I just opened my store ..any suggestions?

[randomstar]

I just opened my store Randomstar Today! I am closing my ebay store tonight because it is just taking more and more money out of my pocket with all the fees! Does anyone have any suggestions to make my store here a success!

[acread]

Hi Randomstar, I just took a peak at your store. You are very talented.

Now to my suggestions for your store. Make sure to fill all the texts under the "Edit Texts" section. Use a lot of keywords that will come up at searches for your products in those texts.

I saw one of your pics (the pendant) was a bit out of focus. If your camara has a magnifying glass option (or anything that will get you a better focus on small items) you might want to try it.

Consider providing shipping to Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada.

You have four categories, put them as featured categories on your home page (just go to categories and hit the edit button next to it (yellow pencil one) and assign location on home page and upload image, and update) and maybe add an image to where it says your image here (you can do that by double clicking on your chosen template and upload image).

Good Luck

[CDMarketplace]

Hi,

In the hopes you will take this as constructive criticism and I myself moved here like you did, it takes careful planning and setting up your store without being in a hurry to open it without EVERYTHING complete.
1- your logo is way too small and very unreadable
2-you need an image
3-you have absolutely nothing filled out such as about, terms, faqs etc (NO ONE will buy from you having it set-up this way)
4-I feel your terms you state in your items are somewhat vague...you need to be very clear...stating "I try to ship your items as quickly as possible" would steer most people away from buying from you
5-you need much more inventory than what you have available
6-do MUCH research on how to use the shipping matrix...for one, you are telling customers that live in Hawaii and Alaska that they are not part of the USA by not opting to ship there and that's apparent because your shipping matrix is not filled out for them.
7-if beads are all that you sell, it is best to use the shipping matrix to your customers' advantage by calculating within it what they can expect to pay. It is much harder to get paid, nonetheless multiple purchases from one customer when they know nothing up front and invoicing a customer does not always get your payment or quickly for that matter...make it EASY on your customer

My suggestions would be to place your store on hold right away, update everything and get more inventory in it and then open it.

Do LOTS of research on all the forums here, there are many many things and countless posts that help you and give you many ideas, comments and suggestions and the moderators and many other sellers here are extremely helpful and nice.

The most important thing to remember...this is NOT eBay and never will be! That is a household name that draws millions of people to it. Your store is the total opposite. YOU have to draw people to you as eCrater is only the host for your webstore.

Your product pictures are beautiful, but do as I did...open when your ready and stocked. and READ about everything. I spent well over a month looking into the vast amount of attainable knowledge here from many helpful posts and people. I tweeked and re-tweeked til I was confident it was right and easy for my buyers.

Remember...your success here is all up to you and your promoting of yourself. My second sale was yesterday and it was a large $ sale from a former customer of mine.

Just work on your site to get it right and promote yourself in as many ways possible and then your sales may start coming in, but it will not happen overnight.

I hope this will help you out!
Joe

[pennsylvania-antiques]

I agree with the above comments.

I'd like to add that I think you could charge just a bit more on your handmade items - you must be putting an awful lot of work into your products.

I think they're really nice.

[CraftbooksnMore]

Great suggestions. Also you might want to change your wording as this is not an auction site and no one has to bid to buy here.

BTW, Welcome to eCrater!

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

The above suggestions are very good. Let me re-emphasize the most essential.

Fix the wording on your logo. Can't read it and it is important.

Remove all references to auctions and bidding. They will just confuse the shopper.

Fill in your terms page.

Raise your prices. Were these your starting prices in auctions? They are incredibly low for your items which are quite beautiful.

Since your items will travel first class presumably, postage to Alaska and Hawaii will be the same as Mainland US. Canada won't be much more. Don't limit your market.

Good luck.

One more thing. You left out a word in your home page blurb. Don't remember which it was but when you reread it you will see the omission. Also remove the reference to the things you will have coming. That will just drive buyers away thinking there is nothing to look at. Don't ever talk about what you don't have or aren't. Talk about what you are and have now.

[deerpathgallery]