eBay store design can be a confusing subject. Many eBay store owners don't realize that with their eBay stores come certain guidelines and restrictions as far as how your store can be customized. Customizing an eBay store differs from creating a web site in many ways. In a regular web site you pretty much have the freedom to code and script in any way, shape or form (as long as your host allows it!) where as on eBay - we're pretty much given little boxes within a page to paste code into.

This is a basic eBay store theme that eBay would provide - they allow you to upload your logo, customize your colors, create promo boxes, etc.


As you can see - eBay breaks down your store elements into separate boxes, and then the eBay programming will put the boxes together. These are the boxes that eBay will allow us to customize with HTML code, graphics and our own little snippets of code, and with all of those you can create something like this:


courtesy of the JuJuBeez Jewelry Store

The design above now has a custom store header, and we've also added a custom search box & custom drop-down search menu to enhance the left navigation (we used promo boxes in the left menu to achieve the look). On another store we've customized, we again used promo boxes in the left menu - but we also added a custom page for their store's landing page. It's also another good example of how you can design separate boxes in a way that the end result appears seamless:


courtesy of the Cool & Useful Products eBay Store

Keep in mind, though, that eBay does have restrictions and guidelines even with the customized code in those boxes. As a certified designer, I stay within these restrictions and guidelines. The most important ones being:

1. We cannot design or tinker with any of the eBay code outside of the boxes they provide us for customization. So, changing fonts, backgrounds and function outside of those boxes is a no-no. So changing the color of the entire background top-to-bottom is out of the question (and yes, we get requests like that all of the time)
2. We also cannot overwrite any of the function of the "eBay owned areas". For instance, the left-menu. There are a few stores on eBay where the designers have used code that actually overwrites eBay's programming, and they've changed the store category menu in their own way. That's a huge no-no. We can create a custom navigation box that is hardcoded into a promo box, but we cannot alter any of the menus that are eBay generated.
3. There are a few scripts and code snippets eBay will allow us to use in these boxes, but again, there's a lot of codes they won't let us use. Dynamic scripting is restricted (or I should say that the scripting we need to create dynamic features are restricted). So all links, searches, navigation, etc. must be hardcoded. Hardcoding means we actually create each link as a full URL (http://search.stores.ebay.comblahblahblah). Updating hardcoded menus and features means we actually have to go in and edit the HTML to change links, add links, remove links. Keep this in mind when requesting a custom category box.
4. And of course we all know the basic no-no's on eBay: no outside links other than on your "me" page, no .com addresses in the logo or pages, no advertising off-eBay web sites (3rd-party credits are allowed), etc.
   

We strictly adhere to all eBay policies with our designs to make sure our client's aren't shut down because of a simple little violation. When shopping for a designer, take the time to look over the stores they've designed to make sure they design within policy. Nothing's worse than having your entire shop closed and suspended because the designer thought an animated background for the whole page would look cool in your store.

Here are some helpful links on eBay to help you better understand the policies and guidelines:

• Link Policies
• Customizing Your eBay Store
• Changing Your eBay Store Appearance
  

And of course - we're always happy to answer your questions as well!