriber mailing lists. These can be found in the "promote your sale" section of Markdown Manager. The email will include pictures of the listings that you have with Free Shipping. Q: What revisions to my active listings will remove my active sales? A: Regardless of whether an item is on a price discount or free shipping sale, or combination of both, sales will be removed from your listings if the item price and/or shipping costs have increased or decreased, otherwise the promotional sales should remain on the item. If item price and/or shipping costs are increased or decreased, your listing will be removed from the sale or sales and the listing will return to its original presale item price and/or shipping costs. Using Markdown Manager with Email Marketing Q: Where do I go to create an email marketing campaign to promote a sale? A: You can promote your sale by sending a customized email to announce your discounted listings. In the "Promote your sale" section within Markdown Manager you will find your available mailing lists, including general interest and seller-created mailing lists checked by default. Q: I went to create a sale but this "Promote your sale" section on creating an email marketing campaign was not there? A: The "Promote your sale" section will not show if you have do not have any mailing lists including the general interest mailing list. The general interest mailing list is created by default for you when you open an eBay Store, but you may have deleted the general interest mailing list. Q: I don't want to send an email campaign to promote my sale, what do I do? A: If you do not want to send an email promoting a sale to any of your subscriber mailing lists simply uncheck each box next to your subscriber mailing lists. Q: What email template will be used and sent to my subscribers? A: The "Items On Sale" email template will be sent. This is the same email template available that would be sent as if the seller went through the seller email marketing flow, selected the Items On Sale template and didn't change any settings - with one difference - the "Send Recurring Email" settings can not be applied to an email created through Markdown Manager. Q: When will the email be sent out to my subscribers? A: A one-time email is sent to your selected mailing lists at the same date and time as the scheduled sale. Even if the sale is scheduled to start in the future, the email will not be sent to your mailing lists until the start of the sale. A: Editing of an email is allowable in both the Create Sale and Edit Sale pages as long as the sale has not started. A: You cannot edit the email you created once the sale is active. Once the sale has begun, the "Promote your sale" section will no longer appear in the Markdown Manager "Edit Sale" page. Q: Can't I also create email marketing campaigns for my sales without using Markdown Manager? A: You can always create email marketing campaigns, including campaigns to promote sales without using Markdown Manager by accessing the "Email Marketing" feature within Manage My Store. Accounting Assistant
Q. What are the system requirements for this application? A. Accounting Assistant requires the following:
Q. What versions of
QuickBooks are supported?
A. QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Enterprise editions 2004, 2005 or 2006.
Q. Who can use eBay
Accounting Assistant?
A. Subscribers to Selling Manager, Selling Manager Pro, Blackthorne, Blackthorne Pro or eBay Stores.
Q. Why are my
imported eBay Sales not being exported to QuickBooks?
A. eBay Accounting Assistant only exports those records that have been marked as "paid". The basis for this is that in a retail environment like eBay the sales do not technically occur until payment is received. Therefore, sales should not be recorded in QuickBooks until payment has been received. To mark an eBay sale as paid, simply select the appropriate payment method from the Payment Method drop-down. If the buyer has paid with PayPal, we will automatically select this option from the drop-down list.
Q. Why don't my
imported PayPal transactions match my PayPal account?
A. eBay Accounting Assistant will only import PayPal transactions related to eBay sales. In other words, if you purchased something via your PayPal account or if you received a PayPal payment that could not be tied to an eBay transaction, it will be left out of the import from eBay.
Q. How much
historical data is available to import via eBay Accounting
Assistant? A. eBay Accounting Assistant will only download, at most, the last 60 days of eBay Sales, eBay Fees and Paypal Transactions. eBay does not maintain customer sales data for more than 60 days. Other Q. How do I close my Store?
Q. How does the
Selling Manager Pro Credit work for Premium and Anchor Stores? What
about Selling Manager for Basic Stores? A. Premium and Anchor Stores will not be charged for Selling Manager Pro as long as they maintain their Premium or Anchor Store subscription. (To qualify for this offer, you must subscribe to Selling Manager Pro on the same eBay country site where you opened your eBay Store.) Sellers who are already Selling Manager Pro users who subscribe to a Premium or Anchor Store will begin receiving the free Selling Manager Pro subscription on the invoice after they subscribed to a Premium or Anchor Store. Likewise, Selling Manager is free for all Basic Store subscribers. Sellers who are already Selling Manager users who subscribe to a Basic Store will begin receiving the free Selling Manager subscription on the invoice after they subscribed to a Basic Store. Q. How do the Marketplace Research Basic and Marketplace Research Pro credits work for Premium and Anchor Stores? A. Premium and Anchor Stores will not be charged for Marketplace Research as long as they maintain their Premium or Anchor Store subscription. (To qualify for this offer, you must subscribe to Marketplace Research on the same eBay country site where you opened your eBay Store.) Sellers who are already Marketplace Research users who subscribe to a Premium or Anchor Store will begin receiving the appropriate Marketplace Research subscription (Marketplace Research Basic for Premium Stores and Marketplace Research Pro for Anchor Stores) on the invoice after they subscribed to a Premium or Anchor Store. * Based on data from eBay Stores survey, June 2005. No representation is made that your actual sales will increase after opening an eBay Store. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||