The clunky-looking Storefronts will be gone by mid-June, 2014. Here is the message:
Upcoming Change: Storefront links will soon take customers directly to your Seller Profile (May 21, 2014)
To improve the customer experience, we will be streamlining the process for directing customers to your Seller Profile. To do this, in two weeks the Storefront feature for Marketplace sellers will be discontinued. Amazon customers will continue to go directly to your Seller Profile page when they click your seller name on product listings, but there will no longer be an option to see a separate storefront page. The Seller Profile has all the functionality of the older storefront and also includes additional information: your listings, a listing search, information about your business, your feedback ratings and comments, policies, and links to further information.
Please note that when seller storefront pages are discontinued, links on the Amazon.com website directing to them will redirect to the Seller Profile, or be removed in cases where Seller Profile links already exist. In addition, because the seller storefront pages will have been discontinued, you will no longer have Seller Central settings to support storefronts.
If you use links to your storefront on other websites, the URLs will be redirected to your Seller Profile page on Amazon.com. No action is needed on your part.
I really don't think many buyers on Amazon use the storefront or even the buyer profile, to be honest with you. At one time, I was convinced otherwise, and actually linked to my storefront from one website I maintain. I wish they would because every click on one of the Seller Profile thumbnail book covers whisks the potential buyer direct to that book's sales page... with MY used book offer up in the upper right "Buy Button" spot. The advantage to me would be to practically eliminate references to my competition.
Below you'll see my current storefront, followed by my current seller profile. As you can see, the profile page shows more books I have listed for sale, as well as all-important customer feedback along the righthand column.
I think this is a good decision on Amazon's part. I'd like to see Amazon allow a Merchant-Fulfilled (MF) Seller like me have more access to updating a seller profile. Maybe this will be in the cards. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect at all on sales.
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