Small Business: Bricks & clicks
"I think at a certain point, you have to look at every possible opportunity," says Spriggs. "Look at just the sheer number of eyes you get on eBay. They're definitely the dominant force. They're definitely where you go. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn't heard of eBay."
There's More In Store...
Think e-commerce is more your style than auctions? eBay may still be the answer. In June, the company launched ProStores, a turnkey e-commerce solution for retailers who want to sell online.
ProStores creates online stores that are separate from eBay.com. So while eBay Stores are a collection of a seller's current listings on eBay and have eBay's multicolored logo prominently featured on each page, ProStores is all about you and your business. The fully customizable product uses your own domain and is easy to tailor to the look and feel of your business, says Chris Tsakalakis, senior director of eBay Stores.
ProStores is still compatible with eBay, and the product allows you to easily create and list auction-formatted or fixed-price products directly on eBay.com. ProStores is also compatible with PayPal, allowing retailers to accept credit cards without having to apply for their own merchant accounts.
"This is more than just a website," says Tsakalakis. "You get a shopping cart, a product catalog and full customization capabilities. It's a solution for retailers who want to get started selling online, but who want to keep their costs down."
And the fees are reasonable. ProStores is offered in four tiers: ProStores Express, which will set you back a mere $6.95 per month, is a bare-bones product that allows you to sell up to 10 items. At $29.95 per month, ProStores Business is more sophisticated, but it does not include the more advanced inventory tracking offered by ProStores Advanced, which is $74.95 per month, and ProStores Enterprise–used by companies like shoe seller Doc Martens–for $249.95 per month. On top of that, you'll pay a per-sale commission of 1.5 percent at the Express level, and 0.5 percent per transaction at the other levels. Each level offers a variety of services, which increase with the fee levels.
Of course, ProStores sellers don't have the traffic of eBay's 147 million registered users–they must drive their own traffic to their sites. But for retailers interested in getting started online, ProStores offers a single-source option to get an online store up and running. See www.prostores.com.
Gwen Moran is Entrepreneur's "Retail Register," "Buzz" and "Quick Pick" columnist.
Copyright 2005 Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
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