Follow-Up to The Case For Yahoo Stores Over eBay Stores
I've been asked several times, since I posted my comparison of Yahoo Stores to eBay Stores, why I didn't compare Yahoo Stores to eBay's Pro Stores instead. The reason is simple, with the reduction in visibility of eBay Stores on eBay.com, store sellers are now forced to market to buyers directly. eBay's preferred method for that is Auctions but most sellers consider Auctions as costly advertising for their stores.
eBay stores are now in the same place as Yahoo Stores and for that matter Pro Stores, in regards to exposure, they have to spend additional money and effort to get buyers to their stores. Yahoo Stores require the seller to spend additional money and effort to bring buyers to their stores as well but that is factored into the pricing. With eBay stores you get charged too much for the exposure they currently provide and seller still needs to spend additional dollars or effort on advertising/exposure.
Yahoo Stores offers some great promotional incentives that eBay Stores do not offer and with Yahoo Stores you own the customer not the marketplace.
5 comments:
With eBay stores you don't own the URL. You get something like this:
stores.ebay.com/mycoolstore
With both ProStores (as I understand it) and Yahoo! stores you supply the URL as in:
www.mycoolstore.com
That is advantageous from the persepective of managing change (eg: moving to a different host if you want to). Can't exactly do that with eBay stores so I would put them in a different class as the other two,
Cheers!
Frank, yes eBay Stores are in a different class than the other 2
but I'm not comparing the platforms, I'm comparing the economics. With eBay stores there is a perception of minimal risk. $15.95 basic store fee maybe 100 items listed another $5 to $7 for listings fees. If I don't sell anything I don't have to pay anything else but I'll probably sell a few things.
Please put your own listing numbers into the Google spreadsheet I linked to and see the savings you would achieve.
Thanks Randy -- I did that, but if I am reading the Yahoo offer correctly, it is no transaction fee for 6 months if you use PayPal Express Checkout. But after that?
The Yahoo Transaction fee is one problem I have had with Yahoo Stores all along. That's a percentage you don't pay anywhere else (eg MonsterCommerce, FinestShops, etc). I understand that you get some value from being able to use the Yahoo brand on your site but you don't get any free traffic from them. So that transaction fee has always been difficult to justify for me. What do you think or am I missing something?
Frank, the transaction fee is a little high for a comparable platform. Pro Stores charge .50% and I believe Amazon charges a higher percentage for WebStores.
I have a friend who is setting up his Yahoo store right now and facing challenges integrating with his systems. There are pros and cons to each platform out there. I am not suggesting one store over another. My focus was to alert eBay Store owners that there are other options out there especially since they are being required to spend time and additional money to get activity at their eBay store.
If the 10% FVF and the listings fees that they pay to eBay brought in traffic to their stores I would never have made the comparison.
You make some valid points regarding the platform.
Thanks for the clarification Randy, FYI Amazon Webstores charges us 8% which is a bit of a rip. But it is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Amazon is acting as the Payment processor (no payment fees on top of that 8%) and there is some Amazon integration (like integrated Amazon customer reviews). But how true, we always need to keep our eyes on other options. I certainly like Yahoo stores but wish they provided some value other than their name for that fee. Have a great weekend!
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