The Basics of Doors2Stores

Heard of Doors2Stores but don't know what it is?  Here are the basics!

What is Doors2Stores?

Doors2Stores is an educational effort started by a group of eBay Store owners to inform the eBay community about eBay Stores.  eBay Store owners, participating in Doors2Stores, display banners in their listings similar to the one shown below.

In short, Doors2Stores is a volunteer grass-roots effort to market eBay Stores.  The more people that know about eBay Stores, the more people to shop eBay Stores!

It's easy to join Doors2Stores.  The only requirements are:

• owning an established eBay Store (open at least six months)*
• having a record in good standing
• a commitment to customer service
• a desire to educate others about eBay Stores
• willingness to add a Doors2Stores banner to all your new eBay listings.

There is no fee for joining Doors2Stores, but the banner on your listings is required.

*If your Store hasn't been open for the minimum six month period, during this waiting period, we strongly encourage you to look for assistance on the eBay Stores Discussion Board available on either the US Stores Board or the Canadian Stores Board.  Many Doors2Stores members and volunteers visit these boards to help. Please feel free to browse through the various Tutorials and Tips we have located at the Doors2Stores web site.  There is a nice section of Resources that include easy-to-follow tutorials.  We look forward to welcoming you to Doors2Stores.

All Stores are subject to review and approval of the Doors2Stores team. 

Benefits of Joining Doors2Stores

• Educating Buyers about shopping eBay Stores (bringing business to you and the entire Stores community)
• Adds volunteerisim spirt to your listings and ME Page
• Free exposure on the D2S website and eBay D2S ME Page
• Additional free exposure on online shopping malls such as Avid Cat and List My Store

At this writing there are more than 60,000 items on eBay for sale by Doors2Stores members.
Items from Doors2Stores members.

History of Doors2Stores

Remember the summer of 2005, when eBay introduced the new red door logo?  The Stores community was in an uproar.  Most people did not like the new logo any better than they liked the old "tag" logo.  The red door was compared to an Exit door more often than not.  Buyers had no idea what the red door meant because there was no marketing blitz to go along with the new logo change.

Personally, I didn't care what the logo was, I just wanted it to stay consistent and have a marketing campaign to advertise the new logo to Buyers.  eBay was not planning to introduce a marketing campaign until after the first of the year.  That would simply not do, so we Store owners started our own marketing campaign, Doors2Stores.

We had quite a few hurdles to overcome before actually going live with the campaign, including creating eBay legal banners and having them link to an eBay legal educational page.  I made a desperate plea to the eBay Stores team for help.  They stepped up to the plate with a big bat, giving us an eBay hosted page to link to and giving us approval for an extra-large sized banner for listings.  Doors2Stores is a testament to the power of eBay working together with sellers for a better marketplace.

Doors2Stores also has a website including a resources page with tutorials for both buyers and sellers written by my right hand man...oops, woman, Kathy of A Well Dressed Bullet, a blog, and prime advertising spots on online malls like Avid Cat and List My Store.  The Doors2Stores website is hosted for no cost, from cakeen (thank you, Chris).  I purchased the domain name and keep it renewed.

How is Doors2Stores Run?

A dedicated team of volunteers run Doors2Stores, including Kathy and myself for the day-to-day work, and a slew of volunteers that help out when the need (thanks, Pat!).  Though the specific volunteers change, there always remains Doors2Stores members ready to step up to help out when needed.  I personally thank them tremendously for that!

With the new fee increases, Doors2Stores is needed more than ever.  Please feel free to join our quest to educate Buyers about eBay Stores.  Here's to more traffic to all of us!

I hope this guide was helpful.  Please contact me if you have any suggestions for improving this guide.

Jody Rogers
Proud Founder of Doors2Stores
Beachcombers! Bazaar
Beachcombers! ME Page

All information in this guide is copyright Beachcombers! 2005-2006.  All rights reserved.