How To Set Up A Store
Thanks To Sally For This Tutorial
Setting
Up Your eBay Store - a Tutorial
by
Sally Milo - GOing1nceLLC & TippyKal on eBay
Certified eBay Stores Designer as Milo Design
Setting
up an eBay Store is not a tough thing to do, but there are a lot
of parts to address as you do so. This tutorial should assist
you in getting your Store ready to welcome buyers.
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 You
may want to take a look at winners of past eBay "Best in Stores"
at http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/bestinstores.html to see how
others have set up their stores. |
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MANAGE
MY STORE BACK
TO TOP
 Once
you've created your eBay Store subscription, you likely did the
Quick Store Setup when you subscribed, but those settings are not
locked in forever. You can now edit your eBay Store up by going
to your My eBay and selecting "Manage My Store"
(MMS) under subscriptions on the left side as shown at bottom of
image to left.
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| In
this tutorial, any text in italics indicate a clickable link
on the eBay page. Text in bold indicates a button to click. |
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takes you to the Manage My Store landing page:
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STORE
CATEGORIES
BACK
TO TOP
One of the first things
you may want to do is set up your store categories. These can reflect
the eBay category names or be those which make sense for your offerings.
It is assumed you will have already decided which categories you want
in your store and any sub-categories you may wish to have. Of course,
consider what is easiest for you in your organization of categories, but
it's most important to set things up in a logical manner from the point
of view of shoppers. You may have a total of 300 categories & sub-categories,
each one up to 30 characters long.
| In
this tutorial, we're setting up an eBay Store for a coin seller (fictitious
name here: ABC Coins Fake Store - though I'll be using ABC Coins as
the name in these samples), so categories and other information will
consider that type of business. You likely sell other items, so please
be aware you may set up some things differently than in this tutorial. |
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To set up your store
categories, on the left side of the MMS under Store Design, click on Store
Categories. You will set up your top-level categories. In this sample,
we just have added 3 categories. To do so, click on the Add Category
button:
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A
new page will open. Add your category names in the fields as shown to right.
If you click the Add more categories link at the bottom of the Category
Name fields, more fields will open below the Category Name fields. |
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Please
be sure to click on the links to information which may further assist
you in setting up your store, such as these:
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 We
have our 3 main store categories set up for ABC Coins, but now need to create
subcategories in each. To add sub-categories to US Coins, click on US
Coins as shown to left. It opens a page to which you add these 2nd level
store sub-categories. You may add 3rd level categories by clicking on the
2nd level category links as just done for creating the 2nd level categories. |
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DISPLAY
SETTINGS BACK
TO TOP
BASIC INFORMATION
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This is the section
from which you name your eBay store, select its logo & enter its description
- or to change these in the future. Click on the Change link to
the right in the Basic Information bar to edit these settings.
On the Edit Basic
Information page which opens from that Change link, enter your
store name & description into the appropriate fields. Resist the urge
to use fluffy, "Welcome to our eBay Store" sort of text in the
description: USE KEYWORDS such as the product you sell, brand names, etc.
- terms shoppers may search on. This will assist in search engine placement.
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You next choose a
store logo from this section as shown below.
You may use one of
the eBay-supplied logos as shown to right, you may upload a 310 x 90 pixel
store logo image to your free Picture Manager account, you may enter the
URL of the store logo you have hosted online off-eBay or choose to not
display a logo.
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| Be
aware your default store logo must fit into the 310 x 90 pixel space.
If your logo is taller rather than wide, it will be compressed to
fit the available space. If you choose to customize your eBay store,
you may use your other-sized logo within the customized HTML. (More
on customization later.) |
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THEME AND DISPLAY
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 The
store theme is the general layout of your eBay Store. You may click the
link to Change to another theme to pick a different layout. Look
thru the various available themes by clicking on theme links shown in image
to right. Please note, the Custom Header Only theme under Easily Customizable
will not include anything in the header until you insert your custom HTML
(with graphics, if appropriate) into the Custom Header (more on this later). |
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To change the color
scheme, when you click on the Edit current theme link, the page
below will open. You may click on the color chooser to open the palette
shown and select your colors that way. If you have custom colors, you
will enter their Hex Color code into the fields. (Some photo editing software,
such as Photoshop, will provide the Hex codes in the color chooser. You
might also do a web search for "hex color chart" to find many
pages with the colors & their Hex codes.) Click Save Settings
to save your color scheme.
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The Left Navigation
Bar settings allow you to choose whether or not you want to display a
store search box, categories, buyer display options and links to your
store pages.
 The
Store Header Display settings allow you to insert a custom header if you
wish. (This is custom HTML you insert.) If you want a custom header or
to add info to the header, you'll check the Yes, include…
radio button rather than the No, do not… button as in image
to right. Also, if you wish to include an image you have in Picture Manager,
you will click the Yes, include… button, then click the Picture
Manage link to open a pop-up window to choose that image. By clicking
on the Stores HTML Builder link, a pop-up window will open. Within
that window, you can create links to items, a Store page or Store search
which will appear in your header.
On the Edit Store
Header Display page, you may also choose to have a minimal eBay header
on your store pages IF you have a subscription for a Premier or Anchor
Store.
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| On
the Display Settings page, your last option is to set the Item Display.
Choose whether you want your store to display in a list or gallery view
and to sort via highest price, lowest price, ending first or newly listed.
This is how your shoppers will see your listings when they first visit your
store. |
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CUSTOM PAGES
Please see this advanced
information below.
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PROMOTION
BOXES
BACK
TO TOP
You may
click on the Guided Setup link for an easy way to create promotion
boxes in your eBay store. On the Guided Setup page, you may choose to
include the default promotion boxes or may change (edit) them by clicking
on the Change promotion box link. As those steps are easy to follow,
this tutorial will show you how to create a promotion box without using
the Guided Setup.
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 To
begin, click on the Create New Promotion Box button as in above image.
From the Promotion box types page which opens, you'll select which type
of Promotion box you're creating - to Advertise items, Provide links to
other parts of your Store or to Communicate to your buyers (fully customizable)
as in image to right. |
 Click
on the Continue> button once you've chosen the type. This opens
a page on which you select the Promotion Box Location and Store page(s)
where that promotion box should appear. |
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Create Promotion
Box: Content and Color
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Click on & Refresh
preview the various display types to choose which type of promo box
you want to create. Choose the Item selection criteria. You may rename
your Promotion box title if you wish. (Click on Refresh preview
to see how your new title looks.) Select the ending time period and from
which category to show items in this promo box.
You will next Change
color and font if desired. (I have been unable to do this in Firefox,
but have to change the color and font in Internet Explorer. Perhaps this
is due to some obscure Firefox setting I have.)
Name your Promotion
box for your own information. You may then want to Preview sample page
then save your promotion box you've just created.
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 If
you don't want to currently use this promo box but do want to save it for
future use, select Remove from the Actions Drop-down selector as
shown to right. You will then be able to Make this promotion box inactive
or Delete this promotion box permanently. |
 When
you do want to activate this promotion box, click on the Inactive link to
see this (and any other inactive) promo box listed as in sample to right. |
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STORE
MARKETING BACK
TO TOP
EMAIL MARKETING
eBay has a good tutorial
covering email marketing in eBay Stores, so please see that information
at http://pages.ebay.com/stores/email-marketing/tutorial/index.html.
LISTING FRAME
A listing frame includes
your settings from your eBay Store to include on your auction, fixed price
and store listing pages on eBay. You may choose to include (or not) your
default store header (a custom header will NOT show up - this will only
include the default information you have in your store's Display Settings).
You may choose to show your store logo & links to Add to Favorite
Seller, Sign up for Store Newsletter (email marketing) and Link to Items
on Sale (from items you've placed on sale thru the Markdown Manager).
You may also choose store pages to have links to & a store search
box.
The image below shows
the listing header just under the start of the description on your eBay
listing page. In this case, the eBay-provided coins store header is shown
on the background of the color scheme chosen. The 2 links, Add to Favorite
Stores & Sign up for Store newsletter, were chosen when setting the
Listing Frame.
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 PROMOTIONAL
FLYER
You may create a promotional
flyer to print out and distribute as you wish. Click the Create Promotional
Flyer button to go to the page on which you'll select the information
to be included in this flyer. Keeping most of the default settings, this
8˝" x 11" printable flyer (image to right) was generated
for ABC Coins.
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LISTING FEEDS
As a convenience to
your web-savvy shoppers, you may wish to make available an RSS feed, which
will notify these shoppers when you've added new listings on eBay. You
may also export your listings to third-parties with whom you've set up
a partnership, such as Google Base, thru the Listing Feeds selection,
Search engine and comparison sites.
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ITEM
PROMOTION
BACK
TO TOP
MARKDOWN MANAGER
eBay has a tutorial
about Markdown Manager at http://pages.ebay.com/stores/markdown-manager/tutorial/index.html.
Learn how to apply discounts to one, more or all of your store items.
CROSS PROMOTION
You may set up rules
to cross-promote other items you have on eBay when a shopper views or
bids on another item. For example, if ABC Coins receives a bid on a Morgan
dollar, they may wish the bidder to view other silver US coins they have
listed.
FAVORITE SELLER
TOP PICKS
You may select the
items which you want to promote to those who have you chosen as one of
their favorite sellers.
PROMOTE SIMILAR
ITEMS
You may choose to
promote your items on other sellers' notices and closed eBay listings
and have other sellers' items promoted similarly on your notices and closed
listings.
LOGOS
AND BRANDING
BACK
TO TOP
CUSTOMIZE END OF
AUCTION EMAILS
You may customize
the end of auction email notice eBay sends to your buyers. (This is sent
by default to all auction winners and fixed-price/Buy It Now buyers.)
You may include your store logo and a custom message if desired and also
have a copy of that email sent to you.
CUSTOMIZE INVOICE
If your buyers do
eBay Checkout, they will receive an automatic invoice from eBay with cost
information. You may choose to include your store logo and a custom message
if desired.
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CUSTOM
PAGES BACK
TO TOP
When I set up ABC
Coins Fake Store, I used the Quick Store Setup which resulted in a storefront
which looked like this:
CUSTOM STORE HEADER
To set up a custom
store header, it is assumed you'll have the HTML code ready to go &
any images used in it hosted online. (If you do not have this, you'll
need to learn HTML elsewhere, ask for assistance on the Photos/HTML or
Stores Discussion forums or hire someone to create this for you. eBay
has a Certified Stores Designer directory at http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/designdirectory.html.)
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 The
image to the right is the custom store header created for this tutorial.
In this, 4 images were placed into a table with appropriate text and linking
code added. The code below is what was used for this header. |
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ABC
Coins offers fine collectible coins from the US, Europe &
Asia.
Featuring gold & silver coins - Morgan Dollars, Gold French
Roosters,
Silver Chinese Pandas. PCGS-graded coins our specialty! |
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Once you have your
store header code ready to go, you will put it into Manage My Store>Display
Settings> Theme and Display>Store Header Display. Click on the Change
link as shown below to go to the page to add this code.
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 That
opens the page shown to the right. Click on the Yes, include…
radio button as to the left of the top arrow. Paste your header code into
the window to the left of the bottom arrow. |
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At this point, both
the default store header & your custom header will show in your store:
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 To
remove the default store header, you'll need to change your theme to allow
for the custom header. Under Display Settings>Theme and Display>Store
theme, click on the link, Change to another theme. Go to the Easily
Customizable themes & select Custom Header Only and its color scheme
(which can be next edited by clicking the Edit current theme link in the
section shown to right) and click the Save Settings button.
Your custom store
header will now appear on all of your store pages as well as your About
Me page if you have one.
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CUSTOM PAGES
With a basic eBay
Store subscription, you may have up to 5 custom store pages. (Even more
available with a Premium or Anchor Store subscription!) Many store owners
will make their store landing page one of the custom pages. Some use one
or more of the custom pages for FAQs, Grading or further information about
their eBay Store or business. Some store owners use a custom page with
tips about their industry. Some store owners use custom pages to feature
categories within their stores. Some list their Terms of Service on a
custom page - but please be aware, it is the terms on your listing pages
which are considered the terms recognized by eBay. Terms on a store page
or your About Me page are not considered binding as these pages may be
edited after the listing ends.
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review the Special HTML tags for eBay Stores page at http://pages.ebay.com/help/specialtysites/stores-specific-tags.html.
These tags allow you to place some features into your custom pages as desired. |
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First, how to create
a simple custom store home/landing page...
Click on Custom
Pages under Store Design on the left side of the MMS page.
On the Custom Pages page, click the Create new page link as shown
below.
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 On
the next page, Create Custom Page: Select Layout, you may select any of
the layouts. I tend to use 1 Text Section, as everything I want is within
my HTML. Click the Continue button to go to the next page. |
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Name the page as you
desire. For a main/landing store page, I will generally name it with the
Store name - in this case, ABC Coins.
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In the Text Section
1, delete the default text within the field and paste in your HTML for
the custom layout. This is a preview of my layout:
Notice
the 2 special store HTML tags.
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The html code* for
this is:
{ eBayStoresItemList
DISPLAY="1" TABLEWIDTH="95" }
{ eBayUserID }
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* To display the special HTML tags in this eBay
store, I had to put a space before and after the curly brackets
in the code above - they must NOT include those spaces to render
the proper display in your eBay Store.
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Be
careful if you're using a WYSIWYG HTML editing program. In the code
{
eBayStoresItemList
DISPLAY="1" TABLEWIDTH="95" }, the quote marks
must show in the code. Most HTML editors will make the quotes read
" in the source code. |
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Under the Left Navigation
Bar section, choose whether you want to show the left navigation bar or
not. If you have navigation as part of your custom page HTML, you will
want to Hide... If you'll be displaying the default or custom navigation
on all of your store pages and do not have navigation as part of your
custom page HTML, click to  Show...
Click the Continue>
button to preview the page content. Save and Publish if correctly
displayed.
To make this your
main/landing store page, on the Custom Pages section of MMS, Select your
Store Homepage as in image to right.
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 This
is what the store homepage looks like thus far.
Next, we'll be creating
a Promotion box to use for the custom side navigation.
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 Under
Store Design, click on the link, Promotion Boxes. Remove or make inactive
any Promotion boxes which you have for a Left Navigation location, then
click the button, Create New Promotion box.
On the page, Create
Promotion Box: Type, choose the type, Communicate to your buyers and
Continue>. Choose Left navigation - Upper for your Promotion
Box Location, then Continue. (For Store page where..., keep the
default, All category pages in the Store.)
You will then Create
Promotion Box: Content and Color.
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1. Choose Custom for
the Information type.
2. Delete the default
text in the entry field and paste your HTML into that field.
3. Name your Promotion
box
Click Save.
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This is the code I
used for the promotion box for the custom left side navigation.
|
 You
will now want to turn off the remaining default navigation. Under Store
Design>Display Settings>Theme and Display>Left navigation boxes,
click the Change link. Uncheck any or all components to show and
click button, Save Settings. |
 This
is how the store main/landing page looks thus far: |
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We will now create
one more custom page, in this case, Coin FAQs. Go to the Custom Pages
page and click the link, Create new page. The layout, 1 Text Section,
was chosen for this page. It was titled Coin FAQs and the code below was
placed into the Text Section 1.
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After previewing,
this was saved and published. It now appears under Active Pages.
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This is the Coin FAQs
custom store page:
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