This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for January, 2009
Go double security! Paypal Security Fob has finally arrived in the UK!
I commented on the key fob security key on an old blog around 2 years ago. FINALLY paypal have deemed the UK worthy of this security feature.
This technique is used in the UK by many larger banks that provide on-line banking for their business customers. This could well be the end of phishing for paypal users as even if you enter your username and password, they would need to physically come round and steal your security key to generate the number! This is a great new move for security from our friends at paypal and maybe eBay will adopt a similar system to protect its buyer and sellers from phishing. I would certainly pay £3 as it will probably be in the UK for that extra added security and peace of mind.
Tamebay had the heads up on this matter, which will greatly increase the security of paypal.
Check this old post from the CA blog.
eBay Design Wars – Froo quite through…
Got my email about the stores, we shall sign up next week and I will blog what needs to happen….
Dear Liz,
It gives me great pleasure to provide prices for your custom work and free frooition software upgrade pack (note it is not free it’s gonna be 50 quid as the other stuff is not needed) which will allow you to opt in to eBay’s new store experience.
The work required for your store includes:
• Altering the dimensions of your graphics,
• Customising the styling of the design (CSS),
• Rebuilding of a new custom page to act as the storefront page,
• Altering Custom Work such as drop down boxes and customised searches,
• Trimming of your current logo to fit as a 310×90 logo to be displayed on search & category pages,
• Re-creation of store custom boxes within the new flash frameworkWe have calculated the cost for you to upgrade to the frooition NewStoreExperience will be:
£50 + VAT
Once we have received payment you will be placed into the development schedule for the work to be completed. Once we have created your new experience we will contact you to confirm that you are now able to opt-in to the eBay’s new experience.
Thank you for your interest in the New Frooition Experience, don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything more we can do for you.
Andrew Pinner
You guess it, he is the best person to get a quote off but please note they are processing the US stores first. Maybe I should mention the wording on the email?
eBay Design Wars Part 2.1 – A little note….
Hi,
I am not Frooition, neither do I have a red phone to their support. I also don’t sell eBay design, just experiment with CSS and blog my exploits so others can play. Open source like.
I also have ninjas, don’t make me send them!
Kind Regards,
Liz
eBay Ninja Master
eBay Design Wars Part Deux…..
There has been quite a lot of heat on designers about the new store experience, and some designers don’t seem to be fairing well.
Here is a round up of the story so far:
Frooition/Createmystore (Yeah, they look like the same company to me too so they get lumped as one) are going to charge an upgrade fee. There has been discontentment over the fact that stores were not compliant with ebay policy previously but with the upgrade they will be. Estimate cost for a basic design £50-£100 per store in addition to the £17.95 subscription pcm fee.
Currently no other stores which I imagine will be affected listed in this post have come under fire in how they will handle the new situation but as they arise with information I will add them to this post.
eBay DESIGN WARS!
1223 days
Ok, it is a dramatic title but it seems that eBay is at war with its store designers. It’s new store experience will put the wind up most.
The CSS on the Hairfreax shop from the blog series seems not too affected by the design, maybe those who have used it as a base for their own store design care to fill me in with how they are coping? (and any compliance issues?) I hope to have time to experiment with the new stores soon, but I am locked down developing a new joomla site.
I have 3 clients all with Frooition design, and I am not making judgements till I have had the pudding but this is what they have said on this issue “Phillip Molloy, President said, “We have a solution that is ready to go, easy to preview and easy to install. You will be able to install and uninstall at any time”
Deb from ASWAS has also been keeping us all informed of this issue and my main client was thankful for the info in his inbox this morning! She asks ‘Are you one of thousands of eBay sellers who paid an “eBay Store design specialist” for an eBay Store that now has to be replaced?‘
A good question, one that all ebayers with store design will need to ask themselves.
But I detract from the positive sides of the changes? The gallery display sure seems sweeter, and it has a Web 2.0 feel to the experience….not that the rest of us are looking towards Web 3.0 and eBay took its time to catch up!
Totally un-related but tomorrow is paper payments removal deadline for ebay listings. Its an ebay.com thing, but if you have visibilty on dotcom and you are a UK seller? I imagine it will still apply. Paper sucks anyway.
I will have lots of things to blog on this year, setting up a Channeladvisor premium store, designing it, then tendering for a better design, growing a retail arm of a sports retailer (Kooga anyone?) and doing some multi market magic….
I will be in eBay up to my ears, but its great!
Watch this space as the battle unfolds….
Edited to add: Update from the CA forums on Frooition design….
Thanks for your questions concerning the charge for the new upgrade.
As outlined in the FAQ area
Quote: Yes, this is an upgrade not a solution to a problem. We are providing many new features as well as reworking some graphics to fit in with the new storefront layout. The pricing will depend on your current layout and levels of custom work. Contact customer services at info@frooition.com Without repeating the above, we DO have a process in place for calculating whether there will be a charge, and what this quote would be. If you would like to find out more, please email info@frooition.com with your client reference number (if applicable), or your company name.
Opening this post up for comments if anyone needs any assistance or has any views!
Edit 2:
Ahhh…lots of emails…please see here for information on the Froo Store Upgrade FAQ’s
Truly I will get back onto this but on speaking to Frooition it is a case by case basis thing and I will report in full the cost to upgrade the stores I deal with but can not vouch for any others!
