Guides on Setting up an eBay Store for the First Time

Setting up an eBay store? Opening an eBay store is an excellent portal into the world of ecommerce. As one of the simplest, no fuss selling platforms available, eBay is full of possibilities and open to anyone. 

eBay has been around for a good while since 1995, to be precise and has positioned itself as a selling partner in the ecommerce space. The platform is designed for sellers, whether you’re selling unwanted items or scaling a full time ecommerce business.

How Much Does It Cost to Start an eBay Business?

How to set up shipping on eBay? Thousands of small businesses in the UK now earn their primary income from eBay, and with 96 million unique monthly visitors to the eCommerce site, who can blame them?

eBay store fees? For most categories, the fee is 35 cents per listing. You can also ramp up to a more robust eBay store by paying for a subscription (known as eBay Stores). Starting at $19.95 a month (for an annual subscription), this option gives you hundreds or thousands of free listings per month.

Setting up an eBay store has many benefits, especially if you’re an online eBay seller with a large number of items in your inventory.

Let’s look at a few reasons why you should consider selling through an eBay store instead of simply listing your products like a regular user:

• Customization
• It looks professional
• Competition is reduced
• Stock additional products
• Cost-effective
• No automatic expiration
• Seller tools

Read also: Does eBay Ship to the Philippines if I Buy an Item?

What are The Disadvantages of eBay?

How to manage an eBay store? EBay offers a platform for selling, but the website comes with risks for both buyers and sellers. Understanding these drawbacks allows both parties to protect themselves to create a positive buying or selling experience.

Costs and Fees

The eBay fee scale varies depending on the type of item you list, selling price and whether or not you have an eBay store. Sellers pay both an insertion fee and a final value fee. EBay also offers upgrades to listings, such as a bold listing, a larger gallery for photos, subtitles and a themed layout for the listing, which cost extra. 

These fees add up over time, taking away from the profit. Sellers also invest time in answering questions and managing the listings. When selling low-priced items, that can result in low profits when you factor in the amount of time spent on the listing. Estimating the fees before listing helps determine if selling the item will be profitable.

Fraud and Scams

EBay has policies in place to control how the website is used, but both buyers and sellers do face the risk of scams and fraud. Sellers might intentionally misrepresent items for sale. 

Bidders might skip out on paying or try to return an item after receiving it. Both buyers and sellers are encouraged to resolve problems directly with one another. If the other party doesn’t respond, the eBay Resolution Centre is an option. The user chooses the specifics of the issue and provides information to get help with a resolution.

Poor Customer Service

Anyone can sell on eBay, which means buyers can’t be sure what type of customer service they’ll receive. The seller might be slow to respond to questions. Shipment of the item may not be prompt or the seller may fail to properly package the item for shipping. 

Reading a seller’s reviews before bidding on an auction item gives the buyer a sense of the customer service provided by a seller. Generally, a seller with lots of transactions and mostly positive feedback is a better option than a new seller or one with several major red flags in feedback.

Difficult Customers

From the seller’s end, dealing with customers is sometimes a disadvantage of eBay. Some customers might complain about the smallest thing or be very demanding. Buyers have the option of leaving negative feedback for sellers, which can hurt credibility. 

Sellers can protect themselves by listing items accurately and explaining policies upfront. EBay requires sellers to establish a return policy. The policy could simply be that there are no returns and items are sold as is. Providing top-notch customer services and providing information upfront can eliminate some difficult customers.

How to Set Up an eBay Store?

How do I set up an eBay selling account? First, decide what subscription level you want: Starter, Basic, Premium, Anchor or Enterprise. When you’ve chosen your package, here’s how to open your store:

• Go to Choose a Store Subscription.
• Find the eBay Store type you’d like to subscribe to and choose Select and review.
• Select the subscription term (yearly or monthly) and enter a name for your eBay Store.
• Select Submit order to purchase the eBay Store subscription.

When you choose a name for your eBay Store, they will create a website address (URL) for you. They willl remove special characters (such as apostrophes, spaces, &, ! or $), add hyphens between words and make all letters lowercase.

For example, if you name your eBay Store “Fine Jewellery!,” your store URL will be: https://www.ebay.com/str/fine-jewelry.

Here are some things to keep in mind when deciding upon your eBay Store name: 

• It can be your eBay username as long as it meets the requirements above
• It must start and end with a letter or number
• It can’t start with four or more consecutive letter As
• It can’t start with an e or E followed by more than a single number
• It can’t contain the following characters: <, >, or @
• It can’t be the username of another eBay member
• It can’t contain “www” anywhere in the name
• It can’t contain two or more consecutive spaces or non-alphanumeric characters
• It can’t end with a top-level domain abbreviation used on the internet such as .com, .co.uk or .net

Read also: 7 Useful Steps How to Sell Old Coins on eBay Philippines

Conclusion

Choose a name that immediately tells buyers what you sell. For example, a straightforward name such as “Ben’s Computers” will be more helpful to buyers than a creative name such as “Zebra Park.” This will also help search engines find your store when buyers are looking for the kinds of products you sell.

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