eBay Resources

Effective eBay Function & Design

Okay - I know you've seen them - the stores with all of the little flashing buttons, the butterflies that follow your cursor across the screen, the screaming yellow background with the glowing pink text. Sure, you might think - wow - that's cool, but did you know distractions of color, animation and (especially!) music can send a buyer running for the hills?

Buyers have one goal in mind when they visit your listings and your store - they want to buy! Too much design and movement can distract them, cause a slow down in your page performance and can hurt your sales. There is a nice balance you can find with design and function to keep your buyer's experience a positive one without scaring them with a blaring midi file of the Star Spangled banner or blinding them with the brighter-than-sun color scheme.

Let's talk about function first. By function I mean navigation, category organization and page flow.

Navigation would be the links to store pages, links to store items, etc. When creating your custom store pages, use names that would make sense to your buyers since the names will be the links displayed in your store pages menus. For instance a "contact us" page makes more sense that "how you can reach us". Keep them short and to the point. If you're creating your custom navigation - make sure you place these links in an optimal place where your buyers can navigate them easily. Oh, and don't use colors that make it hard for them to see the links.

Category Organization - a very important task when you are opening your store! Name them for pete's sake! Your buyers won't know what "category 1" or "category 2" is- and once you name them, use them. If you put everything into the "other" category - it makes your buyer's work twice as hard to find the items they want. They'd rather back out and find another store than to have to browse hundreds of your listings in one category.

Again - use names that make sense to your buyers. Think of "department store areas" where customers shop on a daily basis. Keep that flow when they shop online. It's comforting and less confusing for them. Opt to display your top-level categories only - this gives your menu an uncluttered look and the subcategories will display on their own when your buyer clicks on a top-level category anyway.

Page flow would be for the eBay store owners with custom navigation and pages they've created. Let your navigation reflect a logical flow. For instance, let's say you have a "store policies" page, a "home" page, a "bargain bin" page, your "me" page and an "on sale" link. So you build your menu and sort your links but you bury the "home" page link in the middle. A more logical flow would be to have your home page link either the 1st or the very last link in your menu where it is easily visible to your buyers. The store policies page is also an important link - group any policies page links together to give them an equal visibility. So you could do your links in an order like this:

home  |  store policies  |  about us  |  on sale  |  bargain bin

That's just an example, but I think you get what I'm saying.

Okay - now let's talk about design - the graphics, colors, layout. As a rule of mine, I keep graphics catchy but not overbearing. After all, we don't want to distract from the inventory too much. You're selling widgets, not designs (unless you're a designer of course). Use graphics as a way to draw your buyers in, not to fill up space. Showcase your widgets. Animated graphics are nice, and when done right can enhance your store rather well. BUT - and this is a BIG BUT - you don't want to over do it. I mean, who wants a potential buyer to have a seizure caused by all of the falling snow, flashing bullets, spinning pinwheels and rotating dollar signs? Plus, the load time suffers when eBay is trying to load all of their programming, and then your host is trying to send all of the animated graphics, too. OOFTA!

Colors should be kept simple. You can use color, just make sure your colors work well together. If you're using the eBay generated store menus, try not to use colors that hide the blue links for your store categories. If you're braving all to create a custom store header and other elements for your store, do keep in mind that they are all separate boxes. If you're using dark backgrounds, try to use borders or something that will separate the different boxes without it looking like just a bunch of dark boxes thrown together.

Layout would be more for your custom pages and store header. Try to keep your layout from stretching your store sideways. This will make buyers have to scroll side-to-side in order to see everything on your page (they hate that!). I actually sketch out page layouts just to make sure I have a layout that flows logically, looks nice together and fills up space evenly. You don't want a whole lot of wasted space, but you also don't want to fill up every last pixel there is on the screen.

So, that's just a couple of our do's and don't's here. Different designers have different styles, but consulting with your designer about ideas you have for layouts and colors is always best! They'll let you know what's effective and what's too much. Keep these tips in mind, especially when carrying your store design into a listings template for your auctions. Your listings template is your store marketing, so if you lose the buyer there - you'll probably never see them again.