Anyone else over having to edit "item specifics"? VENT!

[movieman630]

I've literally been editing "Item Specifics" since last summer!  IT NEVER ENDS!!  I'm so sick and tired of having to go back and re-edit the same listings over and over again because ebay's algorithms are too stupid to stop asking me about the same ones over and over again despite me having checked off the box "don't ask me again".  

Not every product can have the specifics filled out!  And what possible difference does it make what COLOR A TIE ROD END IS!!

I'm so over this!  I can't even begin to imagine how many hours I've spent doing this only to see the same listings pop back up again in a month.  AND to top it off, after ebay changed the categories a bunch of listings are not listed in the wrong category and when I change them to the right category all the item specifics VANISH!!  Hours and hours of endless busy work!!

Where does it end?  When will ebay's IT department realize that we're not COMPUTERS!!  Nor are we data entry specialists that work for them! 

People, realize what's going on here.  We're being used to help educate machine learning.  We're essentially being put to work for ebay adding data for their artificial intelligence and we're not even getting rewarded for it in any way that I can see.

This is getting old real fast.

[dhbookds]

You don't have to respond to the "recommended" IS messages.......the only thing you must do is the "required IS".

despite me having checked off the box "don't ask me again".

Be sure that's the last thing you do before hitting save.  A change AFTER checking the box will wipe out the check mark.

I change them to the right category all the item specifics VANISH!

Yep......because another category has different IS.

Aggravating to all of us............

[movieman630]

Yes you do, if you don't they bury your listings and your sales will drop.  I've tested the theory.

[katzrul15]

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@movieman630 wrote:

Yes you do, if you don't they bury your listings and your sales will drop.  I've tested the theory.

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I have made certain all the Required are done - daily we get new IS email reminders.  Sales have stayed steady.  How do you know your sales are dropped by not doing the "recommended"?  Has not been our experience....

Having SNADs, INRs....that seems to drop you based on what others post....but not from "recommended" that we have experienced?

[itolduandso]

It's not ebay buries your item, it's ebay adopting search optimization, thing that Google exists for. Because you haven't been doing it, Google didn't bother showing any ebay pages for last 8 years (try to find yourself on google, unless you search hard or unique expression). The item specifics are the primary criteria to get the listings shown on Google (and in Ebay results moving forward). Don't bother with the description, it is still important but don't spend time on it. Focus on the item specifics. Do as ebay asks you to do. They don't do it because they want to fill in their catalogue, that's too a reason, but they do it because they need you to make a sale. Without the item specifics you will have much lower chance making a sale. Trust me on that. It's 2022, not 2012.

In reply to the other poster - yes INR and SNAD will lower your listings. But isn't that what everybody loves about Amazon? Do you actually like to buy things from Amazon Sellers that have INR and SNAD in their list of product ingredients? No.  

Remember, it was only until recently ebay stopped Chinese sellers with bad rating promoting their items sky high on Ebay inspite they had so many bad reviews. Remember how you complained about those popping up in the search results when searching completely unrelated stuff? 

Finally ebay is cleaning up that mess. This is the step in the right direction. If you don't have time to do that, hire a freelancer on firerr. They don't cost as much and you can focus on doing other stuff.

[itolduandso]

One more thing - I do strongly believe, ebay will have a competitive advantage over Amazon in the future if it can pull it off with the product specifics catalogue, which will be far superior to whatever Amazon can offer you today.  I don't think you can effectively search Amazon by product specific as much as you could potentially do with Ebay item specifics.  Don't you love those sites where you can filter and slice and ice the lists as you like?  The Ebay Catalogue is a good strategy and my hope is they add more item specifics not less and make all the specifics available to use in filters and searching for items. 

[calntom]

I have always had the required IS (item specifics) entered for all listings. I just started my update that I do to all 1300 listings, every year or so.  Update pricing, pics, IS, sell lots, best offer, etc etc.

I have been filling out all the recommended IS in most listings. Either by entering legit IS or adding other pertinent info to help the search. If I don't have a legit/decent IS to enter, I mark it n/a and that keeps it from ending back up on the list of recommended IS.

I have been working on this endeavor for 2-3 weeks, a couple hours a day. It is great to update pricing, which is a must to keep from leaving money on the table. I have made it thru about 650 listings so far. When I finish, I am good for ~ 2 years and will enter all IS on new listings.

So far I have seen no increase in sales whatsoever. 

[movieman630]

There are problems with the specifics though.  For instance some things will contradict each other or the people doing the searching might use too many specifics and miss yours.  Or what if the buyer misinterprets what the specifics say.

For example.  I have an Exhaust Clamp.  One specific says "Bolt On" type or "Clamp On" type?  Well it does have threaded ends with nuts but they're on the ends of the "U" as it is a Clamp that holds the muffler on to the pipes.  But it doesn't "Bolt" to the frame.  So which is it?  And even if you think the answer is correct how can you expect the buyer to know the difference?

It's getting too convoluted.   Too many variables to consider, where does it end?  I swear they even have a selection that says "100% Accuracy of Fit" WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?  And how is a buyer supposed to know or interpret what that means!?

It's getting ridiculous!

[mr_lincoln]

@movieman630   My issue was that they either 1) deleted ones I already provided or 2) were incapable of programming to auto-filling the new I.S. fields with information from the old fields ...

Mr. L

[yuzuha]

I have never had to redo any of the item specifics once I did them once. Are you sure you're saving them once you finish editing them?

[ryanrobyn]

.Most sellers having trouble don't realize that they ONLY need to fill in the required specifics. Read the Ebay message carefully to see if Ebay is asking for required or just recommended specifics. Ebay sends me messages for specifics every month for all my items on my 4 Ebay sites for recommended specifics which I just ignore. I have found that many of the specifics do't pertain to the item or are redundant asking for the same material twice.

[calntom]

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@calntom wrote:

I have always had the required IS (item specifics) entered for all listings. I just started my update that I do to all 1300 listings, every year or so.  Update pricing, pics, IS, sell lots, best offer, etc etc.

I have been filling out all the recommended IS in most listings. Either by entering legit IS or adding other pertinent info to help the search. If I don't have a legit/decent IS to enter, I mark it n/a and that keeps it from ending back up on the list of recommended IS.

I have been working on this endeavor for 2-3 weeks, a couple hours a day. It is great to update pricing, which is a must to keep from leaving money on the table. I have made it thru about 650 listings so far. When I finish, I am good for ~ 2 years and will enter all IS on new listings.

So far I have seen no increase in sales whatsoever. 

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Well..... FWIW

I finished going thru all listings and updating pricing, volume pricing, pics, item specifics, additional item specifics, sell in lots, best offer, shipping offers, description, title, etc. Took about 3-4 weeks, a couple of hours or more, most every day.  I know, I know, brutal.

I adjusted a lot of the main photos with the "auto adjust" feature. Mostly adding more brightness.

There were a lot of listings in the same categories so that made adding the "recommended" item specifics easy to complete.

Overall, I believe it was a good exercise for the "long-run" of the listings since I do not end and relist items anymore. I sell a lot of parts that have part numbers and model numbers. I find that most every listing is cached in google and that is how many of my buyers are finding my items. (not thru eBay search)

I hammered a lot of relevant information into the recommended item specifics even if it did not exactly pertain to the specific field.  Also used the " Add Custom Item Specific" to enter other relevant information.

I found that I don't have as much competition on many items and was able to raise the price on more items than I thought. Competitors are still thick, but many that were underselling me were sold out or gone.

As I write this, sales are up 61.9% over the last 31 days. I never look at metrics such as "Listing Page Views" though I did notice a few days ago it was up 23% and it was at 10% this morning.

That's it in a nutshell. Time to start working on listing once again.

Best to all.

[hawkwind5454]

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@movieman630 wrote:

Yes you do, if you don't they bury your listings and your sales will drop.  I've tested the theory.

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Though eBay can be a bit of a spoiled child, when it comes to what they WANT you to do, I think your findings are more coincidental... and I am normally the last person, who would tell you that. Item specifics are particularly noisome for me, as I sell vintage items. I still jump through the item specifics hoops, as best I can, and my sales are STILL DOA. 🥴