You may have learned of eBay as a marketplace where you can sell off outdated items that take up space in your house, garage, or attic. However, over time eBay has evolved into more than just a platform for selling unwanted goods.
The possibilities provided by eBay go far beyond selling off old holiday gifts or collectibles. Over 22 million UK users who wouldn’t have thought about starting a business are now able to do so, thanks to eBay.
As more people use the internet to purchase and sell things, the opportunity to generate a solid or supplementary income through the eBay platform grows.
This blog post will expound on everything you need to know about eBay shop subscription as a UK seller. We go over
- What is an ebay shop subscription
- Benefits of an ebay shop subscription
- Fees for ebay shops
- The best way to sell your inventory (with or without an ebay shop)
What Is a Shop Subscription on eBay?
Users of eBay can now create online shops on the platform. A brand-named business page on eBay is essentially what an eBay shop is. Sellers can showcase all listings in one location by setting up an eBay shop.
Additionally, you can customize your store to represent your business better, and you even get a unique store URL. You can also list your products for much longer than you can with a typical consumer eBay account, and vendors with shops usually get discounts.
Sellers with an eBay shop have access to several options that provide prospective buyers with a more physical store-like experience. For instance, prospective purchasers can browse products by category, conduct a store-wide search for particular items, or even subscribe to a newsletter. Although it’s not much, it does give volume merchants a few more choices.
You also get lower costs and more options to advertise your business on eBay when you subscribe to an eBay store. You can enjoy such backend advantages as additional free listings and access to eBay’s Promotions Manager.
Benefits of an eBay Shop Subscription
A monthly subscription to an eBay shop entitles you to various features, including a customized shopfront, depending on your shop level. Although you are not required to have a shop to sell on eBay, you should get one if you intend to expand your operations and gain access to various advantages.
The benefits of an eBay shop range from securing a strategic position on the platform and staying on top of the cut-throat competition to offering discounted fees and customized shop experiences for your customers.
Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of an eBay shop subscription.
Discounted Fees
As an eBay seller, you know that the site offers regular sellers 50 free listings with no insertion fees. After that, each subsequent listing costs £0.35. Subscribing to an eBay shop gets you more free listings, depending on the subscription plan you use. For example the basic ebay shop can give you around 250 free listings!
That might not seem to be a significant benefit at the Starter level, but if you post hundreds or thousands of listings monthly, you will see the tremendous benefit of an eBay subscription that can save you a fortune.
Secondly, the final value fee for regular sellers in most categories is a flat 10-12.8% of the final sale price. But the maximum final value cost for eBay shop subscribers is capped . This could help you save big if you sell a lot of expensive items.
If you sell electronics, where the final value fees typically vary from 4-6.15%, the eBay shop subscription might also be worthwhile, at least for the final value fee slash.
Better Product Exposure
You can increase the exposure of your items with an eBay shop subscription. This exposure attracts more people to your online shop who can potentially become constant consumers. Based on a report by eBay, on average, three months after opting for eBay shop subscriptions, sales increase by up to 25%.
One of the primary methods for customers to find things on eBay is through internal search results. A number of variables are included on the search help page under the “best match” search. A shop subscription brings your products before your prospective buyers using the personalized URL provided by eBay for your shop.
Many of the features an eBay shop offers can also give your listings better prominence in the search results on Google and other search engine websites.
Additionally, you have the invaluable chance to choose your keywords and meta tags for Google crawling, for instance, by using the Search Engine Keywords function in “Manage My Store.”
Access the “Good Till Cancelled” Option
As earlier stated, the benefits of an eBay shop subscription are beyond just discounted fees and a branded area for your products. It also gives you access to specific tools that help you manage your business correctly.
One such tool is the “Good Till Cancelled” feature available to eBay shop subscribers. eBay shop subscribers can use this function to automatically set a product to relist every 30 days. As long as you don’t actively stop the item from listing, the platform continues to relist your products for you.
In turn, the listing’s position in the Best Match search results will improve as a result of the improved sales history for your listings.
eBay Shop Subscription Fees
You have many plans to pick from when you first sign up for an eBay shop subscription. However, each has its unique pricing structure. Personal eBay accounts are cost-free. But business accounts provide businesses with more potent selling points, so they come with a fee attached.
Here are the eBay shop subscription plans and their respective fees.
- Starter: The Starter plan is the most basic and straightforward of all the eBay shop subscription tiers. It is more suitable for eBay sellers who post a few listings but still want to add a shop front to promote and brand their products. It comes at a monthly fee of £4.41 when you subscribe to a yearly plan and 250 monthly free auction and fixed-price listings.
- Basic: The Basic plan is not too different from the starter, except for lower insertion fees. It is a perfect fit for sellers who want more free listings, lower insertion fees, and free coupons for eBay-branded shipping supplies. The Basic plan attracts a monthly fee of £19.54 for an annual subscription. It also has 1000 monthly free auction and fixed-price listings.
- Premium: This shop is better for sellers with extensive listings who want to reach a bigger audience. This eBay plan also has a sizable amount of zero insertion fees. However, it attracts a monthly fee of £53.38 with an even lower insertion fee and 10000 fixed-price listings and 500 auction listings per month.
- Anchor: The Anchor plan is meant for high-volume sellers with a large selection of products or who operate a business that would profit from specialized customer service. This is because it offers extensive product listing and fewer insertion fees. It also includes a monthly fee of £267.18 when you opt for an annual subscription. In addition, you get 25,000 monthly fixed-price listings, 1000 free auction listings in select categories, and dedicated eBay customer support.
- Enterprise: This shop plan has over 100,000 free fixed-price listings and the lowest insertions. It is perfect for high-volume sellers with extensive collections who would benefit from dedicated customer support. It also offers 2,500 free auction listings in select categories and reliable customer support from eBay. But it is not available for only an annual subscription at £2653.77
Insertion Fees
The amount a seller pays to list products on eBay is called an insertion fee. eBay sellers are entitled to up to 250 free product listings monthly or more if they subscribe to an eBay shop. Therefore, this listing cost only applies after you have used up your permitted amount. No matter the final or reserve price, the current eBay insertion charge is $0.35 per item per category.
How to Cancel an eBay Shop Subscription
If you are going away for a long and won’t be available, you can decide to put your eBay shop on “Holiday” mode, so buyers know you are unavailable. However, if you want to cancel your eBay shop subscription, here is what you should do.
- Go to your eBay account and log in.
- Visit the page for subscriptions.
- Next to your active shop subscription, select “Cancel Subscription.”
- Your eBay Shop subscription will now be cancelled along with any add-ons you may have acquired.
However, eBay saves your information for up to 30 days, assuming you change your mind and return.
Bottom Line
An eBay shop subscription is a critical decision regarding profit-making in your eBay business. It helps you draw clients and make sure they will purchase from your eBay business by providing features that give your online shop a physical experience.
Now that you know the benefits associated with an eBay shop subscription, you can decide whether or not you need to jump on this opportunity to upgrade your eBay business.
The Best Way to Sell Faster
Increase the speed your inventory moves is key to having a profitable ebay business. You need to utilize ever advantage you can get and cannot afford to overlook anything. Here’s our best way to sell your inventory faster.
AUTOMATION.
Many ebay sellers make use of automation tools like the following to increase their sales in a fraction of the time.
SellerAider’s crosslisting app enables you to automatically list your products to different marketplaces automatically. The more marketplaces you list on increase your chances of selling! So what happens when an item sells? When a listing sells you can use our crosslisting app to automatically delist on all marketplaces as well.
This is only one of countless time saving features our app has.
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