Etsy Releasing New Wider Storefront

sean11 says:

Hi all, Shop home pages are about to get a fresh new look, as we make them wider to match the new wide home page, search results and category pages. We've made a number of improvements, with both shop owners and shoppers in mind. Here's a preview of the new shop page design: http://etsy.me/clzg7f http://etsy.me/90eYZU Here's what coming and why: Bigger Item Images - Larger gallery images (170x135, as on the current wide pages) help make items jump off the page. More Featured Items - Shop owners will be able to showcase up to four featured items instead of three. As we give shop owners more control over how their items are arranged and presented on the site, this featured item section will become redundant and go away. More Items Above the Fold - The Shop Announcement area will no longer push items down the page. A prominent Shop Announcement preview will link to an overlay with the full announcement text. This is designed to bring more items to shoppers' attention, while providing shop owners with a more effective space for messaging. Shopper-Friendly Layout - The shop sidebar is moving from the right side of the shop home page to the left, following the convention shoppers are accustomed to on Etsy search results and category pages. More Ways to Show Love - We've made it easier for shoppers to add shops to their favorites -- look for a big, attractive heart button on the upper right. More Items to Love - Shop pages will feature up to 24 items per page instead of 21. Here are answers to frequently asked questions: Q: Will shop owners need to resize their shop banners? A: No. Shop banners remain 760px wide and 100px tall. Q: Will any of these updates affect search engine optimization (SEO) for shops? A: No. All of the information in the Etsy Guide to SEO is still applicable: http://help.etsy.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/247 The full Shop Announcement text will be displayed as an overlay but will remain visible to search engines. The first 160 characters of your Shop Announcement is still the most important, as this is generally displayed as the excerpt for Etsy shop pages in Google search results. Q: Will shop owners need to adjust anything? A: You may want to adjust your shop banner design and your use of the Shop Announcement space when you see your shop with the new design, but this is totally up to you. You may also see a gap in the Featured Items area of your shop, as the new design allows you to showcase four items there instead of three. Q: Will Etsy URLs continue to be "hotlinked" in the Shop Announcement? A: Yes. Etsy links will continue to work in the Shop Announcement overlay. Q: Why move the shop sidebar from the right to the left? A: This is designed to follow the convention shoppers are accustomed to on Etsy search results and category pages. Shop section navigation will be similar to navigation on Etsy category pages and search results. Q:  When? A: Very soon! These new pages will be rolled out gradually, beginning with a small percentage of visitors. We will update this thread and the Announcement Forum thread as the rollout gets underway. Expect an article on Etsy's blog and an Etsy News email about these changes as well. This update highlights some of the important structural improvements we're hard at work on here at Etsy: namely, providing members with the ability to manage multiple shops from a single account. You'll see the "shop owner" visually separated from the shop, and things like favorites now live with the person behind the shop rather than the shop itself. Related updates to the member profile page are on the way. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome in this thread. Thanks! Sean