Expand your retail business on eBay

Setting up shop
Setting up a proper store on eBay requires some search engine marketing savvy, says Elms, since eBay Stores often show up in searches done on Google, Yahoo! and other online search engines. Each eBay Store has a title, which, she advises, should include words that describe your business in 35 characters or less. Using keywords related to what you sell in your Store title will yield a higher ranking in search results. For example, Elms' eBay Store name, Auction Profit Education Consulting, has resulted in 41 percent of her traffic coming from Google, which ranks her within the top five results of a search for "eBay consultant."

Schepp adds that retailers should make every effort to keep their feedback scores--the comments from buyers that indicate whether their experience was positive or negative--high. Positive feedback is the backbone of a successful eBay enterprise.

"Serious sellers guard their eBay feedback more closely than their inventories," she says. "If your feedback rating is 97 [percent positive feedback] or less, you are suspect on eBay."

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Schepp says that the best way to maintain positive feedback is to give truthful descriptions of products, use clear pictures, and keep buyers apprised of the selling process, shipping fees and status of their auction at all times. Stack found that adding a freight calculator to his website, accessible from his eBay listings, was a popular feature with customers, who could then avoid sticker shock when learning the fees for shipping his large equipment.

Schepp adds that eBay can be a valuable part of a trade-in program. "Offer your current customers trade-ins on their used products, and sell those items on eBay," she advises. "That way, you turn every sale into three sales."

With ample tools and resources to get retailers started in e-commerce, eBay offers a turnkey solution for taking part in a $34 billion marketplace. That's something few independent retailers can do on their own.

"I think at a certain point, you have to look at every possible opportunity," says Spriggs. "Look at just the sheer number of eyes you get on eBay. They're definitely the dominant force. They're definitely where you go. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of eBay."

More than just auctions
Want to complement your retail store with a complete e-commerce suite? eBay has the answer. In June, the company launched ProStores, a turnkey e-commerce solution for retailers who wish to sell online.

ProStores creates online stores that are separate from eBay.com. So, while eBay Stores are collections of a seller's current listings on eBay and have eBay's logo on each page, ProStores is all about you and your business. The fully customizable product uses your own domain and is easy to tailor to the look and feel of your business, says Chris Tsakalakis, senior director of eBay Stores.

ProStores is still compatible with eBay, and it allows you to easily create and list auction-formatted or fixed-price products directly onto eBay.com. ProStores is also compatible with PayPal, allowing retailers to accept credit cards without having to apply for their own merchant accounts.

"This is more than just a website," says Tsakalakis. "You get a shopping cart, a product catalog and full customization capabilities. It's a solution for retailers who want to get started selling online, but who want to keep their costs down."

Of course, ProStores users don't have the traffic of eBay's 147 million registered users. ProStores sellers must drive their own site traffic. For retailers interested in getting started online, ProStores offers a single-source option to get an online store up and running for an affordable monthly fee.

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