- Hi guys.
Neil Waterhouse.
This week's video is about how to pause your eBay store
in four steps.
And as well, I'm also going to show you why,
after over 20 years of selling on eBay,
why I don't like pausing eBay stores,
and also show you two other options.
But before I get started
make sure you hit the subscribe button
to the channel that puts out weekly videos,
teaching how anyone can make a full-time living
from their home,
without needing to leave their home,
using eBay and Amazon,
using less than a hundred dollars.
So let's launch straight into it.
Okay.
To pause your eBay store, click on My eBay, then account,
then time away.
Now, if you're not seeing this time away hyperlink,
that normally means that you don't have an eBay store.
The time away feature only shows if you have an eBay store.
If you don't already have an eBay store,
I'll put a link on the screen below
to previous week's video,
explaining when is the right time to set up a store?
It also shows you step-by-step how to set up an eBay store.
If the time away link is showing for you, awesome.
There are two links on this page.
The first one is where you can schedule your time away.
If you click that link, here you can set the date
that you wish to pause,
and also the resume date of your store.
And also select whether or not you wish to sell items
while your eBay store is paused.
Now, going back to the previous screen,
the second option
is where you can send an automatic message,
if and when buyers contact you through eBay messages,
when your store is paused.
This automatically send them a message saying you're away.
Now I mentioned at the beginning of this video,
that after 20 plus years of selling on eBay
I don't like to pause eBay stores.
And here's why, and also what to do instead.
The first thing to note here is
many people think that when they pause an eBay store,
they protected themselves from defects,
and negative feedback.
However, it can be the opposite.
Here are the problems:
First of all, when you put your eBay store in vacation mode,
you instantly lose your position in the eBay search results.
Your listings could be shown on the first page now,
but you know, as soon as you put your store
on vacation mode,
even if you check the box that says
allow item sales while I'm away,
eBay's Cassini search engine will drop priority
on all your listings.
If you want to know more
about how eBay's Cassini search engine works,
I'll put a link on the screen below, again,
to a previous week's video.
Now your listings that could be now page one
can drop instantly to page 10 and beyond.
The next problem with pausing your eBay store is,
if you put your store on pause/vacation mode today,
for say one week,
any buyers who purchased items before today,
but did not pay for them,
all those buyers can potentially pay for those items
while you're away.
And if you've got, say a one-day handling time set,
you can get pinged for late shipment for those items,
If you do not ship those items
in the time that you're specified, i.e, you know,
one day dispatch.
The next problem is if you do allow people
to purchase from you while you're away on vacation,
again, if you have a handling time of say one day,
even though you're away on vacation,
you still have to ship the items
within the timeframe that you specified,
i.e., one business day,
even if your store is on vacation mode.
Now you can get around this
by setting a longer dispatch time, but only going forward.
You can not change the dispatch time for those items
which you've already sold,
but the buyers haven't yet paid for them.
Let's say you're going away for one week,
i.e., five business days,
because everybody does that take into account
for shipping, the weekends.
You know, what you can do using the eBay bulk upload tool,
is you can set all your listings to a five-day dispatch time
while you're away.
Then every day, while you're away,
you can do another bulk update,
changing the dispatch times of all your listings
to four days.
Then the next day, three days next day, two days, et cetera,
until you get back home, and then of course,
to all your listings back to one day, or, you know,
whatever your normal dispatch time is.
The next issue with pausing your eBay store
is customer support.
Yes, you can set an automatic email reply,
telling customers that you're away,
having a nice relaxing holiday.
However, not all your customers will be thrilled to hear
that you've just started
your nice relaxing two-week vacation.
Bottom line is putting your eBay store in vacation mode
does not stop you getting defects or negative feedback.
And the next big issue with pausing your eBay store is,
you're turning off your business.
So it's not generating any more sales or profits
while you're away, and it should be.
The whole idea of an online business
is so that it makes money 24/7, 365, without you.
So here are two alternatives to pausing your eBay store:
The first option is, instead of pausing your eBay store,
instead, just use the bulk edit tool
to extend your dispatch dates from say one day
to however many days that you're away.
Now, that's okay if you're just a hobby size seller,
and you've only got a small amount of listings.
But if you're a full-time seller
with hundreds or thousands of listings,
and you're drop shipping using 3PLs
or using different warehouses to ship your goods,
this can be a real pain.
So here's my preferred option: automate the business,
so it runs and grows completely without you.
It's not that hard or expensive to do,
especially these days.
You can get overseas virtual assistance from $1 per hour.
Pretend you're intending to sell your business,
and you have to prove to the buyer of your business,
that the business runs and grows completely without you.
Now, anybody that's been following me for some time
will know that for the last 10 plus years,
I've been saying, spend 10% of your profits
on low cost, overseas virtual assistance,
which you can get from $1 per hour.
You can run and grow your business 24/7, 365, without you.
Basically you're buying an hour of life for yourself for $1.
And you're also leveraging your time.
Leveraging your time
is how you can build your business fast.
Virtual assistants can do your product research,
they can list your items, do your customer support,
order processing, et cetera, et cetera,
so you can take time off for yourself,
including having regular relaxing holidays
with your family,
without having to continuously log on to your computer.
I'm not going to go into how and where
to get virtual assistance in this video,
as I've done that in a previous week's video.
Again, if you missed that video,
I'll put a link on the screen and below, to that video.
That's all for this week.
I hope this video helped you
with how to pause your eBay store.
Please leave me a comment below,
and while you're there
make sure you hit the subscribe button,
to the no-fluff channel
that teaches how anyone can make a full-time living
from their home,
without ever needing to leave their home,
using eBay and Amazon, using less than a hundred dollars.
Until next week, stay safe.
List more, sell more.
This is Neil Waterhouse.