5 Questions for Dzine-Hub – A Professional eBay & Web Design Company
Following on from the two-part series “Why buy a professionally designed eBay listing template?” for which you can read part 1 here and part 2 here, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to interview a company that specialises in such designs and share with you first hand the experiences and feedback from such a provider.
Introduction
I’ve got 5 brilliant questions for Abbas from DZine-Hub.com lined up, but first let me introduce Abbas to you.
I first met Abbas when we were given an exceptionally large quote for a revamp of one of my clients eBay shops and listing templates, to the point we had to find an alternative.
It turned out to be somewhat ironic, the company that we chose had been busy creating templates for other businesses in the same category as this client and it was almost full-circle for Abbas to end up re-designing the original eBay shop that had inspired so many other merchants to up-their-game with a professionally designed template.
I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting Abbas face-to-face, Abbas came over to the UK from India where DZine-Hub is based in March 2001 for the Internet Retailing Conference. After the conference had finished, Abbas stayed in Bristol for the following week or so and we met up and took Abbas to my 3rd place, a cafe on the edge of Bristol docks.
Since then I’ve worked with Abbas & his team on numerous projects and its normally the first recommended design resource for all eBay related projects.
I’ve lined up five questions and over to Abbas!
Before we start, Abbas, can you tell us a little more about what your company does?
I originally started as a drop-ship business selling on eBay, building a team we cleared over 20,000 items in a 6 month period, but it was the designing that was my passion and we now use this understanding of how eBay works from a sellers perspective to help our clients set up businesses on eBay, through websites & the social platforms more efficiently.
My team now focus purely on eCommerce design projects, which includes eBay shop designs, eBay listing templates, eCommerce website design, Facebook fan pages and also customising clients Twitter pages.
When we first started Dzine-Hub, there were very few successful design companies, their turn around times were slow and the prices for services were highly impractical. We optimised our processes, focusing on quality and always aiming to remain small & nimble to keep the entire process as personal as possible, after all these are peoples businesses we are representing with the designs and impacts them greatly.
Why do you feel that people use services such as yours for eBay listing templates and eBay shops?
There are many many people selling on eBay and many using eBay shops. One of the best ways to get ahead of the rest of the sellers on eBay is to use a professional design for your eBay store and listings.
An eBay store design and listing template design is vital for three important reasons –
Branding
A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers on the eBay market increases by day. Time taken to create a brand, and then market that effectively is time well spent. Branding increases your credibility with the customer & concretes user loyalty. A unique high-quality design helps in effective branding.
Interface
A bad design interface can discourage a potential customer from making a purchase owing to the fact that the navigation is not too simple. A good interface can put the customer at ease, with navigation made easy between store pages and other information. Our store designs are not just good looking, we create a good navigation interface to make your eBay store more customer-centric.
[Matt’s comment: The basic eBay shop is fine to a degree, but after that they all look the same and 3rd party design companies can really add some flair to the eBay shops and add a superior user interface which ultimately helps buyers find items faster & more efficiently in both the eBay shop and the listings themselves ]
Cross-promotion
Another way of increasing sales / conversions is cross-promotion – let the customer know what you feel might be of interest to them apart from the primary area of focus. Creative banners and well-designed promotion category boxes can communicate with the customer more effectively.
Abbas, DZine-Hub is not based in the UK, while I personally have no issues with outsourcing activities such as design work that I am not specialised in, what 5 tips would give UK business owners when outsourcing their design work?
We have positioned ourselves as an Internet-based business, just like our clients, where the core competencies of our company are measured by the kind of services we offer and how we deliver them.
Beyond a point the location only matters little, it is about how we do what we do, to the best our abilities.
Here are 5 tips for UK business owners looking to outsource their design work:
- Look for experience
Have a look at the portfolio, that would give you an idea on what they are capable of. Live links to eBay stores which showcase the work done. - Genuine reviews
Look at what people have spoken about their work (preferably on a third-party website). - Service
See the terms of service, after sales support and how easily contactable they are. Give them a call and/or an email and see what response you get back from them. - Nature of their clientele
See how big their clients are, their eBay feedback. If they’re attracting high volume, high value businesses, then they’re worth contacting. - Expertise
Many businesses use software tools to run their businesses on eBay. Its crucial that they have knowledge of the software system the company is working with.
[Matt’s comment: Just to add to the points above, never be afraid of picking up the phone and speaking to them. Look for a UK number or a Skype contact and call them. It’ll take no more than a few minutes and you’ll know first hand what the level of communication is going to be like. Maybe just like what your buyers do to your business ;-) ]
When we last spoke, you had exceeded the 600 designs mark, could you tell us how the journey has been this far?
The journey this far has been an exciting one to say the least. In the last couple of years of us being fully functional, we have learnt an amazing lot and grown from strength to strength.
We have launched 600 eBay stores and it’s not so much the volume that matters – but the fact that we have personally dealt with and successfully helped launch that many businesses on eBay. We’ve also designed a fashion outlet store in the UK along with the many others and have launched 50 eCommerce websites (and counting) based on the Magento platform.
Myself & my team are looking to an even more exciting time ahead – our next year should feature us venturing into Amazon web-stores, and launching more designs for other eCommerce websites that function on different shopping carts other than Magento, like OpenCart, Volusion, BigCommerce, Prestashop to name a few.
First impressions are huge, how do you work with your clients to ensure theirs are first-rate?
Having been in the business of eBay selling for quite a while, we’ve identified how critical it is for the designed templates to have the right balance of design and cross-promotion, suited to each individual business model.
We have been designing templates for varied set of clients, selling products & services across a very wide range of categories. A lot of our time is spent on deciding with our clients, what to do and how for each small / medium / large business, which we plan to have an impact on.
We understand how important it is for our clients to instill trust and confidence in their prospective buyers minds and all this is achieved with well designed professional templates.
First impressions count everywhere – we do our best to ensure that our clients make a very good first impression on their customers.
Some examples of our work are below:
- My1stwish – Website, eBay
- Hitari – Website, eBay, Facebook, Twitter
- Fresh Cig – www.freshcig.co.uk, Facebook
Thank You
Abbas, thank you for taking the time answer those questions for us.
You can find out more about DZine-Hub.com here, the link goes straight to the gallery page of over 100 eBay design examples.
Totally disappointed with their service.Created and integrated a untested template on my website.Cant even checkout after adding a product.I had a great experience with them the first time but totally disappointed this time
Hi Parikshit,
Most templates are untested until put live, as I’m guessing you like most small & medium sized businesses to not have sandboxes to test themes & other addons in a staged environment.
Reality is, its quite possible that something will break during a theme implementation, I’m sure you’ve worked with them to solve the issue?
Matt
Yes they have solved my issue and I am quite satisfied with their work.