Ebay users vote annually for the best eBay stores in 3 categories:

* Best Looking Store
* Best Shopping Experience
* Best Use of Store Custom Pages

The best looking store, the Frenchy Bee, is indeed gorgeous. Selling indulgent products from France like lavender soaps, chocolate and herbs from Provence, we can learn that gorgeous and mouth watering pictures add much to the success of any auction. This smart seller uses a solid white background, instead of indulging a tendency to 'gild the lily' with textures or colors, so the professional photographs are a feast for the eyes.

Secondly, the owner makes it easy to search. For example, when checking out the soaps (a passion of mine!) she makes it easy to search. I can look by 'Type', such as bars, liquid or laundry, or I can search by 'Scent', including such yummy smells as orange, vanilla or almond.

The Frenchy Bee's customer service motto is " Be generous even when you can't afford it, it comes back tenfold." Amen to that.

The design is efficient, alluring and inviting. Hard to see how it could look any more enticing. The seller is a compnay in Washington state, and offers some information in French as well as English. Truly a treat for the eyes.

It is clear, though, that eBay is only one of the selling channels for The Bee, because the eBay store revenues for the past 30 days are only $1207, from a total of 145 auctions. Dutch auctions obviously pay off for this company, because 60.83% of its Ducth auctions sold, vs only 36.55% of its single item ones. A little less than half (46%) of its auctions actually sold.

So, where else do they sell?

Amazon is one venue where the same painstaking attention to detail is apparent. Today they are offering sweet pine drops, cherries in kirsch brandy, spicy mustard and empty escargot shells. They accept returns, within 30 days, of all items except food. Their prices seemed to be the same on both eBay and Amazon, as were shipping prices.

And, naturally, they have their own lovely website. To further entice visitors they spotlight:

* New This Week
* Last Week's Bestsellers
* Clearance Sale

They offer a 23 page downloadable and printable catalog of their items.

Another smart feature is a newsletter with "Special Offer" items (yep, I signed up! :-)

And lastly, they advertise on Google AdWords, promoting both their Amazon and eBay store.

So, what can we learn from The Frenchy Bee, the award-winning eBay store?

* Site design is very important and spend the time or money to acquire gorgeous photographs

* Sell through multiple channels

* Make searching easy on your customers, with as many options as possible without being confusing

* Focus on certain items with clearance specials or newsletters

Does it work? I bought three bars of soap, so it must!