Setting up an eBay shop: A complete guide for retailers to get started with eBay store

Setting up an eBay store has become retail’s new normal to meet evolving customer experience requirements.

The online marketplace—like eBay—represents a one-stop shopping platform for customers. Thanks to accessibility and ease of use, more people than ever are going online to explore product offerings and deals, compare product prices, and purchase any item with the touch of a button anytime and anywhere.

From a seller’s perspective, this boom in ecommerce is rife with opportunity. One smart strategy for retailers is to leverage the wide user base of the eBay store (187 million active buyers and counting) and make their product catalog visible to potential customers. With a subscription to the eBay store, retailers can diversify their selling channels and make their entry into the online marketplace.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a dramatic shift in customer behavior, specifically customers switching to online shopping platforms. This shift is causing retailers to respond and adopt a multichannel strategy to grab customer attention. One way to navigate this ecommerce revolution is for small businesses to use an online selling platform, such as eBay.

If you’ve never set up an eBay storefront and are curious about eBay shops, its benefits to retailers, and the cost of listing products, this blog is for you. Everything related to building a store, subscription packages, and tools that make selling products easier are all here.

eBay is a global leader and preeminent online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers on its platform. By setting up an eBay store, retailers can manage everything in one place. From customizing their product lists and updating inventory to managing prices, eBay stores make everything easier for retailers and eliminate the need for juggling with formats.

 In fact, eBay allows you to customize an ecommerce store to reflect your brand and even provides a URL to your unique store. 

You might be wondering, Why should I try to attract customers with an eBay shop instead of starting a dedicated online store?

That’s a fair question. It will take work to establish an eBay store. It takes a great deal of effort to construct a successful online store, including the selection of an appropriate price optimization strategy, using efficient marketing tools to update the product catalog, and more. So, is it worth the time and effort?

Before launching a store on eBay, there are a few key statistics and facts to consider that will help you craft a successful eBay strategy for your ecommerce store. To wit:

“There are around 187 million users, 19 million sellers and 1.6 billion product listings on eBay in 2021. Though eBay is headquartered in the US, it has a global presence in around 190 different markets. 57% of its revenue is through international operations.”

Statistics also show that more than 3 out of every 10 US mobile users have downloaded the eBay app. Overall, the eBay app has been downloaded more than 476 million times.

Furthermore, studies conclude that the eBay app also offers the widest reach compared to other Android retail apps worldwide. It is estimated that 6.27% of all Android owners use the app and make around 2 billion transactions every day. eBay’s global popularity makes them a must-have among retailers.

Whether you’re an established entrepreneur or a startup thinking of launching an online store, the numbers and data demonstrate that eBay is a viable option to target new customers and generate revenue.

Taking your business to a digital platform can ensure notable short- and long-term gains. In fact, diversifying a business is the smartest move a retailer can make now. Having more than one way of reaching customers and generating revenue is a sure way to keep you in the marketplace and competitive for the foreseeable future. 

For those brick-and-mortar business owners who are still unsure about an eBay store, here are a few benefits to encourage you to set up an eBay store as quickly as possible. 

• Increased sales: As previously mentioned, a seller can make their products visible to 187 million active users. eBay’s wide product reach translates into more orders. According to market reports, sellers with an eBay presence have seen a rise in sales as high as 25% within three months.  
  

• eBay provides the ability to customize a shop that reflects your brand. Retailers can tailor the entire structure of the shop to support their marketing strategies, including product categories, search bars, cross-selling banners, and more.
  

• eBay leads to cheaper, easier, and faster business expansion. Launching an eBay store is more cost-effective than setting up a traditional retail store. eBay provides all the tools and services to help build an ecommerce store in no time at all, no matter what kind of web design expertise you have.   

• Increased brand awareness. By leveraging the large customer base of eBay, small retailers can quickly expand their reach. Usually, the general rule of thumb is to implement the right search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to rank high on search engine result pages. However, by choosing an ecommerce solution that offers SEO optimization capabilities, small businesses can dramatically boost their brand awareness and site searchability.  
  

• No automatic expiration of products. Another benefit of launching an eBay store is that your product list will stay live until you manually remove it. Product lists do not expire once you list your products in the store. 

• Customers are more willing to buy from a shop that looks professional and polished. If you look like a legitimate retailer with a strong brand, it makes it easier for people to trust your business and feel more confident purchasing from your online store.
  

• Managing stock and generating a profit from it is a complex task, to say the least. Thanks to eBay tools, managing your business becomes easier and more efficient.

How to set up an eBay store and determine its cost

Here are the three simple steps to start your own unique eBay store:

1. Sign up as a seller/retailer.
2. Choose a subscription plan and decide what to name your store. 
3. Leverage the available tools to maximize business profit.

eBay provides you with five different store options: Starter, Basic, Premium, Anchor, and Enterprise. Each store has its own access features and monthly subscription charges. Here is an infographic with pertinent details:

Starter and Basic monthly subscriptions are suitable for occasional sellers, whereas Premium, Anchor, and Enterprise options are for established businesses. The subscription requirements are:

• Starter or Basic store: must be PayPal-verified. 
• Feature, Anchor, or Enterprise: PayPal-verified, a registered seller on eBay, and possess an “Above Standard” seller level.

After selecting a subscription plan, go to the eBay Shop and choose the kind of shop you would like to create. Then access design tools to customize the look of your store. When you’re ready to start selling on the eBay store, pay the Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees.

To make your shop stand apart in the marketplace, make sure you customize it using eBay design tools and personalize your online shop.

1. Choose your shop name. Use your brand name, or choose a name that sounds professional, reflects your product type, speaks to a demographic, or one that you feel will match your marketing plan. 
2. Customize your store’s header. Headers feature a range of items, such as the store’s name, brand logo, search bar, a subscription link, product categories, and more. 

Helpful Hint: Your store banner is much like a Facebook cover photo—it expresses the personality of your business. If you have a logo, it should be professional and clean to further attract the attention of your customers.

Product listing is one of the major elements of setting up an eBay store. It’s a relatively simple process, but before you try to immediately start selling merchandise, select the appropriate product category.

Setting up your store category is important as it helps buyers find your store. Once you select the category, listing formats automatically appear in your store.

There are a few product listing strategies that help you optimize your listing and sell products on eBay. Following these practices will help you boost your sales.

Tip 1: Use professional product imagery

The quality of a product’s image can be a great motivator for users to make a purchase. Using professional product images from different angles will give a fair idea about the product. For example, give the customer an idea of what the product will look like in their daily life. Using other objects, shadows, and varied positioning are effective methods of bringing a product to life.

Professional images exude an air of sophistication and credibility. You will be taken seriously as an authentic business as compared to a casual seller. 

Helpful Hint: Use eBay’s product image guidelines to provide direction for the kind of imagery you want to present. If you decide to shoot the images yourself, select a white background, turn off the flash, use soft-diffused light, and capture images using a tripod.

Tip 2: Enrich your listing with product descriptions and keywords

Add a clear description of each product to show buyers what they are purchasing. Provide details about its features, measurements, dimensions, color, and its usage. Also, add a note about how to use it. 

To make your products easier to find online, be sure your product descriptions use keywords that are search engine optimized. Proper SEO will help your business rise to the top of a search engine’s results.

Tip 3: Pay attention to customer feedback and support

To avoid receiving negative feedback, make sure you deliver products as stated in your terms of service, on time, and in pristine condition. Also, have a clear return policy in place and respond to inquiries quickly with solutions.

Helpful Hint: To manage any exaggerated, inaccurate, or fraudulent feedback, eBay provides the option to request a revision.

Tip 4: Closely monitor your sales

To gain better insight into your sales and automate various operations like sales tracking, printing invoices, use a product listing management tool.

For your business to efficiently process sales, there are a number of tools that make it easy.

1. Product listing management tools

To create and manage your eBay store listing, it is worth integrating a product listing management tool. Apart from managing your product list, this tool helps track the status of sales and perform post-sales shipping operations from one place. 

For a large enterprise with a high-volume inventory, this type of tool is a must to streamline the entire selling process. While Selling Manager Pro is eBay’s product  listing management tool, the Cin7 Orderhive Product listing management tool helps your business spread its reach to multiple channels with a one-time listing.

2. Inventory management tool

Whether you are a Premium or an Anchor subscriber of your eBay store, you are almost certainly handling a high volume of inventory. Keeping manual track of a large amount of inventory creates opportunities for all kinds of errors. Therefore, it’s worth implementing inventory management tools to keep an accurate count of your stock and track all your existing and future inventory.

Such systems can help you plan and forecast customer purchasing patterns and restock your inventory based on live data. There are a number of key benefits and features of inventory management software that enable you to boost your growth in the marketplace.

3. Improve customer experience with shipping labels

To score positive customer feedback, it is important to ensure an excellent customer experience. By using shipping labels, you can offer a hassle-free way to track shipments. The barcodes available on shipping labels contain all the necessary information about the shipment. By just scanning a barcode, sellers can store data, track shipping status, and provide buyers with easy product returns.

With the availability of various seller tools and eBay features, setting up an eBay store and running it successfully becomes an easy task for sellers. All it requires is a little time  to determine the appropriate tools for your business. Whether you are interested in launching a basic shop or a premium eBay store, you can learn more about those tools by booking a free demo here.