I think I’ve just fallen in love with . The design that Frooition – in the guise of super-talented Adam Tibbetts – just produced for me makes me grin from ear to ear every time I look at it. I think it’s gorgeous.
My favourite bit is still my new logo, the one you can see above. Frooition turned my old concept into a sharper, cleaner, but still recognisable version that everyone who’s commented has loved. And that “sharper and cleaner” has spread throughout the rest of my shop front: I love the way the header and footer pick up the wavy line of my logo, I love the luxurious feel of the white space, and I especially love the way it doesn’t feel *that* far from a normal eBay shop. I still know I’m on eBay, but it’s a better eBay, a more stylish eBay, a sexier eBay.
They say the devil’s in the detail, and it truly is here. I’d looked at my own shop front a dozen times before I spotted the cute bullets in the right colours to go with my search-by-colour promo box; yes, Adam’s really been looking at my shop and what I do, because this hadn’t been discussed, it was just done: and what a brilliant idea. Likewise, anyone who’s ever wondered which default search to use on their shop display may find that Frooition solve the problem for them: the main centre display block, the right hand column with a list of gallery items and the featured item in the top left, can all be chosen seperately. I’d’ve liked some way to specify an item number for my top-left “star item”, but this is a minor quibble and largely related to eBay’s search defaults.
If there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s the work I’m going to have to do to keep up with this. I knew I’d be pulling all my SIF listings and re-doing them with the new Frooition template (more on that over the weekend), so that’s cool. But what I hadn’t bargained for was how – frankly – shoddy this was going to make my product photos look. I’ve always thought they were okay, ever since a buyer told me that they were so clear even for tiny things, she didn’t believe the beads were as small as I said they were. But now, they look grey and out of focus and boring. Light tent and super-saturation, here I come 😆
So now I know what Frooition do for their customers; they make you look at your own eBay shop and feel shocked with how good it looks. I hadn’t expected that, at all, and I’m happy to look an idiot in the light of my previous snarky comments about them. Now I know why their customers love them.
But of course, the proof of the pudding is in the price of each slice. I’m lucky enough that Frooition are are sponsoring this redesign themselves: £795 is a lot of packets of beads, and if I were hiring them, it would have to be part of a general relaunch or expansion of business. For some people, of course, the price would be covered by one extra sale. How many extra sales will it bring me? Well, stay tuned to find out! 😀
25 Responses
I think they’ve done a fantastic job on the shop, it’s so much more “allyoubead†than your old one 😀
If they’d stop messing about with their custom shop template and just do a great design using a bog standard eBay layout I’d be very tempted to see what they could do for me. Their designers are fab! 😀
Looks brilliant.
btw I seem to have misplaced the discount code the kind chap from frooition posted on here, it’s the one that rewarded all tamebay fan’s with a hefty discount if they paid upfront *cough* but for the life of me I can’t find it 😆
perhaps that kind gent from frooition could post **cough** it again 😀
It’s fantastic!
*is extremely impressed*
I want one
Looks Fantastic Sue, now start tracking to see if Shop traffic and sales increase and let us know.
Just out of interest biddy it appears only your shop front has the new design, the listings are the same as before(although still very nice) continuity is very important with branding, are the listing’s changing as well?
Whirly, I have to manually change all the listings, so yes, they are; that’s my task for the weekend.
😮 you like,,, have a gazillion beads…..see you some time next year 😆
Now that it is up and running, I agree, I really like it.
When you look at the listings, the colours look too “in your face” and the text size too large.
I am going to have a good look at my own listings I think , and see if I can tweak them slightly to improve the look, without splashing out the dosh to have them done professionally.
It does look lovely. It’s a good bit of work. But some thoughts (neither negative or positive, really, just thoughts.)
– It shows of some excellent pictures more effectively than before, which is great and great you had you had those pics.
– One of the first links on the page, top right, is: eBay Design by: Frooition.com. How do you feel about that? (Is it def totally legit?) Even Picasso was modest enough to plump for the bottom of the painting. ;o)
– I like the logo and how it is congruently featured in the design. But my first thought was “sperm”.
– As you noted, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Just about 800 quid plus 20 quid a month (I believe) is more than a grand for year 1: will it drive more than that in incremental profit?
– What are the costs of redesign and tweaking in a year or so when you want a refresh?
Sue,
Looks very good.
I assume you won’t be free to hard code my categories into my listings this weekend then?
Dan – have you just got in from the pub? Sperm? 😆
To be fair, when no pints down, I said much the same to Chris yesterday afternoon.
But, that said, officer Andy, I’ve only had a few ales. ;o)
I agree with Dans comments though I could be a little more blunt,
Looks good.
I went with the creativebay design for our store because i wanted a professional looking image and a sense of branding.
I then got a web designer to transfer the design into a website. And for me it was exactly what i wanted and i am pleased with the result.
Yeah Biddy, it rocks. Nice job.
Overall looks great. To be picky I wouldn’t be happy with the way the right hand column extends beyong the main body on the “me” page (if I had paid the whole whack). Also hopefully things like the possible new “veiw item” page won’t cause havoc on the design (or require you to re-edit all your listing templates).
I had a “cold call” from frooition yesterday but it caught me at a bad moment so I didn’t chat but would be interested to know if there is ‘flexibility” in the pricing. After all Frooition is placeing an advert on all you listings.
there is great danger of the tail wagging the dog, I want money not glory ,
by the time you pay ebay and all the third parties you could wonder who your working for
Jimbo: to be fair to Frooition, as delivered it only had 5 items in the right column. I increased that because I wanted the space filled on the shop front page. I agree that my me page now looks a bit funky, but it was due a rethink anyway.
Dan: if it’s blue and green, luv, I think you need to worry 😛
It looks very nice, but as several have mentioned before does the new design increase sales enough to justify it’s cost? the answer to that you’ll only find out as time goes on. Perhaps a follow up article in a few months time might be an idea. I could be tempted to spend that sort of money on a web site but I’m not convinced i would on an ebay shop.
There’s also the train of thought that people are use to the look of standard ebay shops and having a custom design could have a negative affect with people being cautious. I don’t have any proof of that but it’s something I heard many times before concerning custom designs.
Any links to see what the new listings look like?
I think your advertisers “Just Template IT” should be given the chance to participate, I am willing for them to do a free template for me in order that it can be compared with Frooitions 🙂
What Dave says.
I wonder if they have a website ?
https://stores.ebay.co.uk/Trueshopping
😆 tut tut a link in the header on this ebay shop! 😛
Ok you have had it for over a week now…
how’s it proving? Has it improved your sales? What customer comments have you had?
would it have been worth paying for in hard cash terms?