Creative Methods:
7. Build a Community through the use of an opt-in Newsletter - When Shop Owners think of "driving traffic" into their shop, they most often think of brand new buyers. While gathering brand new buyers is extremely important, the success of your store will depend on your ability to gather and *maintain* those customers. Repeat Customers are the bread and butter of any business, eBay Shops included.
Besides having an easily shopable store with competitive prices, create a "community" for your loyal customers. Send out a monthly newsletter, alerting them to special sales, upcoming items in your store, sneak peeks, and informative information about your products. For example, If you sell childrenโs clothing, write an article about upcoming fashion styles, whatโs hot and whatโs not. Make your newsletter a place to sell your eBay Store, but also a place to inform your customers. Give them a reason to keep coming back to YOUR store and not your competitors.
8. Optimize your store for search engines - Search Engine Optimization is an interesting subject as Google, along with other Search Engines now crawl and index eBay Shops. Here are some tips to optimize your shop:
a) Choose a Store Name carefully and try to include keywords of the products you sell.
b) Include keywords that describe the contents of your Store in your Store description. You could include some of the names of your Custom Categories.
c) Choose names for your Custom Categories that include product keywords that you expect buyers to search for.
The following link is a good read to Optimize your eBay Shop for Search Engines & Comparison Shopping Sites
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?forumID=21&threadID=410200930
9. Run Promotions & Contests - A smart business owner will go out of their way to make their customers feel special, rewarded, and involved.
10. Store Owners BE SEASONAL! - It is good idea to keep on loading new type of products that match with the season.