3 Disadvantages of eBay Stores for Home-Based Business Owners
Whether you are an experienced eBay seller or just getting started on the platform, setting up an eBay store is a great way to reach new customers. If you have dreamed about starting your own home business, opening an eBay store is an easy way to enter the world of entrepreneurship. Be warned, however—there are some disadvantages of eBay stores you should be aware of first:
1. Higher Final Value fees
The cost of Final Value fees is one of biggest drawbacks to an eBay store. The Final Value fee is the cut that eBay takes from the sale after an item sells. These fees are almost twice that of eBay's regular listings. You can compare the two to see the differences: standard eBay fees vs. eBay Store fees. You will have to price your items with this extra level of fees in mind.
2. No Built-in traffic
Many people mistakenly assume that an eBay store will automatically tap into eBay's huge user base of built-in traffic. This is not true and the reason for this has to do with searches. Items listed in eBay stores do not show up in eBay searches. When a search is entered within eBay (either by typing in keywords or by browsing categories), only the regular eBay listings show up (except in some special circumstances). But, in general, you will not benefit from eBay's built-in traffic unless you take some other actions to drive traffic to your store. The only time you will directly benefit from eBay's built-in traffic is when users explicitly browse the eBay stores (don't count on getting much traffic this way).
More articles by AllBusiness.com:
- 6 Secrets to Growing a Successful Home-Based Business
- 101 Secrets to Running a Successful Home-Based Business
- The eBay Business Plan
- Is eBay Still a Viable Home Based Business?
3. Subdomain of eBay
You only get a subdomain URL with an eBay store and you don't really own the domain name. For example, if you started an eBay store called "High Flying Stunt Kites," you would get a URL like this: stores.ebay.com/high-flying-stunt-kites. This would create a problem if you ever wanted to grow your business off eBay—you would not be able to move that domain name off eBay to another hosting provider. You would have to get a new domain name, such as www.high-flying-stunt-kites.com and start over. Any inbound links you had would have to be re-established, and any external sources that pointed to your eBay store would have to be changed.
As with any business decision, you'll need to weigh the pros and cons of launching an eBay store. Before jumping into an eBay store for your home-based or small business, make sure you take into account these disadvantages of eBay stores and assess whether or not the platform will work for you.
