One, or maybe the biggest in and of itself, obstacles facing eBay store owners is the “invisible store” phenomena.
It has always been a problem, for years in fact. eBay has always focused on auctions first, second and last with stores visibility hardly ever registering on the radar.
The problem is much worse now with eBay’s rather complex and always auction tilted search changes, some say even due to Best Match.
Add to this the fact that items with free shipping are not accepted by the Google Base Uploader because the shipping field requires that it contain an actual value, not zero, not null. This works against the eBay incentive to offer free shipping in return for more visibility on the eBay site. More visibility there yet no visibility on Google.
Personally I think it’s Google that needs to re-think this one and change it. Many people blame eBay however I do not feel it’s any of their fault. Their incentive for the seller to offer free shipping in return for more positive placement in search results is a good one. Google’s requirement that the shipping field have a value other than zero or null is hurting the thousands of tangible items with free shipping as well as services, since services do not require shipping either. I suspect that I will get a decent bit of support on this one………….
Back to zero visibility for eBay stores. eBay has THE market for sales, so what on earth is one to do?
With each challenge eBay tosses out into the playing field to it’s store owners, I have found these challenges to be comparable to the glass half full / glass half empty theory.
I consider these challenges to be falling into my half full glass.
Why?
Each challenge and especially this one, the incredible ever invisible store scenario, forces me to come up with creative solutions to drive traffic to my eBay store.
Today and tomorrow I’m going to share some of these solutions with you. I’ve found them to be extremely helpful and effective in driving said traffic to my eBay store, and perhaps you will too. Some are old, tried and true techniques, others I’ve literally stumbled upon in the course of doing other marketing work online.
For today, here’s 3:
1) Run a few auctions every week and always include a link back to your eBay store in the auction listing ~ let people know they can find good deals there as well, and they don’t have to wait. They can have whatever it is NOW.
2) Have a website and an eBay store? Sell different items in each. Never the same items in both!
However the trick is to put a link to an eBay store category on a complimentary web store category page.
Let’s say you sell jewelry. Sell lanyards in your web store and sell eyeglass chains in your eBay store. On the lanyards category page in your web store, underneath the quality content that you have on that category page, include a link that says something like “Looking for eyeglass chains? View our selection here!” Embed the link to your eBay store eyeglass chains category in the word “here”, and be sure to include ?refid=store at the end of that link.
Why?
Should a shopper click on that link and buy something from your eBay store, you’ll get your 75% final value fee credit and save a bundle! Unless, of course, you do not care about saving on eBay fees………………
Also make sure you have the link open in a new tab or new window. This ensures that your customer will never be cut off from your web store even though they’ve gone to your eBay store. Who knows what they will buy next???? Never say never.
3) Whenever you list new items in your eBay store, Twitter that. You’ll gain Twitter followers, traffic, and some sales, eventually.
That’s all for now. Tomorrow I’ll give you some more tips on how to avoid the “invisible eBay store” phenomena ~ utilizing your blog, your affiliate websites and eBay store SEO.
