If you have some experience selling things on a large scale – either on or off eBay – then you might want to consider opening an eBay Store. One of the biggest benefits of doing so is that it lets you list more items for sale each month without paying listing fees. It also lets you pay lower listing fees for any additional listings that you post beyond your monthly limit. In addition, having any kind of Store lowers the final value fees that you pay when selling an item, depending on what you’re selling. You also get a whole bunch of free marketing tools and selling supplies.
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Do note, however, that a Store will cost you money each month (or year). Therefore, you have to balance the cost of your Store primarily against the reduction in costs that it gives you when selling your items. For information and tools to help you decide which type of Store – “Basic”, “Premium”, “Anchor”, or none at all – would best serve your needs, see our article on eBay seller fees, this help page in eBay’s Seller Centre, or eBay’s Fee Illustrator.
What do I need to open an eBay Store?
There are three types of Stores: “Basic,” “Premium,” and “Anchor.” In order to set up any of them, you need to have already done at least two things:
- Created an eBay account and changed it to a seller account.
- Created a PayPal account, gotten it “verified” (by completing your profile), and linked it to your eBay account.
If you haven’t done either of these things, our lessons on how to create a PayPal account and how to create an eBay seller account should give you all of the instructions that you need.
In addition to completing the requirements above, in order to open a “Premium” or “Anchor” Store, you must have (and maintain) at least an “Above Standard” seller level. For information on how to maintain your seller level, see this article on eBay seller performance standards.
No matter what type of Store you want to open, though, the process for doing so is relatively the same for each. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step below.
How to set up an eBay Store
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Go to www.ebay.com in your web browser and log into your account.
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In the top-left corner of the home page, you should see your name. Move your mouse cursor over it to make a drop-down menu appear, and then click Account Settings.
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In the “My eBay Views” box on the next page, click Subscriptions. Scroll down until you see the “eBay Stores” section, and then click Subscribe beside the type of Store that you want to open.
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On the next page, you will be able to choose the billing schedule – monthly or yearly – for each type of Store (the “yearly” option for the type of Store you selected in step 3 will be selected by default). Click the button beside the plan that you wish to select.
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After you have chosen a Store plan and billing schedule, scroll down the page and click in the box labelled “Store Name.” Type in what you want your store to be called, and then click Continue.
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On the next page, you will be able to review the cost of your subscription order, as well as what you are getting with it. To confirm your order, click Submit at the bottom of the page.
How to design an eBay Store
Once your Store is ready, you’re probably going to want to spruce it up a little. This will make it more attractive to potential customers, as well as let you highlight the products that you really want to sell as soon as you can. To do this:
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Go to www.ebay.com and log into your account (if you haven’t already).
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Move your mouse cursor over My eBay in the top-right corner of the home page, and then click Selling in the drop-down menu that appears.
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While viewing your selling activity, scroll down the page until you see the “Shortcuts” menu on the left-hand side of the page. Click Manage My Store (or, if you don’t see this option, click Edit Shortcuts, click the check box beside “Manage My Store” to mark it, and then click Save).
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Once you’re on your store management page, turn your attention to the “Store Management” box on the left-hand side of the page. Under “Store Design,” click Edit Store.
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On this page, you can edit various design elements of your Store.
For starters, you can click in the box labelled “Store Name” and type in a new name for your store, should you wish to change that. Whatever you choose to name your store, it cannot be more than 35 characters long.
You can also click in the box labelled “Billboard” to add a header to your storefront. This is great for showcasing the types of items you sell, or to alert buyers to current promotions. Once you click in the box, use the explorer window that appears to navigate through your computer files until you find a suitable image. Click the image to select it, and then click Open to make it your Billboard. Note that the image you select cannot take up more than 12 megabytes of memory storage space, and cannot be larger than 1200 pixels wide or 270 pixels tall.
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If you have a brand logo, you can add that to your Store, too. Move your mouse cursor over the image underneath “Logo” and click Add Image. From there, the process of adding your logo is the same as adding a Billboard, as described above. Note that your logo cannot be more than 300 pixels in either width or height, and – like your Billboard – cannot take up more than 12 megabytes of memory storage space.
Clicking in the box labelled “Description” also allows you to type out a short explanation of who you are, what you are selling, and what your Store is all about. Part of this description will also appear in search engines, like Google Search, so that people can more easily find your wares even if they aren’t currently using eBay. Note, however, that your description cannot be more than 1000 characters long.
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If your Store has at least 30 items listed in it, you can also select up to four items to be “featured” in your store. Under “Featured Listings,” click Add Listing in one of the four boxes shown, and then select the item that you want to feature from the list (you can also search for it by keyword if you need to).
Below these boxes, you can click the drop-down menu to select whether to order your featured items by either how soon their listings end or how recently their listings were created. You can also click the check box here to mark it if you don’t want to feature particular items in your store, even if you have over 30 different items listed.
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Finally, you can change how the rest of the items in your store are organized. Under “Listings,” click the first drop-down menu to select how you want to order the items in your store. You can choose to do so by: how recently listings were added, how soon listings will expire, how expensive or inexpensive items are (with or without shipping costs factored in), or “Best Match” (e.g. based on items’ search viability, popularity, listing end time, etc.).
You can also choose how your listings display in your store by clicking the other drop-down menu and selecting List (a more information-oriented view) or Gallery (a more image-oriented view). When you’re done, click Preview to see an example of what your store will look like with your current settings. If you like what you see, click Publish to save your changes.
Alright! Now you have your very own Store, and it looks just the way you want it to! Next comes the moment of truth: getting your items ready for sale by listing them!
