Why eBay Shops are a Better Alternative to Listing Auction Only and Buy It Now

To most people ‘eBay’ simply means ‘Auction’, a place where would-be buyers bid (increase their own over other potential buyers’ offer price) for specific items (called ‘lots’), a process that continues until a price is reached which only one person is prepared to pay, that person becoming the winning bidder and eventual new owner of the item . 

That’s how eBay got started but auction represents just a small part of how people buy and sell on eBay today. 

Though auction remains the best way to achieve high prices for rare and unique items, one finds consumer goods, favoured by most eBay PowerSellers, offered almost exclusively Buy It Now (instant purchase) through eBay Shops in preference to auction or Buy It Now in traditional 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 day listings. 

**  eBay Shops are inexpensive to run and (in the right hands) can be immensely profitable  **

eBay Shops have much in common with other retail outlets operating on high streets in villages, towns and cities all over the country, all over the world, the most obvious difference being that high street sellers typically work face-to-face with customers, on eBay all the buying and selling is done on computer.

In reality there’s a world of difference between how eBay’s virtual shops operate compared to their high street, colloquially termed ‘bricks and mortar’, counterparts. 

For example:

*  On eBay you can stock as much as or even more than your biggest high street competitors, both paying a tiny fraction of their running costs and undercutting their prices considerably.  And no one will ever guess you are a one man or one woman operation or that you work entirely from home. 

*  eBay’s heavy insistence on fair play for customers and sellers, and urgency to remove rogue traders and troublesome buyers, represents credibility that’s rarely found elsewhere, even in the biggest of high street companies.

*  On the high street, customers expect to pay for and pick up goods the same day, most would prefer to leave a shop empty handed than wait for replacement stock.  On eBay, though you must only list items you already possess or can quickly obtain, you can order stock after orders arrive or have dropshippers fulfil direct to your customers.  

*  Because you don’t have to stock up with duplicate products of all shapes and sizes you’ll rarely have valuable space eaten up by outdated, old-fashioned or damaged goods.

You can sell worldwide from a corner of your living room; take time off when you want to; you can even ban undesirable people from bidding or buying in your eBay Shop; earn money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ….. compare that to being always available offline; working 9 to 5 even when it’s pouring down and the high street’s empty; tackling difficult customers  ….  no wonder so many first time and veteran retailers swear by that best of all trading models … eBay!