Rising Store Fees? It's Time for a Store Makeover

With the new eBay store fees officially in effect, many sellers have had to take down a large number of store listings in order to keep their fees managable. Although the impact that these fees will have on some sellers cannot be ignored, there are ways to mitigate the impact on your bottom line.

The first, and most important, way to handle the new fee increase is to adjust how you use store listings in the first place. For many sellers, store listings provided a great outlet for inventory that was just sitting there, and that they expected would sit there for some time. With the new fee hikes, this is now a prohibitive business model for many sellers-- but it doesn't necessarily need to impact your business negatively. Remember, the cost of holding goods in inventory has its own costs, not the least of which is an opportunity cost. This is a good time to liquidate inventory that has been sitting around for a long time, and replace it with inventory that you can turn-over more quickly. This will ultimately increase your sales, and give you the cash flow to buy even more inventory.

Secondly, there couldn't possibly be a better time for you to branch out and become a multi-channel seller. Keep in mind that the number of venues for you to go out there and sell at are increasing every day. Many large companies are now key players in the market, and they are vying for your business. They attract a different set of customers, and you want to make sure that you capitalize on that.

Finally, make sure that before you stock something in bulk that there will be buyers looking to purchase at a price that makes sense for you. One of the great things about auction sites is that you can usually see what items have recently closed. Check-out what has sold, why, and what the sell through rates are. You should always do this, but now that these items will burn a bigger hole in your pocket, you want to be even more sure.

Remember, the fee increase affects everyone, and those who are able to adjust the best will benefit the most.