Kidson Talks | The E-commerce Chemist

Well, keeping my eye out on the eBay Shop Design front there seems to be a lot of eBay Shops and templates all with the same layout. The re-skinning with CSS effect (close to what I am talking about with the DIY eBay Shop Design with CSS series, but with way better graphics and better organisation) within a very fixed template. Do we assume this is the only way using CSS that the eBay shop can operate?

In no particular order to prevent bias these companies offer the same look of eBay store and template design (varying in graphic design quality)

• JustTemplateIt.com
• Createmystore.co.uk
• Ebayshopdesign.com
• Gdfinternet.co.uk
• Frooition.com
• Apanado.com
• Connoserv.co.uk
• dascs.com (adding these guys as they look like eBay shop CSS junkies, but their layout is slightly different to the rest, on the same vein but a little more basic and £100)
• www.pmb-web-designs.co.uk (they have ebay stores designed by ebaystoredesign.com and now look the same as the rest, they might be one in the same)
• 121website.co.uk
• proimpulse.com

and these are just the guys I have seen. All seem to peg the ‘Advanced eBay Store’ design slogan (since first posting I have added a few who don’t say ‘Advanced eBay Store’), but I can’t see anything advanced, or new from when I took a first look at eBay design back in 2004. These guys all use the same CSS templates with nuggets of JavaScript around and graphics plugged in.

All charge under £1000 as far as I can see. So if you are going to invest your hard earned eBay pounds, dollars or euros, make sure that it is the support services and graphic design quality that you are buying into. It seems anyone can throw together the skeleton, but you can’t imitate good design quality and excellence in customer service.

I love the ‘copyright’ notices in the CSS and threat of legal action. You can’t copyright CSS and you have all nicked it from each other whether you have lifted it straight or back engineered from concept. It doesn’t effect the quality of design.

I would love to know how you start litigation without submitting patents under common law, so if a lawyer reads, drop me an email.

I would also be wary of unsubstantiated claims of usability and accessibility unless they can marry their evidence with cutting edge practices and up to date eBay marketing knowledge. Some ebay design firms are just that, design. If they don’t trade or handle eBay trading actively for clients (edited to note: including active eBay consultancy and/or an up to date knowledge of best practise), can you trust their eBay knowledge?

Some features might actually put off customers and not lead them on the buyer journey you want.

Always remember your customer finds the shop through your listings, and rarely the other way round. Focus on the listing template, and think of the eBay Shop Design as just consistent branding.

You can get a cracking eBay template off any web designer proficient with HTML and CSS, when it comes to adding in active content like dynamic drop downs, attribute sorters and picture slide shows, its best to conscript an eBay professional as this area is tricky due to policy compliance. On this point, make sure you are aware that even some professional eBay designs are breaking eBay rules.

The rise has been quick, and I assume before the year is out the standard eBay shop design will be the CSS driven template, someone should open source it before eBay bans the idea.

Oh my : http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/designtemplates.html

I think I might post about who to choose for individual eBay design, as it might be less progressive.