I firmly believe that to be a success when selling ebooks on eBay you need to have an eBay store. They more than pay for the £6 monthly fee with the benefits they provide. These include cheaper fees, longer listing duration, and much more. Find out about all the benefits below:
1) Cheaper Fees:- The insertion fee for an auction listing on eBay is 15p. The insertion fee for a buy it now listing on eBay is 20p. However, the insertion fee for a store listing is only 3p. On top of this the gallery fee for auction and buy it now listings is 15p whilst the gallery fee for a store listing is only 5p. These are the only two listing features I use for my eBay ebook listings which gives me a total saving of between 12p-17p per ebook I list in my eBay store. Now this doesn’t seem like much of a saving, but since I list all my ebooks as store listings and only a small proportion as auction listings this actually equates to a significant saving. I would advise any other ebook sellers on eBay to also list their ebooks in this way as it will lead to huge cost savings for you. If you list your full inventory as eBay store listings, and then your most popular items on the main eBay site as either buy it now or auction style listings you can save money and promote your eBay store (I will discuss this promotion aspect further in the next edition of the newsletter).
2) Longer Listing Duration:- The maximum listing duration of a buy it now or auction style listing is ten days. With a store inventory listing you can list for 30 days, 90 days, or Good till Cancelled (the listing renews every 30 days till you cancel it). Not only does this provide the benefit of added value for money, but it also saves you a lot of time. Instead of relisting an ebook every ten days you can simply list it in your store as Good till Cancelled and not worry about it again.
3) Unlimited Inventory:- When you list an ebook as an auction or buy it now the insertion fee goes up depending how many items you want to list. When you list in your eBay store the insertion fee remains at 3p whether you list 1 item or 1000 items. This is a huge benefit to ebook sellers because as you already know, you can sell infinite copies of the same ebook, since it is digital. Therefore, if you list 1000 copies of your ebook (or even more if you wish) as a Good till Cancelled listing you will hardly every have to maintain it. This will not only save you time but also money.
4) Custom Store Pages:- With a basic eBay store you get 5 custom pages (and even more with anchor and featured stores). These custom pages are useful ways of conveying extra information to your customers. I use my custom pages for; a Disclaimer page, a Privacy Policy page, a SPAM Policy page, a Terms and Conditions page, and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. However, they can also be used to convey other important information to your customers or to promote one of your products or websites. Having these custom pages available in your eBay store makes you look more professional which in turn generates increased customer trust.
5) Store Categories:- With an eBay store you get 20 custom categories which you can assign your listings to. This is extremely useful because customers who are looking for a certain type of ebook will be able to browse by category. Some of the categories I use include; “Gambling Guides and Systems,” “Email and Autoresponder” and “Wholesale and Dropshipping.” If a customer visits my eBay store and only has a general idea of the ebook that they want, these categories should guide them in the right direction, and then hopefully lead to a sale. Since many people who buy ebooks will be merely browsing, these categories should increase sales and also make your store easier to navigate, meaning customers are more likely to return.
6) Store Cross Promotion:- With an eBay store you can cross-promote your items. This involves a small box appearing at the bottom of your listings promoting some of your other listings. You can do this manually, automatically, or via store category. I prefer to do it by category as then the most relevant listings appear and so there is more chance of a customer making a repeat purchase. For example, if a customer buys a Chilli Recipe ebook and at the bottom of the listing you are promoting 4 more recipe ebooks, it is likely that this is something the buyer will be interested in, and so may make another purchase from you. If however, 4 gambling guides appear, the customer is unlikely to be interested in this, and so is less likely to make a repeat purchase. Repeat business will not only increase your profits but also increase your long-term growth.
Recently eBay has also added the ability to cross-promote with other sellers. This is very easy to set up and eBay manages the whole process for you. All you have to do is go to the “Cross-Promotion Connections” area of My eBay and then use the request cross-promotions link in order to set them up. If the other seller agrees then a box promoting their products will appear on your listings and vice versa. This is again a valuable opportunity to increase sales.
7) Store Tools:- With an eBay store you get tools such as sales reports, traffic reports, and a basic newsletter tool. The first two tools are very useful for monitoring how your business is growing. The traffic reports show you your daily traffic for all of your eBay pages, and compare it to the traffic on those pages both 4 weeks prior and 1 year prior. This allows you to monitor both your short term and long-term growth.
The sales reports are particularly useful because they incorporate eBay fees and PayPal fees. This means you can see how much actual profit you are making after all fees have been accounted for. They also show sales growth so you can monitor this also.
The newsletter tool whilst basic is also useful. If people opt-in to recieve your newsletter then it can automatically be set to send out monthly updates of new items that have been added to your eBay store. This again increases the chance of repeat business. It is particularly useful for ebook sellers who are likely to be adding new products on a regular basis.
Store Customisation:- With an eBay store you can customise the look and feel of the store, making it unique. The ways you can do this include adding a store logo, adding a custom header to all your logos, choosing the layout of your categories and listings, changing the colours, using promotion boxes, and much more. The benefit that this provides is that when customers visit your store it is different and stands out from the rest. This will make them pay more attention to your store, spend more time browsing, and hopefully lead to increased sales and long-term business.
9) Store URL:- When you get an eBay store you get an actual URL (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/yourstore) which you can promote. Not only does this link look much more attractive and professional than the long and clunky View the Sellers Items link, but it also gets listed in the search engines and the eBay stores directory. This means that you will have traffic coming in from outside of eBay also, which is a benefit you do not get without eBay stores.
Hopefully this article has shown you that for the low monthly fee of £6 you can save time and money, look like a more professional business, and increase your traffic and sales. You even get your first month of having an eBay store free so there really is nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain.
Tom Parker sells ebooks with resell rights on eBay at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/theebookcavern. He also runs http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/ where he intends to sell his own ebook “How to set up a Successful, Automated Ebook Business on eBay” and a free newsletter which you can join by sending an email to: newsletter@theebookcavern.co.uk.
