It’s here, its default and as a buyer I don’t like it. As seller it means that my goodness is rewarded, however annoyed my buyers are at eBay changing their default view.

Who moved my eBay items? Adapt or perish!

So, how do we de-code eBays mind? Lets hope we are better at mind reading than eBay’s Best Match.

What you DO need for Best Match:

- Powerseller Status (this might be a conspiracy theory)

- Keyword Relevancy (for example on searching for Harry Potter Lego, the first items had the three keywords first….get you some valuable keywords)

- 100% Feedback (all of the first items shown in my research had 100% feedback, if your competitor is beating you on feedback, start beating yourself with a stick. Annoy more than 2% of your customer base in 30 days….bye bye sales)

- Supply and Demand (something in short supply, and high demand will bode well)

- Bargain-ous (The word is made up, but finally some old skool values, if your a bargain compared to the average sale price, your OK)

- Good DSR’s (Oh hell, who cares about those annoying little stars which prevent me from leaving feedback in a hurry? Best match cares, it likes good seller performance - 4.8 = survival)

- Honest Shipping (Free shipping, fast shipping at a fair price)

- A decent finishing time (another timeless classic I was afraid we had lost)

How you can perish on eBay:

- By upsetting eBay (any policy violation, name calling, kicking the eBay mascot ’snuggles’ will kill you in Best Match)

- Bad Keywords (check out the uncommon keywords at BayEstimator)

- Fiddling with stuff (eBay likes consistent history, for example price, shipping, hair colour etc)

- Bad seller performance (hiccups can kill you, check out the DSR calculator)

- Selling in the wrong category (school kid error, stop it!)

- Being far away from your buyers (eBay, you have missed the point of international trade, but the closest guy/gal gets it. No way you can affect this one)

On another note, it has took me far to much time to find an item I wanted for my wedding this evening. Eventually I found it on the 30th page. Until buyers start being more relevant with their searches, best match is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Be like water my sellers, adapt, change and hope eBay doesn’t algorim itself into an early grave.

I have been creating a colour pallet for an Intranet system, colours A and B are the branded colours which have to be used and the buttons are 100% GIMP:

Don’t fall into the trap of overloading your customers with information give them exactly what they need and how your product can benefit.

How to get your benefits across:

-Don’t bury them in text

- Highlight them by placing them in a box

- List the feature, then explain the benefit, don’t take too long about it either

Features on their own are not highly persuasive, but benefits are.

If we look at this snazzy home made diagram:

The stages of learning from experience can be presented as a cycle, experience > review > conclusions > planning. Short cuts can be deadly, and must be avoided.

For a small business the ‘learning from experience’ usually comes down to an individual. Maybe seeing how that individual learns to make sure we don’t jump to conclusions, take short cuts and learn properly from past experiences.

According to Peter Honey and crew, there are four distinct learning styles.

Activist - The trial and error marketeer, lots of mistakes will be made but equally there are lots of victories to be had.

Reflector - Considered and prepared approach to marketing, taking on board other peoples opinions and research. A more time consuming learning style, unsuitable when it comes to making snap decisions based on little data and the crux of the season.

Theorist - A methodical and complex learning approach, full of interconnecting relationships, ideas, evening and situations. More questions than answers can often ensue.

Pragmatist - Learning by practising, experimenting then releasing real and practical marketing solutions. No time for the innovative, unless there are clear guidelines and examples to prove efficacy.

So what is your preferred learning style if any? Check out the learning style questionnaire from Peter Honey publications. There is a longer version, but 40 questions is enough.

In essence, every good marketeer needs to hone in on all 4 different learning styles, or at least know where they are weakest. You need to consider your data (reflect), be practical (pragmatic), understand the complexity of the relationships (theorise) but be able to act quickly and take chances when the time comes (activate).

Once you know which hole you have been pigeon’d in too you can work on your weaker learning styles and also recognise your preferred learning style. Make sure the data and evidence you need to digest for the next move is appropriate for you to learn from.

Personally I am a strong reflector, pragmatist and theorist. I like to make informed and considered decisions with respect to my marketing and need to allocate time to make sure I don’t miss the boat pondering on the small details.

So when you read about learning from past marketing experiences, just consider exactly HOW you will learn.

Through the looking glass of a small trader, things seem a little slower, but this is typical as we all unconsciously save our pennies after the holiday splurge to cover Christmas.

Purses will be tight, so only the smartest retailers will hit it big this festive season. Things have already hotted up for the costume sellers, with Halloween around the corner. Remember last years advice on looking at your statistics and getting ready for Christmas early?

The theory still applies my friends, you should be better equipped this time!

1. Gearing up for Xmas 2007 - What to do in October…
2. Christmas Marketing - What to do in November
3. Cyber Monday - The Start of the Festive Online Shopping and December Marketing

but what IS new this year? What has changed in the shopping habits of the masses? This is something that no one can really predict, but if you think of the themes for this year:

-Global Warming. Kinda overtaken by the rise in energy costs, but it all has a green theme. If you are into selling stuff that plugs in or runs on black gold, make sure the energy/fuel rating is the BEST. The government has been brainwashing the public to purchase the most energy efficient appliances. Their spies are everywhere, you can bet it has worked.

-Value. Everything is about VALUE and not necessarily price. Make sure your unique value proposition is out there and visible. Many websites and auction sites now come equipped with moving pictures (video for those out of the 1920’s) including eBay. Nothing like a short film to show that your product is fit for purpose. Better still, uploaded it to Utube, you might start a viral marketing cult.

-Timing. In the next 7-8 days millions of British tax payers get a pseudo extra £60, (£60 of tax relief) and will be hell bound to spend it. Are your auctions and ads running in anticipation?

-Innovation. For some reason innovative products and services are hot this year. I suppose, if you have limited funds you spend it on something interesting. I mean, who’d a thought the wii with it’s Atari graphics would be a success?

-Interaction. Interactive marketing is hot. Engaging the customer and combining the off-line and on-line. Use off-line media to drive your on-line sales. Use opportunities to sponsor, do charitable work all in the name of love…and money.

-Train. Train your employees to cross sell, up sell and be honest. If you can’t sell the customer what they want, don’t ruin your reputation by hard selling. An item brought not fit for purpose will be a thorn in your side. Training your staff can motivate and bring value to the company. My enterprise has only one other and he has just passed his ‘Design and the web’ short course with the Open University. Now he is a more tailored web user and better understands the world I have thrust him into.

-Export. For the first time in ages the pound has dropped and we can export again. The rest of the world can afford our stuff now! So our economy is fading, lets hang on to someone else’s.

So far with my business I have seen no economic slowdown, not even the usual summer slowdown. It will hit all business in the end even the very small freelance sole traders. There are things you can do now to save money and ride the storm.

1. Find out how YOU are affected.

Do not believe sweeping statistics from the media. Christmas is coming up and will be a great indicator of how your category is going to fair against last year. You did get your stats together finally last year didn’t you?

2. Be wise with investment.

Invest for longevity, don’t just take the cheapest investment as a quick fix. 9 times out of 10 you will need to re-invest sooner than you think! If you don’t have the money for what you want now, don’t invest yet. Take your time.

3. Invest in yourself and your employees.

Trained employees are more productive and motivated, but how about yourself or if you have no employees? How about a book keeping course? The less time your accountant has to fiddle around with your invoices the cheaper their bill. Stuck with numbers? How about a Learn Direct Numeracy course? You have seen those weird hand adverts right?

4. Be eco-friendly and pocket friendly.

Invest in energy saving light bulbs, only buy the most energy efficient electrical goods. Start a ’switch off’ campaign in your business. Switch off your PC when going to lunch, and most importantly over night and at the weekends. This means no standby lights, and switch off at the plug. Invest in re-usable items, glasses for the water fountain and not plastic cups. Cut down on paper, and print heavy invoices. Printer ink is more expensive than oil, and do you really need all those fancy colours on your invoices? Would black and white do?

5. Re-evaluate subscriptions.

Do you really use your subscriptions? Have you in the last 3 months? If not, they are not worth it. Don’t be lazy, cancel and save a few pounds.

6. Be more strategic.

Fees are a killer, eBay fees, marketing fees, fees to third party companies. Be strategic with the fees you can not afford and take some time to learn about managing your own marketing. Lots of SEO is free, and only takes time. Could you or one of your employees build the skills to take it in house?

7. Go global.

No one has mentioned a global recession have they? If you don’t already, advertise and ship goods/services abroad.

8. Be transparent with employees.

If you are doing well, share the love. If you need to make savings, make sure your employees know this so they can help with savings too. They will have some great ideas to save money.

9. Hold a stationary amnesty.

You would not believe the hoarding of stationary that goes on. Get it all together, see what you really have and only order when you are low, not just when people have raided the stationary cupboard and its all in their draw unused.

10. Finally, adopt a no credit policy. Keep a good cash flow.

If you have not made the money to cover the next purchase of stock, then either don’t buy as much or re-evaluate what sells and what doesn’t. If you have some dead stock and even eBay won’t shift it, don’t waste more fees and just car boot it. Get back the cost value to re buy effective stock.

Do you accounts every month (hopefully yourself?) so you can save exactly what the tax man needs. If you are a sole trader then this site http://www.listentotaxman.com
is a great resource to see how much the tax man wants year on year.

Above all be positive, don’t waste and be money smart. Do you REALLY need all those different coloured return address labels professionally printed? Can you print your own?

Happy credit munching and look forward to a sustainable future!

Which made me wonder, and remember that not all CSS driven eBay shops will come off so lightly if the style sheet is pooped.

It will always be on the last trading day before Christmas that a lorry runs into the generator that powers your servers. If you have style sheets and what not hosted by your design provider, they need to have reliable hosting, but nothing is infallible.

Take away the CSS, and make sure your shop can still sell.

Then take away the CSS in the listing and see of your items will still sell.

The AspDotNet stores won’t choke when your sales hit high, and will have the functionality and design possibilities of a real e-commerce platform. Oh, and a one page checkout.

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.

First list on the agenda was to get rid of those crazy ‘corner’ images for the promo boxes:

table#PromoListView table table img {
display: none;
}

but that also kills the promo box images (and the slider) so now I have to put back the bits I want:

table#PromoListView table table#Table3 img {
display: inline;
}

I still don’t have anything defined, and the default text of the box titles is just too pale, so I am going to pink it up:

#PromoListView tr td font
{
color:#FF00FF;
font-size:18px;
}

and I am going to make the item links in these promo boxes hot pink:

table#PromoListView a {
color:#FF00FF;
text-decoration:none;
}

then I shall encase each box with a border:
table#PromoListView {
border:1px #FFCCFF solid;
}

We have not changes the width or dimensions of the promo boxes but you would do this from the table#PromoListView section and using the !important tag. You can also add in backgrounds, images etc that have not been explored here.

Please as always read the disclaimer

The entire section looks like this:

/*Promo Boxes*/
/*hide ebay corner images*/
table#PromoListView table table img {
display: none;
}
/*correct the fact that the above kills the main image too*/
table#PromoListView table table#Table3 img {
display: inline;
}
/*item links*/
table#PromoListView a {
color:#FF00FF;
text-decoration:none;
}
/*box title text*/
#PromoListView tr td font
{
color:#FF00FF;
font-size:18px;
}
/*promo box border*/
table#PromoListView {
border:1px #FFCCFF solid;
}
/* -------- End -------- */

You can see the full css file here: eBay Store Design with CSS and to see the changes to my eBay store as we go along visit : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Hairfreax

Next I shall sort out the shop search section, once I have found which table it corresponds too. Its seems to be avoiding me!

See what others have done with this information and while your at it buy from them!
http://stores.ebay.com/J-L-OUTDOOR-SUPPLY
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Betterlifehealthcare