Debbie Levitt, CEO of eBay Stores design company As Was, has come out in support of eBay's new "eBay Stores Experience" and against competitor Frooition's approach to eBay Store design.
The new eBay Stores Experience promises a number of improvements, but also restricts the coding that may be used in Store designs. Some Javascript and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) coding will be stripped out by the new Stores Experience, and sellers may check the look of their stores after the change using a special preview tool.
Levitt said "We're compliant, and have always been compliant with the rule eBay will now enforce way more strictly in terms of Store design. Thousands of Stores designed by people or companies calling themselves 'eBay experts' will break. This means these companies either didn't know the eBay rules or knew them and broke them anyway. I hate that this is going to cause stress and expense for people, especially at this time."
Frooition have reacted to the change by offering customers a paid upgrade. In her blog and elsewhere, Levitt has attacked Frooition's strategy, saying that "These Store designs break an eBay rule that's been around since 2004. There is no good excuse they could use that would explain why they sold you a Store they would have known was non-compliant."
Tamebay asked Frooition to comment on Levitt's claims, but were declined with the response "We don’t comment on competitors but what we can say is that we’re extremely excited about the new store experience and are concentrating our efforts on helping our customers understand the changes and help them through the process.”
