When you enter a store that is part of a chain, did you ever notice that the store is laid out similarly to other stores in the chain? Retailers do that to make the surroundings familiar so customers feel comfortable the minute they enter the store. They know right where to find what there looking for: in the back-left corner (for instance), they’ll find dairy products, and in the right-front corner will be the fresh produce.
Any chain store worth its salt doesn’t want its customers overwhelmed and confused when they walk in the door. Consistency encourages a feeling of familiarity, so customers can easily locate the sections of the store. Time wasted looking up and down every aisle to locate a specific department is time that isn’t spent determining which items to purchase.
With all the text enhancements available to you through HTML, you can design a listing layout that’s easy to read, provides all the information your customers need, and feels consistent with your other listings. You can carefully group and delineate information so your shoppers can easily locate the information they need to make a decision to purchase your item. As you’re designing the look of your listings, keep in mind all the different types of items you sell; format the layout so you can use it for most — if not all — of your products.
Experiment with HTML formatting and put together the best layout you can; then save this layout as a template, or a pattern, to use when you create your listings. Creating an HTML template benefits you in two ways:
Follow these steps (on a computer running Windows XP) to create and save a handy, reusable listing template:
1. Choose Start➪All Programs➪Accessories➪Notepad, or open your simple text editing program of choice.
2. Start with a blank page, at the top of which you type your listing header.
3. Include the HTML for at least one picture.
4. Finish with your standard payment and shipping sections.
5. Choose File➪Save As to save your completed template. The Save As dialog box appears.
6. In the Save In drop-down list, choose a location where your template is readily available for use when creating your listing descriptions; type a logical name for your template in the File Name text box.
7. Click Save to save your template.
Text colours for eBay listing
Following are some guidelines for using color in your listing text:
Decide on a limited set of colors to include in your listing. And then, stick to your decision! Just as you don’t infuse your garden with plants in every color of the rainbow, you don’t want to go wild by using all 216 colors available to you! Using a multitude of different colors won’t make your listing easy to read (quite the opposite), but carefully pulling in a few colors that work together well can help make your point without making your readers’ eyes burn.
While choosing colors for your text, keep in mind whether you plan toYou don’t want change the background color. You don’t want the background and text colors to clash with each other! Text will fade into a background color that’s too similar, but too strong a contrast can bring a viewer to tears.
Recognize that some potential customers may be colorblind or have other difficulties with viewing specific colors. Yellow is one color that many people can’t read easily. Readability is the watchword here!
eBay Acronyms
| eBay Code | What it abbreviates | What it means |
| MIB | Mint In Box | The item is in the original box, in great shape, and just the way you'd expect to find it in a store. |
| MIMB | Mint In Mint Box | The box has never been opened and looks like it just left the factory. |
| MOC | Mint On Card | The item is mounted on its original display card, attached with the original fastenings, in store-new condition. |
| NRFB | Never Removed From Box | Just what it says, as in "bought but never opened." |
| COA | Certificate Of Authenicity | Documentation that vouches for the genuineness of an item, such as an autograph or painting. |
| OEM | Original Equipment Manufacture | You're selling the item and all the equipment that originally came with it, but you don't have the original box, owner's manual, or instructions. |
| OOAK | One Of A Kind | You are selling the only one in existence! |
| NR | No Reserve Price | You can set a reserve price when you begin your auction. If bids don't meet the reserve, you don't have to sell. Many buyers are leery of reserve prices because they're after a more obvious bargain. If you're not listing a reserve price for your item, let bidders know. |
| NWT | New With Tags | An item, possibly apparel, is in new condition with the tags from the manufacturer still affixed. |
| HTF, OOP | Hard To Find, Out Of Print | Out of print, only a few ever made, or people grabbed up all there were. (HTF doesn't mean you spent a week looking for it in the attic.) |
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