Asad and Jody were excited and eager to get home and try out all their new ideas. They opened Beachcombers Bazaar at the Premium Store level to access free marketing credits, additional Custom Pages, a subdued eBay header, high rankings, and more. Since then they've never missed an eBay Live!, attending the annual event in San Jose in 2005 and Las Vegas in 2006.
Tools for success
Asad and Jody continue to take advantage of all the tools offered by eBay Stores, which help improve their sales and the buyer experience. "We love the new Markdown Manager, which allows us to offer a percentage discount on certain items or all items in our Store," says Asad. "It's a very powerful tool, especially when we use it in conjunction with Promo Boxes. Promo Boxes are great for advertising our Sales, combining shipping discounts, and increasing multiple purchases. Good Store categories and subcategories help buyers see what we sell at a glance, and help
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them find it quickly. And Traffic Reports let us help buyers find us by telling us what keywords buyers use to find our Store and showing where buyers are coming from. Because of Traffic Reports, we discovered that many buyers were finding our Store through a fan site for the movie Ever After that talks about our khussa shoes. Now we advertise directly to these fans to make the most of this source."
Opening new Doors to Stores
To further improve the buyer experience, Asad and Jody founded Doors to Stores in July 2005. The page explains the features and benefits of eBay Stores with tips on how to find and use it while driving additional traffic to participating sellers.
"All these efforts and tools do more than promote our items and increase sales, they improve the buyer experience," says Asad. "And that's ultimately the best advantage of eBay Stores." |
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Asad's and Jody's tips for success: |
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• Use every feature your eBay Store subscription offers. Each of these tools is an element of success. |
• Attend eBay Live! "At eBay Live! we learned all about Email Marketing, a tool only available with an eBay Store," says Jody. "Now we use the tool to keep repeat buyers interested in and excited about Beachcombers Bazaar." |
• Brand, brand, brand. The more you set your Store apart, with professional graphics and easy-to-follow navigation, the better you can weather the competition. Jody's professional-quality photos really make Beachcombers Bazaar shine. |
• Get involved. Visit the eBay Stores Discussion Boards when you have questions. The pool of knowledge there is tremendous, and you can help people just starting out. |
• Make the most of Custom Pages. "Creating Custom Pages for your FAQ, Policies, About Us and other pages can help improve your ranking in search results so more customers can find your items when searching on the Web," says Jody. |
• Reply to emails as quickly as possible. "Always respond within 24 hours, and no more than six hours if possible. We try to respond within one or two hours. This builds trust with buyers and helps make the sale." |
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Must use Buy It Now and PayPal.
