TOP AUCTION TOOLS

Get More Customers to Your eBay Store
by Tanner Larsson

Naturally, more visits to your eBay Store means a
better chance that your products will sell. eBay
markets Stores in several ways.

A link to Stores appears on the home page under
Specialty Sites in the upper left corner. And when
potential customers search for regular auctions, a
box labeled "More on eBay" appears at the bottom of
the left-hand navigation column. This box shows the
top four eBay Stores having the most items
currently listed that match the keyword searched.

eBay allows eBay Stores pages to be crawled by
search engines. While eBay can't guarantee
placement in search engines, they help to enhance
discoverability of a Store seller's pages by
creating META tags using the Store name, the Store
description and the names of all the Store's
custom categories. When you create your custom
categories, keep possible search terms
in mind.

But as a trade-off for the lower insertion fees,
eBay Store listings don't come up in regular eBay
searches. And since the "build it and they will
come" tenet doesn't work well on its own, we need
proactive measures in order to increase our sales.

Let's consider seven relatively easy and
cost-friendly ways to promote your eBay Store.

1) Know your eBay Store's URL.

Last time, we discussed how eBay creates the URL
for your store. You'll need this URL to build links
to your Store that your customers, in true Internet
style, can access with a clickety-click.

2) Take advantage of the tools they give you.

If eBay offers you a means of promoting your
store, take full advantage of it - especially
if it's an included service. For example, be sure
to add a link to your eBay Store on your
AboutMe page.

3) Keep regular auctions running.

There is a "Visit this seller's eBay Store!" link
in the seller'sregular auctions, which takes
buyers to the seller's eBay Store. One click and
they're in. This link shows up automatically on
every Store seller's regular auction listings.

The Cross-Promotion tool helps sellers cross-sell
and up-selladditional items from their eBay Store.
Cross-sell means if your auction is for a
necklace, you can advertise your Store listings
for matching earrings and bracelets. You can
include up to four items on an item listing page
and four on the Bid Confirm and Purchase
Confirm pages.

With the cross-promotion and Store links that
eBay adds to your auctions, it makes sense to list
plenty of auctions; this will be vital to your
eBay Store's success. Yes, you'll pay the regular
listing fees, but the exposure to your eBay Store
might make it worthwhile.

4) Link to your Store on your Business Web Site.

Develop valid content for your business Web site
that will be indexed by the search engines. Listing
the items in your eBay Store inventory is one way.
Build links so that a potential customer can click
right over to your Store. This is a powerful
way to entice new customers and possibly
generate more business.

5) Promote your Store throughout your
sales cycle.

Your primary communication with your eBay customers
is through email.

Don't pass up the opportunity to include the name
of your Store, a promo for any specials you're
offering, and a link to it in your email signature.
This can effectively bring your Store right
to your customers instead of them having to look
it up, and it can certainly help boost
repeat business.

6) Use message board signature lines to
your advantage.

If the site gods allow it - and do inquire about
that first - add your eBay Store URL to your
signature line for your message board posts.
Include the eBay Store or a modest custom graphic
to make each post a "click magnet."

7) Add your eBay Store URL to your print matter.

I see URLs listed in newspapers, magazines,
flyers, and on billboards so it's certainly a
valid way to promote a site.
The limitation is that visitors can't "click" - they must
actually type the URL order to visit it.

All of these techniques can be effective. The
bottom line: blast your own beacon. The
competition is fierce. If you're willing to
spend some extra time to promote your eBay
Store, you can elbow your way to the front of
the line where the odds favor more sales.