If you have an eBay ID, you can log in here and vote for the best store in four different categories. So, this week, I’m gonna use my favorites in each category as the stores of the week.

For the Best Looking Store Category: Le Loft Jewelry
Best Shopping Experience: NWT Clothes
Best Store Marketing: Quilt Taffy
Best “Standard Store Layout”: Copper Frog Studio

Those are my picks for the 2007 best in stores on eBay. What are your picks?

[tags]ebay,ebay stores,2007 best in stores,stores[/tags]

This free tool allows you to offer discounted pricing to your buyers by putting your Fixed Price and Store Inventory items “on sale.” Your Sale items will display special strike-through pricing on the item page, along with a “Sale” logo, so buyers can easily see the discount offered.

I can see a lot of great uses for this. First, using it as it is intended gives a great ability to reduce the prices of your items while not losing the effect of the original price. Also, with the strikethrough and sale marking, it should trigger the bargain shopper in your browsers and could result in a higher sell rate. The second and more devious use I see is by originally listing an item for much more than you expect to get from it and then “marking” it down as a sale item to the price you really expect to get out of it. If you’ve got an item that sells for $100, you list it at $150 and then mark it down to $100. Doing so gives the impression of a bargain while really not being a bargain at all.

It is devious to do, but I guarantee that a lot of sellers will begin using it that way. Many retail stores do the same thing and there’s no reason the eBay sellers won’t as well.

It really should be a good tool for store sellers though. Read the product page for more information.

[tags]ebay,ebay stores,markdown manager,markdown[/tags]

If you go over to the Auction Rebel, Gary has been kind enough to post a link to a report called eBay Store SEO.
It’s got all kinds of fun information on how to optimize your eBay store for search engines.

Now, the download is supposed to be for Auction Rebel readers only, so subscribe to Gary’s RSS feed while your there. You won’t be disappointed. He knows his eBay and always has some fun articles.

[tags]ebay,seo,ebay store,search engines[/tags]

While many of us haven’t taken the jump to a online store presence and I don’t know that if I did, I would use ProStores it might be worth a try for a few months to see how well it works.

The code if you’re interested is STORES107
It entitles you to a one month subscription waiver and then 30% off your monthly subscription if you are also an eBay stores subscriber.

If you sign up, come back and let me know how it turned out. I’d love to hear it.

[tags]ebay,prostores,ebay stores,ebay prostores,coupon code[/tags]

Join an eBay storeowners group.  There are plenty to choose from, so you shouldn’t have any problem finding one that you fit into.  And you can always join several if you decide to.

[tags]ebay,stores,stores group, ebay groups,ebay stores,groups[/tags]

What is eCrater.com? eCrater.com is both a free web store builder and a free online marketplace. Sellers can easily create their own free online store in minutes. Buyers can easily browse and compare between thousands of products.

With free hosting and no fees, it almost sounds like a dream come true.  The items even get added to the Froogle search engine.  How much better can it get?

There are a few downsides to eCrater.  Users only get a subdomain which doesn’t help add to your brand(which you should have) at all.  The navigation is somewhat difficult with no clear cut way to find exactly what you want or the store that you want if you don’t know the direct subdomain.

Overall, if you’re looking for a well established alternative to an eBay store with some pretty good exposure eCrater might be the place for you. If you have the know-how, establishing your own website with your own brand might be a better choice in the long run.

[tags]ecrater,ebay store, store, ecommerce,ebay alternatives[/tags]

50% of the eBay sellers said that they would be moving on from eBay within 6 months.  That’s a pretty big number.

There are some fairly surprising numbers in that survey.  I’m a little surprised that that big of a number don’t plan on selling on eBay in 6 months.  I certainly plan on still being around, but not at current levels.  I’ve already pulled over 100 store listings with more to come.  I most likely will end up opening a store at eBid or somewhere similar.

I still think that eBay is the best place to list things for auction and if the fees weren’t so high, it would be the best place for store listings as well.  Of course, if you can afford it and have the knowhow, a online store of your own is still the best way to go.

[tags]survey, ebay stores, ebay sellers, ebay, ebid[/tags]

Aside from ebay and sites that I run myself, I hadn’t found another site that made it easy to publicize a ebay store.  Today, however, I found ListMyStore.com.  They run rather professional site where you can list your eBay store for free and you get added to a sitewide search and directory.  Really quite impressive.

The only small caveat I’ve found so far is that your position in the directory is dependant on how much traffic you send back to ListMyStore.  Not entirely a bad deal considering that their service is free.

Head on over and give it a look.  If you have an eBay store, sign it up.  It may well be worth the effort.

[tags]listmystore, ebay, ebay stores, listing, auction, traffic[/tags]

Network solutions company, MonsterCommerce, is waiving its store setup fee for anyone who makes the switch from eBay Stores to its ecommerce software shopping cart. MonsterCommerce’s virtual shopping cart software offers several advantages over that offered by eBay Stores.