I have a mate who runs a successful independant 4x4 vehicle garage. Specialises in Land Rovers. For a short while he has been asking me to help him put a number of second hand spares onto ebay. Tonight he was asking me about setting up an ebay shop. i have a few questions;

1. What is the benefit in setting up a shop as opposed to just setting him up with a normal ebay account and selling the stuff?

2. Are the fees higher for having a shop?

3. Could we start with a basic account now and add a shop at a later date?

Happy to hear your experiences if there is anything you think we should know.
I guess i also need to think about terms and conditions etc.

Thanks in advance,
Darren.

PS - im hoping you dont have to be a website designer to come up with a decent shop.

Just started setting up an eBay shop myself at work to allow us to sell surplus stock.

A shop allows you to register as a business user including VAT details (if applicable) and manage your sales a bit more smoothly. I guess from a buyer's perspective it also looks a bit more professional than a simple user account.

As I've only just started on this process myeslf I have no actual experience of selling through the shop yet so I'd be keen to hear other's experience too.

I have a Basic ebay shop, I don't fully utilise it but it works for me. It's good for listing multiples of the same item but not so good for one off items as the listing fee is the same for 1 or multiple identical items.
If your mate is selling lots of one off items at a fixed price then it's probably best to use a regular ebay account with BIN and as business increases move on to a shop later.

In answer to your queries:

1. Items can run for up to 30 days or multiples of 30 days until cancelled (or sold). You can list multiple identical items for a flat fee of 20p (Basic shop). You can promote your shop like a real online shop with customisable templates and add a logo etc. which makes it more professional looking. Buyers generally have more confidence buying from a shop and therefore a shop seller can command (slightly) higher prices.

2. There are 3 shop formats - Basic, Featured and Anchor. The basic shop costs £15/month, 20p/listing and the usual ebay final valuation fees apply.
You can find the fees listed here:
Ebay shop fees

3. Yes that's what I did. Started with a regular account and added a shop later.

A basic shop used to cost £6/month and 3-5p per listing which they recently increased to £15/month and 20p per listing. I think that ebay are trying to discourage Basic shops and want more traders to use Featured or Anchor shops which offer much lower listing fees.
Nick

Has he thought about setting up a normal online shop?

Its not difficult to do and costs a lot less then ebay!!! You dont get quite the same audience by default, but with some clever marketing you could make it work...

U2U me if you want more details...