If y'all desire to build a profitable ecommerce business organization that stands the test of time, you lot need to register your ain domain and start your own web site.

Most people who aren't tech savvy often question their ain abilities and end upward relying on 3rd party marketplaces like Ebay to implement their website shop for them.

Here's why starting an Ebay shop is a bad idea.

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Ebay Doesn't Have Your Interests In Heed

Ebay, like most publicly traded companies, is primarily concerned with their ain growth and stock toll. They don't care whether y'all are successful, nor do they intendance whether you lot provide a genuine service to the community.

They'll exercise whatever it takes to demonstrate growth and make shareholders happy.

What this ways is that yous are always at their mercy. They can switch up the rules whenever they desire and drastically impact your sales. They can also ban your sellers account at any time.

Over the years, Ebay has fabricated dramatic changes that have put many sellers out of business organization. As a slave to their platform, yous can never be conceited and they go along to heighten prices to appease Wall Street.

Let's take a quick peek at Ebay'southward selling fees in the table below.

Basic fees for sale-fashion and stock-still price listings
Insertion fee (per listing) Last value fee (per item)
Your showtime fifty listings
(per month)
Free 10% of the total amount of the auction
All additional listings over l
(per month)
$0.30
All your listings appropriate for and listed in theMusical Instruments & Gear > Guitars & Basses category Complimentary 3.5% of the total amount of the sale

In addition to the final value fees listed above, Ebay also likes to nickel and dime yous with listing fees equally shown in the table below.

Upgrade Starting or Buy Information technology Now price: under $150 Starting or Purchase It At present price: $150 or more
one, iii, v, 7, and 10-day duration thirty-day and Expert 'Til Cancelled one, 3, 5, 7, and 10-day duration 30-twenty-four hours and Adept 'Til Cancelled
Scheduled List Free Free
Listing Designer $0.10 $0.30 $0.20 $0.60
Gallery Plus $0.35 $one.00 $0.lxx $2.00
Subtitle $0.50 $1.l $1.00 $3.00
Value Pack $0.65 $2.00 $one.xxx $4.00
Bold $ii.00 $4.00 $3.00 $half dozen.00
International site visibility Auction-style listings (all durations) Fixed price listings (all durations)
Starting price Fee $0.fifty
$0.01 – $9.99 $0.10
$10.00 – $49.99 $0.20
$50 or more $0.40

As you tin see, the listing fee tabular array is fairly intricate and intentionally complicated so you don't realize how much information technology costs to list an item.

Bottom line, if you open a store on Ebay, they will take between 10-11% percent of your gross sales right off the bat.

If yous also have into business relationship the fact that you take to use Paypal for your transactions, you end up paying Ebay about 11-xiv% of your total revenue.

In add-on to this, you likewise take to pay a monthly store membership fee for the privilege of creating a web presence on a platform that y'all practise not command.

For a long time now, Ebay'southward growth has been stagnant. Practise yous really want to host your ecommerce business with a company that hasn't grown or innovated for years?

In any case, here's how much Ebay charges for store membership fees.

Note: The divergence in plans comes downward to how many listings you lot programme on having in your shop and whether yous need defended customer support. Ebay shops also become a slight discount on the final value fees

Subscription fees
Store blazon Monthly subscription fee Yearly subscription fee
Starter $vii.95 per month $iv.95 per month
Basic $27.95 per month $21.95 per month
Premium $74.95 per month $59.95 per month
Anchor $349.95 per calendar month $299.95 per calendar month
Enterprise No monthly plan $2999.95 per month

As you can probably tell, Ebay's listing and selling fees starting time to add upward to a lot of money!

Editor's Notation: If you are tired of paying Ebay's loftier fees, then consider these alternatives to Ebay

EBay May Charge You A 4% Fine For Certain Listings

Ebay silently began imposing a 4% fine for sellers with below standard accounts. A below standard seller is a vendor who…

  • Ships packages late more ofttimes than average
  • Has a higher than average defect or "particular not as described" charge per unit
  • Has an higher up average unresolved dispute rate

As a result, it is imperative that you maintain an "above standard" Ebay rating or risk getting charged even more to sell on their platform.

Ebay's iv% fine is on meridian of the concluding value fee that is incurred with every sale. Because Ebay is so competitive, there accept been reports of unscrupulous sellers who purposely sabotage other sellers by making faux purchases and leaving negative feedback.

Be careful!

Ebay Shoppers Often Don't Pay Or Alter Their Mind

Every time a heir-apparent successfully wins an auction for an item you sell, Ebay charges y'all a concluding value fee. Yet, sometimes the client has buyer's remorse and decides not to pay.

When this happens, Ebay still charges you a final value fee unless you manually request a refund using their unpaid item procedure. If you sell many items through Ebay, this tin be a very tedious process.

While Ebay has introduced an unpaid item banana to help with this result, not all sellers accept access to this tool.

Ebay Sellers Volition Re-create Your Images And Listings

Because Ebay is such a cut pharynx marketplace, there is rampant piracy. Unscrupulous sellers will steal your images and your list verbiage and sell your verbal aforementioned items alongside of you.

Even though you can report these dirty sellers to Ebay and accept them taken downwards, information technology's like playing whack a mole. As before long every bit one copycat goes down, another one pops upwardly.

Ebay Has A Long List Of Prohibited Items That You lot Tin can't Sell

Dissimilar a normal store that you control, at that place'south a long list of products that you are not allowed to sell on Ebay.

These items include

  • Adult items – Ebay technically allows adult items to exist sold on their platform. However, developed items are always subject field to some course of brake at Ebay'southward discretion. In general, developed items will accept limited visibility on Ebay and y'all tin can not advertise.
  • Booze – Ebay does not permit the sale of booze except for pre-canonical sellers who can sell wine only.
  • Animals and wild fauna – Pets and most live animals can not be sold on Ebay
  • Fine art – While you are allowed to sell works of fine art on Ebay, there are many rules and guidelines regarding how to create listings to sell reproductions, replicas and original works of art.
  • Artifacts – Items taken from government or protected land, historical grave sites, or shipwrecks tin can not be sold on eBay
  • Used wear – Outside of used underwear and socks, about used clothing can be listed on Ebay
  • Credit and debit cards – Due to fraud risk, credit and debit cards can not be sold
  • Drugs and drug paraphernalia – The sale of drugs are forbidden on eBay including drug related accessories similar vaporizers, pipes etc…
  • Firearms and weapons – Firearms and weapons can non be sold on Ebay. Still certain firearm parts and accessories are allowed equally long every bit they obey Ebay'southward guidelines
  • Food – Unpasteurized dairy products, fruits and vegetable juices are not allowed. Expired food is non immune either.
  • Souvenir cards – Gift cards can be sold but the total face value must be $500 or less. As well, the gift card must be in hand and ship within five days upon auction closing.
  • Chancy materials – Hazmat goods similar fire extinguishers, refrigerants, and flammable goods can't be listed on eBay.
  • Lock picking devices – Lockpicking or locksmithing devices are not allowed.
  • Chance listings – Mystery listings or sweepstakes are not allowed to be sold on Ebay
  • Mailing lists and social media – Selling personal data or social media accounts is prohibited
  • Coupons – You can sell up to 25 coupons worth $100 in total per thirty-day menses
  • Stamps, currency and coins – All currency for sale must be graded by an Ebay approved company
  • Used cosmetics – Used cosmetics can not be sold on Ebay

Ebay Stores Don't Provide Design Flexibility

Unless yous feel like paying hundreds of dollars a month, Ebay profoundly limits what yous can do with your storefront.

They try to bundle their stores with design tools to add together value, just nearly or all of these tools are bachelor on the web for free already thanks to companies like Google.

To requite you an idea of how restrictive an Ebay store can exist, the "Anchor" membership which costs $300 a calendar month, allows you to build a handful of custom webpages. And the pattern of these pages is very canned.

Hither'south a what a folio looks similar..

ebay store

In this day and age, $300/month is an egregious amount to be paying for a uncomplicated website builder. Meanwhile, you can build unlimited pages on your own website that you host yourself.

Ebay Shoppers are Inherently Cheap

When I shop on Ebay, I look for bargains. Especially since most of the stores on Ebay are mom and pop shops or individuals working out of their home, people mostly look to pay less for their merchandise versus a existent shop.

What this ways is that you will rarely get tiptop dollar for your items. Because you are limited by what Ebay allows you to do with your store design, the just manner to differentiate yourself is to lower your prices which will cutting into your margins.

In full general, the Ebay marketplace is extremely competitive, cutting throat and hard to interruption into.

Yous Can Not Build A Make On Ebay

Because Ebay is a closed platform, you do not have admission to your customer base nor tin you sell to your customers outside of Ebay.

As a result, information technology's extremely difficult to attract echo business organisation. Later on all, you can not collect emails and you are non allowed to solicit customers subsequently a auction has been made.

Here is the verbiage taken verbatim from Ebay's aid page.

Your correspondence with customers tin can NOT include:

  • Offers to sell items exterior of eBay
  • Phone numbers or email addresses
  • Links or image references to items not located on an eBay site
  • More than than 100 eBay HTML tags
  • JavaScript or other active scripting

In other words, y'all have to constantly fight for new customers and you will never build a loyal customer base.

The other problem is that shoppers who buy on Ebay believe that they are buying from individuals or small business owners selling goods out of their garage.

As a effect, it's near impossible to build a reputable brand. If you want to start a long term ecommerce business, then Ebay is the absolute wrong place to practice information technology.

What Ebay Is Good For

Fifty-fifty though Ebay is non a skillful long term home for your ecommerce business, there are some benefits to selling on their platform.

First off, the Ebay marketplace is fairly big so there'south already a congenital in community of gorging buyers to tap into. Every bit a consequence, selling on Ebay is a bang-up way to validate your product before you go all in.

By selling new items on Ebay first, you lot tin quickly test the market place to decide whether yous should movement forwards with a bulk order.

Ebay is also a neat place to liquidate your onetime junk or products that have been gathering dust in your warehouse.

To perform production research and validation on Ebay, I like to employ a tool chosen Terapeak. Terapeak scrapes all of the completed listings on Ebay and tells you what products are hot.

Related: If you lot are interested in learning how to sell online, click here to take my FREE 6 solar day mini form. I will walk you through the process of finding a product to sell and how to make your beginning sales online.

Making Money Selling Online

In the long run, it e'er pays to ain your own platform. Afterwards all, when you own your own business, you call all of the shots.

No one can heighten prices on yous.
No one can change their selling policies on you
No one can ban you from your ain platform

The most compelling reason to commencement your own online store is that it allows yous to own your customer base of operations. After all, a customer who has purchased from you once is many times more likely to buy from yous again.

Yous can gather emails. You can differentiate yourself from the competition with your ain design. You tin establish a brand.

The biggest hurdle most people have when edifice their own store is the fear of the unknown. Only these days, there are many simple and inexpensive means to build your own shopping cart.

How To Open Your Ain Store

For instance, at that place are many shopping cart software packages already written for you lot. Hither are some choices.

  • The Cheapest Solution: Click here to watch a video tutorial I made on how to start an online store using complimentary open source software.
  • An Easier Solution: Click here to check out Shopify, which is a fully hosted shopping cart solution that will do pretty much everything for y'all for a pocket-size monthly fee. They offer a free trial
  • A Powerful Fully Hosted Solution: Click here to check out BigCommerce which is similar Shopify only is more than powerful from a feature standpoint.

Whatever you determine, stay away from Ebay Stores. As far equally I'm concerned, Ebay is just good for getting rid of unwanted items through their auctions.

Related: If y'all are interested in learning how to kickoff your ain online store, click hither to take my FREE half-dozen day mini grade. I will walk you lot through the process of finding a product to sell and how to make your first sales online.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ebay Online Shopping And Selling

faq

What Is Ebay Online Shopping?

Ebay is an online marketplace where you can buy goods and services from individuals and businesses from all over the world. It doesn't affair if the products are new or used, you can find practically anything for auction on their platform.

Is Information technology Safe To Buy Things On Ebay?

Thanks to buyer protection, information technology is very safe to buy from Ebay. If you don't receive your purchased goods or if you lot are unhappy with your products, you tin file a Paypal dispute. In full general, Ebay tends to side with the buyer.

How Much Does It Cost To Accept An Ebay Shop?

The toll of running an Ebay store varies depending your plan. The starter plan costs $7.95/month and the highest plan (called anchor) is $349.95/month. The right programme to choose depends on your listing volume as there are cost breaks with each tier.

Does EBay Charge A Listing Fee?

Ebay charges both a listing fee and a concluding value fee to sell on their platform. In improver, there are various promotional and listing features that you must pay for to brand your listing more visible to prospective buyers.

Gear up To Go Serious Most Starting An Online Business?

If y'all are actually because starting your ain online business organisation, then you lot have to check out my free mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Shop In 5 Easy Steps.

In this 6 mean solar day mini grade, I reveal the steps that my wife and I took to earn 100 one thousand dollars in the bridge of just a twelvemonth. Best of all, it'southward free and you lot'll receive weekly ecommerce tips and strategies!

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  • Amazon Competitors – How To Beat Amazon And Diversify Sales
  • Why You lot Should Never Beginning an Ebay Shop
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  • 14 Amazon Alternatives And Sites Like Amazon To Sell Products Online

About Steve Chou

Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell concrete products online over atProfitableOnlineStore.com.

His web log, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times,  Entrepreneur and MSNBC.

He's besides a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading concern publications.

In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Task, which is a top 25 marketing prove on all of Apple tree Podcasts.

To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Elevation.

Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering fromStanford University. Despite majoring in electrical technology, he spent a proficient portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses.