Items specific recommendations
Please hear us eBay
as sellers we need to spend time listing not adding specifics that the buyer really does not care about. I find myself spending hours trying to please the algorithm when I have hundreds of great items I could be listing. As a top seller this is becoming extremely discouraging for this platform. And as I’m sure all other sellers would agree we would appreciate changes in this automated algorithm that is not even a person. We are people busting our you know what to make money for you. So please show your appreciation to those who make your platform possible. Any feedback from other sellers would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time
25 comments
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoIt has been my understanding that Item Specifics do not have anything to do with the buyer but are used by Search Engines (SEO).
Since my collectibles are mostly long tail, being found by Google is important to me.
mam98031
·1 year agoBut buyers are the ones using the Search to find what they need. So using ISBs can give you addition points / words that a buyer may choose to search for the item by. The Ebay search likes ISB use. I mostly create my own ISBs.
I would think it would be the opposite for you regarding Google.
redlinear
·1 year agoWith all of eBay's intentional unknowns. Search result manipulation. Available promotions that we really don't know if they work (or help). And constant eBay "suggestions".
To IGNORE any suggestion such as Item Specifics when listing items, might be a really bad decision.
Lots of us "assume" that eBay's suggestions about Item Specifics help to make an algorithm "happier" which in turn might help our items to be seen in a search result (over a seller that chooses to ignore them).
We are trying anything we can just to be seen.
It's just too time consuming to list items like eBay wants us to.
mam98031
·1 year agoRequirements and recommendations for Item specifics are two completely different things.
youn2240
·1 year agoI have never in my life went and added more item specifics after I listed something. yes list more and ignore the silly prompt it's that easy.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoTreat Ebay's Recommended Item Specifics as suggestions from an 8 year old. That is comparable to the intellectual capabilities of Ebay's AI.
I add item specifics beyond the required when I think they will help in search results.
fern*wood
·1 year agoI spend a little time filling them out if they seem applicable and zero time worrying about the others. Ebay advises to skip any that do not apply. I currently have over one thousand listings where they are suggesting I add item specifics. I'm not losing sleep over that.
amxjewel
·1 year agoAs a seller I find them to be very time consuming. And also as a buyer I scroll past them and consider them a waste of space on my screen.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@amxjewel
As a seller, I consider Item Specifics to be an important part of the listing.
If you're scrolling over important info, do you return often?
mam98031
·1 year agoThis is the Community for members to converse together and try to help each other as they can. Ebay Customer Service is not here.
An important thing to remember about ISBs [item specific boxes], when the search engine searches for whatever the buyer as put it to search for, it considers ISBs. So try to think of them as helpful fields as they can be very important.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@shga9564
I don't know what particular info a buyer will or won't care about, so I fill out the required fields plus anything else that informs the buyer about the item. Keeps returns to an absolute minimum.
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoIt's EXTREMELY ANNOYING!!!!!!!!! I already started another thread about this and why they are recommending them AGAIN after I have updated them at least 3x and requested they don't ask again.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@gloryglorygifts
If the recommendations bother you, you can remove the Item Specifics column from your Active Listings table, so you never have to see the recommendations again.
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoI need a little more info on that. I went into the hub, removed that option and I'm still getting the recommendations. They are no longer a column on the hub, but still got them all today for ones I just addressed a week ago.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@gloryglorygifts
Do you mean eBay is messaging you about the recommendations?
I've never received anything like that. The only place I see recommendations is on my Manage Active Listings page in the Item Specifics column.
gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoIt shows up almost daily in the "tasks" in the hub.
adamcartwright
·1 year ago@gloryglorygifts
Oh okay, I don't often look at the Hub Overview page.
mam98031
·1 year agoYou wouldn't necessarily see the Tasks unless you had that tile on your Seller Hub. You can customize which tiles you want to see and them drag them into the positions you want. I don't have the Tile for TASKs currently on my Seller Hub overview.
I am in my Seller Hub several times a day. And I review my Seller Dashboard at least weekly to make sure there aren't any Defects sneaking up on me. I find the Seller Hub very useful for a variety of reasons.
duffy4444
·1 year agoThe only time you must fill out the Item Specifics is when it is required. If it is only recommended, it is up to your choice to continue filling them out or not as they apply to your particular listing. Those are not mandatory. I often see a bunch of "recommended" boxes to fill in when they have no connection whatsoever to the item I'm selling. Often it is laughable.
Cheers, Duffy
mr_lincoln
·1 year agoHi @shga9564
-Focus on the REQUIRED Item specifics
-Complete as many RECOMMENDED Item specifics that you can and then move on.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoI simply ignore the messages or suggestions about specifics. Out of my current 46 active listings I have 14 recommended suggestions.
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoI've got you beat (on my company's selling account) ðŸ˜:
dhbookds
·1 year agolol, can't beat that one........ But I make sure to fill in the requireds and then whatever else I decide is applicable when I make the listing.........and then just ignore that little "informational" prompt......
jonathanbrightlight
·1 year agoSame, hence the message. I decided we would ignore it around 2-3 years ago, so almost every listing we make has that warning, unless it's in a category with very few item specifics (there are a few out there). Actually, I say that, but we do have 6,104 listings up, so almost half of them don't have that message showing. I guess we've filled in all the recommended ones for many of our listings after all. I just don't stress about it, we still sell plenty of our items.
mam98031
·1 year agoI use them in a way that best suits my needs. Stuff people might search by but info I don't have in my title. Since the Search engine searches both the title and the ISBs [item specific boxes].