Attracted to the idea of selling on eBay with your BigCommerce store? Read on for tips on what to know about integrating eBay with BigCommerce, and the best way to sync your product feed.
As one of the top online marketplaces, eBay has over 182M active shoppers and features over 1B live listings. Though it started as mainly an auction site for small sellers and consumers, eBay now offers advanced business tools for e-commerce vendors of all sizes. 80% of all products sold on eBay are new, in the box. There are literally millions of reasons to sell on eBay, in almost every major product category. But there are certain things to be aware of.
Before you start: what to know about selling on eBay with BigCommerce
Seller Limits
Every eBay seller starts out with a probationary period during which they can sell only a limited number of products, and have to show they’re meeting certain performance standards. They want you to earn Top-Rated status as a seller. You do this by consistently delivering outstanding customer service, as well as meeting certain minimum activity levels:
- Your eBay account must be active for at least 90 days
- Minimum of 100 transactions and $1,000 in US sales for last 12 months
- Compliance with eBay’s selling practices policy
You’ll be limited in both the number and total value of your listings until you’ve earned Top-Rated status, at which point you can ask to increase your seller limit. Starting with a limited selection from your catalog instead of the whole list is a good idea anyway if you’re new to selling on eBay. Insertion fees are assessed on every product listed, so a go-slow approach is easier on your budget.
Insertion Fees
Whenever you list more than 50 items when selling on eBay, with a BigCommerce store or otherwise, you’re charged an insertion fee after the first 50 items which are free. Each subsequent item listed gets charged $0.30 monthly for standard sellers. If you upgrade to the eBay Stores subscription, there are more free credits and the insertion fee is lowered to as little as $0.05.
If you use the integration within BigCommerce, all listings default to the Fixed Priced and Good ‘Til Cancelled format. If an item doesn’t sell after 30 days, it’s automatically re-listed with a new insertion fee.
Final Value Fees
Sold items also get charged a final value fee, calculated as a percentage of the total sale amount. This includes shipping and handling charges, though not sales tax.
The standard FVF is 10% of the total amount of the sale, with a maximum final value fee limit of $750. For eBay Stores subscribers, the fee is four to nine percent, with a maximum of $250 per item.
Integration options for selling on eBay with a BigCommerce store
BigCommerce does offer integration with eBay directly from the Channel Manager page. But before choosing that option, you should consider your needs carefully. Some of the functions can be limited or less customizable compared with using another app to sync your product listings from BigCommerce to eBay. (For example, the default settings mentioned under Insertion Fees, above.)
There are some basic listing data required to feed your products onto eBay, but just filling in the bare minimum won’t distinguish you in a product search. Apps that specialize in product listing feeds can provide better-structured and more complete product data to the eBay marketplace. This will maximize both your customer reach and your conversion rate.
Shopping Feed is a single platform to manage your products, inventory and orders on external marketplaces, including eBay. It includes automated channel setup and a full suite of powerful e-commerce tools, plus the advantage of an award-winning customer support team
We sync your product inventory across all your selling channels and back to your BigCommerce Store, preventing you from over-selling any products on your list. You’ll manage all your marketplace channel orders from your BigCommerce order pane. Orders placed on eBay import into your BigCommerce orders. Once the order is fulfilled, eBay gets alerted automatically so it can send tracking and fulfillment information to your buyer.
Other advantages: Rules and Optimization
Shoppingfeed enables you to use If/Then statements to make strategic changes to your product listings. You can manipulate your listings specifically for each channel with a diverse set of listing data, all drawn from your BigCommerce store. Rules can do things like automatically removing filtered products from your product data feeds. This protects you from overselling or against tiny margins.
Shoppingfeed also has an exclusive ProductGraph™️ technology that optimizes every product for discovery in searches and filters. It’s all easy and fully incorporated in your app subscription.
Using the smartest tools to integrate your eBay listings with your BigCommerce store is the fastest route to higher sales.
