1. The food – you are always fed ‘n’ watered well as a sponsor and attendee at Channeladvisor events. This year we had more time for the feeding process (which so happened to be in the room with all the sponsors) so as people eat they like to talk, so potential clients will wander round with their coffee chatting to other attendees and to the sponsors.

2. Other third party providers – Catalyst is always good to catch up with our fellow third party providers and competitors (Grrrrr…arrrrg) to see how they are fairing in business and exchange experiences.

In the Channeladvisor world the third party provider space is not that huge, so we all get to know one another. When you have a network of trusted service providers you can recommend to your existing clients, we all bounce off one another. Even companies who on the face of it are direct competitors, are not normally carbon copies of each other. They can offer and lend services so that the client gets what they need.

3. Other third party providers, that don’t sponsor also attend the event – I negotiated a nice deal and introduction to a newer marketplace (playtrade) that would suit the direction one of my clients is taking. He will be happy with this

4. Potential clients – it’s why us sponsors go really, to get business. The good thing with potential and current ChannelAdvisor clients is that they are pre qualified. When you are speaking to a potential they are interested in moving forward and contracting a company to make this happen.

5. Networking – Talking e-commerce with a few free alcoholic beverages in you is fun. You meet new friends and clients in a more relaxed atmosphere.

6. Ideas – potential clients are brimming with ideas, information and enthusiasm after all the seminars and speakers. They are in the MOOD, and ready to make waves with the help of us sponsors perhaps?

7. CA Staff – I spoke to lots of CA staff, to catch up with personally and to speak about clients. Lots of new introductions too. I had a demo of their new ’salesforce’ offering which a client of mine wants us to integrate in his store and eBay design. I also got a pair of fresh eyes on a clients SearchAdvisor account because it is driving sales and traffic to a store designed by us. We want the store to be excellent in all things and we take conversion very seriously

Well that is what as a sponsor and eBay/E-commerce design company, CA catalyst means to me.

1. De-bunking the ChannelAdvisor Premium store set up process – a guide for those with little concentration.
2. Breaking down eBay’s changes for real people.
3. How to be the client in a web project (I like this one, no one ever tells the client what they need to do – and you are so important to the development process)

Thanks!

This year just feels very positive, the business is going well and I have worked with some great clients like http://www.tacklediscounts.co.uk in the last few months. They are experiencing their best ever eBay sales record and we hope the website which is promoted by searchadvisor (a channeladvisor search product) and soon a little marketing creative from CYT will match this.

But as always, with my head deep in XML/SQL files – I need to brush up on my oh so current eBay – a lot has changed this week it seems and I need to play catch up.

I have been doing a mix of projects, from SEO and programming to consultancy and design.

I shall be sitting in all the conferences this catalyst (or as many as I can) so my head will be full of blog-able information soon.

Speak then my e-commerce lovelies.

In fact next year I will have more time to devote to my crafty projects and this blog so you will be hearing more from me next year than the one just past.

Hairfreax – new site and restricting handmade hairpiece catalogue. Adding handmade rockabilly Yukata and Kanzashi, as well as funky obi and Japanese/Anime inspired fashion.

Hairfreax eBay – just a few pre-made hairpeices

Keirotech will be partnering with Createyourtemplate and be absorbed into CYT UK – eBay Design, Web Design inc ASPDNSF design, Flash programming, brick to bytes – on-line business integration and business consultancy. New site/info to come.

See you in 2010!

So I am adding two new ’sides’ to the blog as such.

Reviews:

Just so you know what I am harking on about, this is where you can email me your reviews of any web related shop, service, software and it will be posted on this blog un-edited for all to see. People read this blog and sometimes the people who are responsible for said services. So they can sit back and smile to themselves for a job well done or jump too if they haven’t.
The only catch is your eBay shop/website will have to be included in the review. This is so said companies can address any issues with you and to avoid anonymous rants.

Reviews are so important to readers as it helps with customer confidence and also to avoid pitfalls in their own e-commerce adventures.

Support:

Have a question or quandary? Not quite sure what decision to make? We have done this on and off since the inception of the blog, but if you are stuck or confuzzled about something e-commerce, drop me a line and support will be blogged.

Ask about anything e-commerce related. Humour/comedy is permitted.

*Please note this is not a invitation for free consultancy, you can try your luck but as I am in charge I will select the questions and reviews (probably group the reviews) that appear.

Please email me:

and lets start sorting out the e-commerce world and make it accessible to all.

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!

eBay announced it would phase out third-party checkout by this time next year. Third-party vendors help sellers list on eBay, and some offer sellers use of checkout systems to up-sell and cross-sell items to buyers.

I think there is nothing with wrong with eBay checkout, it has improved greatly but it will mean that ‘complete’ e-commerce systems like the ones mentioned above, will be reduced to eBay listing tools, with a web shop. Personally, it will stop the problems with third party checkouts, as you can still pay OUTSIDE the third party checkout and have your payment lost. I hate having to checkout with third parties even though I would hate to list without them!

One of eBays better decisions, and the third party tools with surely rise to the occasion.

Running down the design we start with the logo, branding is very important to a customer. Its something they recognise and trust. A consistent branding is essential so even though this is a design for the ChannelAdvisor Store, this design will also translate to eBay. We pushed the fact that the seller sold socks and underwear in this logo design, making a clear distinction between the main product types.

The top navigation was designed to hone in on the popular categories of products and also provide extra navigation for the customer. This tender design was based on the socks category page to show the kind of detail and functionality you can have with a CYT (Createyourtemplate) design.

The seller was famous for his branded socks and underwear, especially in the children’s cartoon sector. This scrolling character sorter provides a very visual link between the products and the characters.

We also implemented a further shop by character, in the left hand side navigation. You find that when you are shopping for items you do place some recognition on a brand logo, in this case a cartoon character but you might also know exactly what you are looking for so using this further character search will refine your choice.

Being still a fan of the ‘above the fold’ concept, and customers need to be able to find the main product they are looking for on the page without scrolling. The socks by size and type product sorter is placed above the fold to enable the customer to effectively navigate to their desired product. You might notice also a test location path so the customer knows where they are in the grand scheme of the site. In the main content of the page you will also find sorters for children’s socks:

Teaser sections to promote key products are great for promotion of your best items, as with all CYT designs we like clients to be independent of us when we have finished the designs. The designs can be easily edited to change various sections and text within the design. This would be an example of an ever changing section within the design.

Your basic left hand side navigation is a standard. Our navigation sections are dynamic….

and they expand to reveal more categories. As with all web pages you need a search, and we have positioned the search above the fold for easy access.
Your customers also need section where they can navigate to information about your products and not just the products themselves. This is why we have designed for an ‘about the company’ section, ‘find your size’ section and also a socks FAQ.

With no further ado, I shall show you the full mock up of the design for a ChannelAdvisor store unveiled at Catalyst. The other participants, Happy Crocodiles and Frootion, also tendered a design to the client together with interested Catalyst goers and a selection of CA employees. The session showed three very different design services with three tiers price points. So you can be confident their is eBay and CA design out there and endorsed by ChannelAdvisor (well they let us come didn’t they?) for all levels of business and all levels of investment in design.

Please note that all images within the design are copyright of createyourtemplate GmbH & Co. KG, and all character images are protected by their respective owners.

Please keep watching for the full mock up!

Sue Says

‘Prior to installing my shop front, the average buyer in my shop bought around three items. Now, they buy five.’

So it seems a thumbs up for eBay design! I have a few eBay designers for the UK listed on this page ‘eBay Design Services Available in the UK‘ (It does need updating as I have noticed a few more eBay Design companies, offering their services in the UK)

Choosing eBay design is a tricky one. The cheapest is not necessarily the best deal. You have to remember the hosting and structure of the eBay design is going to change the face of your eBay shop and listings which are your selling point.

In choosing an eBay design I would consider:

- The usability of the design, does it promote easy navigation?

- Does it work across international eBay platforms (eBay can change the rules for different countries, so make sure the countries you want to list to, you can see examples of the design working)

- Where is it hosted. This is a tricky one. As with e-commerce stores you can either pay the designers to host it for a maintenance fee which means you are subject to their downtimes, or host it yourself. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. If it is self hosted, you might need to acquire a bit of knowledge on web hosting. However, you won’t be held to ransom by your eBay design company, and have full access to the design you paid for. If you self host, the trouble of hosting is taken away. So check their uptime guarantee and what kind of compensation you are entitled to if you ‘go down’ and loose sales as a result.

- What d0 their previous customers say? Can you get in contact with a real user (as anyone can make up testimonials!)

- Do they integrate with eBay automation systems like Marketworks and Channeladvisor (AKA marketchannelworksadvisor, I don’t know the new name is so long I can’t remember it)

- Does it look consistently nice? If they leave a credit link on the eBay shop then you should be able to Google them to see what te bulk of the designs look like. Watch out for block like image splicing, and check if the design still looks the same in Firefox as well as Internet Explorer.

- Click around the example eBay shops and listings. Never take a design at face value. Check the category links, the about me page etc. You would be amazed how many eBay shops I see where the category links don’t work and you are stuck.

- Never invest in eBay design above your means or before you have tried eBay as a business. I also visit eBay design websites a lot and it pains me to see the ‘This shop no longer exists’ message from eBay when I try to view this amazing looking eBay Shop, that has increased buyer traffic 100 fold. (OK I exaggerate on the 100 fold, but some claims do tickle me)

- Never believe a design company is the number one, unless they have been verified by an independent watchdog, and the BBC said so. Debbie from As Was commented on the tendency for a ‘Mystery Guarantee‘ from the ‘The #1 Ranked eBay Store Design Service‘

- If they claim that no one else in the world can offer the same service, then see the post above. I bet Coca Cola thinks its sells the best brown, carbonated gut rot in the world, but hey I am going through a Pepsi phase. It is fine if they want to claim it or even believe it, but you don’t have to buy it.

- Beware of companies that copy the designs and code of an existing company. If you like it, go with the originals. It is just less risky, and you won’t be in fear of legalities.

- Be careful you are not being offered a ‘custom, tailored solution’ that really is just a template system. If you want that then Seller Source Book or something similar is what you need. You will be able to tell if they are using a template system by taking a look at all of their examples. Changing the colours and the header image is NOT a custom design. (not in my books anyway)

- Can you speak to a person? Do they have customer support? If not, do not spend more that you can afford to loose.

- Do they offer training on their template? Is it easy to use? You don’t want to be editing lines of code, as you will break your design!

I think that’s it for tonight. I have do a least an hour on my Web Applications Development project tonight as I have HTML validation ‘warnings’ on my site and they are driving me mad. Mad I say!

Well, it will be something I will be asking at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst in April, in which Mathias and I will be manning the createyourtemplate booth (shameless link to the UK site, as that’s my bit)

I have not written much this month as I have been working with a large construction company (currently part of the Olympics Stadium carnage) on the second stage of their employee review Intranet database driven site. Lots of usability studies (so how DO you get an ageing foreman to use a computer, let alone submit and on-line review after their appraisal?) data analysis, support and communicating with their developers from Spain.

February marks the start of my Open University course, which I am very excited about as I have been doing some hands on development work recently!

Once my life has slowed down again a bit, I shall be back commenting on the e-commerce world in as dry a manner as possible, as well as new theories and probably lots of code snippets from my course!