Add recommended item specifics is a MESS

[albany_sellers]

Is there ANY plan to fix this whole trainwreck?

I am trying SO HARD to add these specifics, yet it's borderline impossible when every other item I "update" does not reflect those updates. It's always something and it's getting on my last nerve. 90% of my 320+ listings that "need item specifics" do not even need them.

Why does every single item need a "character" or any number of other specifics that have nothing to do with them? All this whole debacle is doing is making unneeded work for us and serves no purpose other than to annoy us.

My sales have tanked this last week and i have to wonder if eBay is somehow "punishing" me for not having all of the "suggested" specifics. 

At this point, I am pretty sure I speak for a lot of us sellers when I say CAN WE NOT? Just let us list our items and let us sell them without badgering us constantly about the most useless things possible.

[divwido]

I don't see a mess, I see a tragic overuse of item specifics to try to show what is for sale.

What year was it made?

What is it made of?

What year was it made?

Where was it made?

What year was it made?

And then, they tell you that you have toooooooooooooooo freaking many item specifics. 

[bimm_corp]

I am constantly bombarded by eBay messages and "reminders" to update my listings with their "recommenced" item specifics. I just ignore them all. Until eBay makes such specifics "required", I will continue to ignore the harassment.

[deresorrel-0]

Could not agree more. My sales have dropped of as well,so like you, I wondered if we were being punished 😡. Add to that the exorbitant fees I am looking for another outlet.

[jeff-second-chance-silver]

It is 100% ridiculous the amount of pointless item specifics ebay has added. Sales have dropped dramatically in ebay while they appear to be growing on other platforms. Ever since ebay "streamlined" groups. 

[winterpalace25]

I'm just filling in the truly relevant Recommended IS and then the first time the listing shows up in my "Tasks" for IS, I go I  and find the very faint check box for Don't Remind Me Again. I think a million semi-relevant IS or a bunch of Does Not Apply really clutters up a listing, especially as they come before our descriptions. A few truly relevant IS are fine and add to the listing, but a huge box of them is a big negative.

[lobob2]

I just replied to ebay and my complaints are the same as yours. They keep reminding me to add Item Specifics and there is no way I can apply because the specifics do not exist. My thoughts are How Dumb is Ebay? I would have to put false information on my listings to satisfy them and then I would get "Hell" for putting on false information.

[stacy_1971]

I have been putting N/A  🙂   A lot faster to do, and shorter of a line to copy & paste.  It's driving me crazy too, I even put in request tickets about it, and also on the page where you list, you can click on the leave a suggestion for the view thingie, and I click on that and type it in there too....  The totally unnecessary fields are insane!

[stacy_1971]

Even easier than that is simply fix the lazy programming.  If I list a plain silver ring, it asks me for the stones, and I select the provided option of "no stone".  That should then eliminate all of the questions regarding stones.... like size, color, quality, etc... but it doesn't.... NOPE - you gotta go through and put N/A in all of those totally unnecessary fields!

[stacy_1971]

Yes, but you ignore the things that don't fit, and then you end up with an item that isn't being found as easily.  Or is it?    Does putting in "N/A", "Unknown", or "Does Not Apply" help your listing or hurt it?   Does it help those that are programming the Item Specifics to know what items require those item specifics?  Would it help if we all used the exact same term for item specifics that are not applicable to help weed out which item specifics shouldn't even be an option for that category?   IF it didn't make any difference to whether they were filled in or not... then every category would have the exact same item specifics, and you would just ignore those that didn't fit your item.  But every category does have very different item specifics, and not just different Required specifics, but Recommended and Additional are all different as well.  Note below, Item specifics for a light for a Cadillac car, notice as I add Item specifics it shows the change in the reachable audience?  It says specifically:  "783.9K recent searches for these details", and as I added one more recommended item specifics it shows the number go up to 882.1K, and adding one more recommended item shows that number go up to 1M.   

After those 3 screenshots, not the screenshots after that which show the item-specific recommendations are much different when you compare item specifics recommendations for Diecast cars, versus item-specific recommendations for a woman's hat.  




Item Specifics for Diecast car 1Item Specifics for Diecast car 2Item Specifics for Hat1Item Specifics for Hat2Item Specifics for Hat3

[dhbookds]

Yes, but you ignore the things that don't fit, and then you end up with an item that isn't being found as easily. Or is it? Does putting in "N/A", "Unknown", or "Does Not Apply" help your listing or hurt it?

It doesn't help you to have n/a.........that's unsearchable and search is what IS are supposed to help..  IF the ring had a diamond.........obviously, including diamond in IS would help.......  If you look at some of your IS in the IS box on your listings.....many are "N/A, unknown," etc and that just makes the info in the box that much longer and harder to read.......  That's the reason Ebay (Harry) said quite quickly when this started to leave the boxes blank that don't apply to the item......even tho some idiot put that blue ring that you were supposed to "complete"...........

[pjcdn2005]

Why put NA at all? I just ignore the specifics that do not apply. IMO, a listing with a bunch of does not apply comments is messy looking and makes it more difficult to look at the things which are important.  They don't help in search since someone is not going to be looking for a item with a 'theme' or doodad that doesn't ever apply to that item anyway.

I agree that some of the specifics are just plain dumb and I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they set them up. 

[luckythewinner]

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@albany_sellers wrote:

Why does every single item need a "character" or any number of other specifics that have nothing to do with them?

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You are overthinking this.

A listing does not need recommended item specifics.

[cp_elgreco]

totaly agree with you!

even if i sell a ring with cubic zirconia or without stones it keep asking quality of diamonds etc.

they might fixing it in categories so we can choose with or without stones or semi precious stones.

a lot of useless specifics in many items, i just let them as they are because i already describe what i have to.

[gurkin444]

You have to face the fact, it will not end until ebay have lost too many sellers. I closed my store this week having been open for years. You can not win because only an idiot could have carried this policy on for so long. Clearly the sellers do not matter to ebay anymore. Must be somebody new in charge with a whole team not saying it is the wrong policy

[from_me_2_you]

to add to the complaints, I sell glass, pottery, china in many forms. The add specifics (11 in one auction) sometimes is not even slightly related to actual auction. 

What I would like the management to do: HAVE THE PROGRAMMERS (or whatever they are called) ACTUALLY DO AUCTIONS for a month in the real world. Start from scratch and follow through to actual mailing of the item. When they have an idea of how it works, THEN let them tweak the system. I have been with eBay around 23 years and have it go from bad to good and back down. As a stockholder (just off the IPO) I am probably going to liquidate my positions shortly. I have been slowly starting to use other on-line sites mainly due to MUCH LOWER FEES! My last gripe (for now) is eBay siding in most cases with the buyer, even when there is blatant proof of "scamming" by the buyer. My feedback is positive, I describe in detail the attributes and flaws or issues with the "stuff" I sell and rarely have any returns. Oh Well, off to push the chain up the hill for awhile!