Tips for Choosing an eBay Shop Design

The impact of eBay on the way that people buy and sell items has been profound. Originally founded in San Jose, California in 1995 as a private website by Pierre Omidayar, it now has over 15,000 employees worldwide. In 2008 the annual revenue for this massive sales company was over 7.7 billion dollars and it was listed as one of the top 15 ranked websites in the world. While many people sell on eBay, there are ways to attract more customers and take advantage of the global audience. Having a high quality eBay shop design is one of the most essential considerations if you are serious about selling online.

The eBay website provides a basic template for sellers to use to set up an eBay store. A shop is a way for sellers to highlight all the products they have for sale, either through auctions or buy it now, throughout the entire eBay listing. There are two basic shop designs offered through eBay itself, with just a few variations between the basic and advanced. Typically most of the stores that you click on are eBay templates that all look exactly the same. If a seller chooses an eBay template then your store will, by very design, look like all other stores offering the same products that you are. Sure you can add your logo and choose your colors and a few variable graphics, but other than that it will be a carbon copy of every other website.

A better option is to use an eBay shop design that is customized just for you. When choosing a customized type of display you have much more freedom in the positioning of the product items on the page, the size of the photographs and information blurbs as well as the types of tabs, links and features you can put on the site. Having a professionally designed website gives credibility to your online presence and distinguishes you from those sellers that are just out to make a quick bit of pocket change.

Since a customized eBay shop design allows you a lot of freedom you do have to think about what you want to focus on with your listing. Obviously the products themselves need to take center stage without appearing crowded or just stuck up there in the hopes of attracting buyers. Layouts that provide enough white space around items to highlight the photo or image are critical, as are easy to use search engines that focus within the site itself. This provides your potential buyers with ways to search your site without going back to the main eBay pages and your competition.

Another key consideration is to use your company or store logo and colors to make your website distinctive from the other hundreds of sellers offering the same items. A website that is eye catching and distinctive will stick in people's minds and will also quickly become listed on their favorite sellers list. Adding features such as a dynamic rolling banner and gallery on your store homepage is a wonderful way to allow visitors a quick teaser glimpse at all the other products you have for sale. This will keep them clicking through your pages with more clicks adding up to more purchases.

Finally a customized eBay shop design can also allow you to have your sales website viewed on iPhones as well as with links to the major social networking sites. All this really does enhance your store's presence on eBay, allowing you to stand head and shoulders above the crowd.