eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 12. Making the eBay Store Decision

Once you've started selling successfully on eBay and you're earnest in your commitment to running a business online, it's time to open your eBay Store. Many new sellers make the mistake of opening a store first, find their sales abysmal, and give up. Opening your store too soon can be an expensive and disheartening mistake. You need to know the ropes first. You need to have a decent number of transactions under your belt so you know what to expect. By the time you reach PowerSeller status, you have the experience — but you still need the caution.

Making the decision to open an eBay Store can expand your business when planned properly. The more that savvy buyers learn about the eBay Stores, the more popular they become. The more popular they become, the more people buy from them. Simple. An eBay Store provides you with your own little corner of eBay in which you can leverage your good relationships with your customers to promote your auctions — and sell directly to those loyal customers. But having an eBay Store is not a total solution or a one-way ticket to easy street.

The purpose of expanding your eBay business is to make more money, not to start losing money. Big businesses expand in order to make more money, even though their costs may increase. There's always risk involved in any business venture, but with experience on the site and what you learn in this book, hopefully you can minimize that risk. In this practice, I lead you ...