eBay

Anonymous · ‎08-02-2019

The first change I saw is that Item Specifics now automatically hides several IS fields, even if the listing form only has 4 recommended fields!

While I'd be the first to jump up and cheer for the ability to hide options on almost every screen (particularly in Seller Hub), in this case, item specifics is one important field where I DON'T want to hide options. I do understand that many will love this change, especially in categories that recommend a lot of IS, but I use IS very heavily and don't want to click every time I enter them.

My plea to eBay: Under the customize link on the listing form, allow a seller to set an account preference that defaults to either show or hide additional item specifics. @Anonymous

The other change I noticed is that when you fill in item specifics it shows the number of potential searches your listing may appear in.

I'm not sure what to make of this just yet. It shows the number for many of the IS fields available, and the number is different for each IS. I'm not sure how I will best utilize the information - I'll have to live with it a while longer.

joesoucie22012 · ‎08-02-2019

I have not yet seen this in book catagories but if it does come I think it has to be an improvement. 🙂

Anonymous · ‎08-02-2019

@Anonymous wrote:

The first change I saw is that Item Specifics now automatically hides several IS fields, even if the listing form only has 4 recommended fields!

While I'd be the first to jump up and cheer for the ability to hide options on almost every screen (particularly in Seller Hub), in this case, item specifics is one important field where I DON'T want to hide options. I do understand that many will love this change, especially in categories that recommend a lot of IS, but I use IS very heavily and don't want to click every time I enter them.

My plea to eBay: Under the customize link on the listing form, allow a seller to set an account preference that defaults to either show or hide additional item specifics. @Anonymous

The other change I noticed is that when you fill in item specifics it shows the number of potential searches your listing may appear in.

I'm not sure what to make of this just yet. It shows the number for many of the IS fields available, and the number is different for each IS. I'm not sure how I will best utilize the information - I'll have to live with it a while longer.

Hi @Anonymous, we've organized Item Specifics by the most important values for buyers - the specific pieces of information they are most frequently searching for. You can access more options by showing the additional options in the drop down. Each of the item specifics will show you the number of searches that used that item specific, encouraging sellers who are not currently filling out out those portions of the listing form and explaining why we require certain specifics to list an item. If you are already filling out as many fields as possible, then you would not need to do anything different, but this data really drives home why item specifics are so important and helps sellers adopt a more thorough listing process. Seeing that adding a certain item specific can lead to showing up in hundreds of thousands of additional searches each month encourages more detail to be added, which improves a seller's visibility and improves a buyer's experience while searching.

You can make suggestions for the listing form directly from the form using the Send us your feedback link in the upper right corner of the page. Our dedicated teams will be happy to review your request for potential enhancements in future updates

mynewfindstore · ‎08-02-2019

These changes to the item specifics are what caused the major glitch a couple of days ago. I wish the tech team would FULLY test the software changes BEFORE making them go live! This caused our store to lose sales, money and caused me a lot of additional time trying to list and relist items where the IS went missing completely!

I used to work in software programming waaaay back in the late 70s - 80s but still we always fully tested changes BEFORE sending stuff to a customer! I really do not understand why such a big company like eBay would make such major changes go live without debugging the software.

The other problem is that every time the software changes, we experience a drop in sales. This one was one of the worst! IMO the changes were totally needless.....I already know that IS are important and I even add some custom IS. I don't need to see how many millions of people search with a certain specific EVERY TIME I list or change a listing!

Anonymous · ‎08-02-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
My plea to eBay: Under the customize link on the listing form, allow a seller to set an account preference that defaults to either show or hide additional item specifics.
You can make suggestions for the listing form directly from the form using the Send us your feedback link in the upper right corner of the page. Our dedicated teams will be happy to review your request for potential enhancements in future updates

Thanks, I forgot the feedback link was on the listing form.

dasarock · ‎08-02-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
The first change I saw is that Item Specifics now automatically hides several IS fields, even if the listing form only has 4 recommended fields!
While I'd be the first to jump up and cheer for the ability to hide options on almost every screen (particularly in Seller Hub), in this case, item specifics is one important field where I DON'T want to hide options. I do understand that many will love this change, especially in categories that recommend a lot of IS, but I use IS very heavily and don't want to click every time I enter them.

My plea to eBay: Under the customize link on the listing form, allow a seller to set an account preference that defaults to either show or hide additional item specifics. @Anonymous

The other change I noticed is that when you fill in item specifics it shows the number of potential searches your listing may appear in.

I'm not sure what to make of this just yet. It shows the number for many of the IS fields available, and the number is different for each IS. I'm not sure how I will best utilize the information - I'll have to live with it a while longer.
Hi @Anonymous, we've organized Item Specifics by the most important values for buyers - the specific pieces of information they are most frequently searching for. You can access more options by showing the additional options in the drop down. Each of the item specifics will show you the number of searches that used that item specific, encouraging sellers who are not currently filling out out those portions of the listing form and explaining why we require certain specifics to list an item. If you are already filling out as many fields as possible, then you would not need to do anything different, but this data really drives home why item specifics are so important and helps sellers adopt a more thorough listing process. Seeing that adding a certain item specific can lead to showing up in hundreds of thousands of additional searches each month encourages more detail to be added, which improves a seller's visibility and improves a buyer's experience while searching.

You can make suggestions for the listing form directly from the form using the Send us your feedback link in the upper right corner of the page. Our dedicated teams will be happy to review your request for potential enhancements in future updates

the funny thing about item specifics is that they are put there by sellers to add 'relevant' facts pertaining to description and items... not just for search criteria. hiding seller input for items is doing the seller and injustice. many many buyers Do Not read descriptions, but only the title, item condition (maybe they'll read more than the first few words), and the item specifics.

Item Specifics is the ONLY place there is to put relevant data regarding items and has the Best Chance of actually being seen and read by buyers ... in addition to increasing the odds of favorable search results. Hiding all but what EBAY in it's infinite wisdom considers relevant is doing the buyer and seller alike an extreme injustice! increasing the lack of trust and faith in ebay.

hidden-staircase · ‎08-03-2019

I thought there was something wrong to day when I went to enter multiple listings. There were no item specifics. I finally caught on after seeing this post I needed to drop down the item specific arrow. But after doing that I didn't realize it only dropped down the first layer of item specifics. So I missed a whole section of specifics when I was setting up my multiple listing entry form.

But it's even worst than that. Because I had book called "Olga of Norway" it automatically changed by Country of Manufacturer to "Norway" from the "United States." Thanks algorithm.

And only after I dropped down the second layer of specifics did I see more pertinent information. Only an algorithm would bury the "author" specific field for a Book Item. Really?

Maybe when ebay is changing the data entry forms for the different categories they might stop and ask the sellers in these categories what they really think really is important data.

Anonymous · ‎08-05-2019

@hidden-staircase wrote:

I thought there was something wrong to day when I went to enter multiple listings. There were no item specifics. I finally caught on after seeing this post I needed to drop down the item specific arrow. But after doing that I didn't realize it only dropped down the first layer of item specifics. So I missed a whole section of specifics when I was setting up my multiple listing entry form.

But it's even worst than that. Because I had book called "Olga of Norway" it automatically changed by Country of Manufacturer to "Norway" from the "United States." Thanks algorithm.

And only after I dropped down the second layer of specifics did I see more pertinent information. Only an algorithm would bury the "author" specific field for a Book Item. Really?

Maybe when ebay is changing the data entry forms for the different categories they might stop and ask the sellers in these categories what they really think really is important data.

Hi @hidden-staircase, I wanted to clarify that the order of item specifics is determined by what is most commonly used by your buyers. While I understand the desire to take seller feedback regarding this kind of change, what sellers may feel is a high priority item specific may actually be a low priority item specific when looking at the keywords your customers are using.

At the end of the day, the more detail you provide the better, but the most important item specifics will be determined by what is most likely to result in a successful sale. If you are seeing the author towards the bottom of the list, this is because buyers are not searching by author name as often as one would assume. Personally, I have hundreds of books at home and could go on for hours about some of my favorite titles, but couldn't name 90% of the authors from memory - everyone is different, and I'm terrible with names in general, but hearing that the author is a lower priority item specific doesn't surprise me considering how often I hear friends and family say, "I can't remember the author's name, but the title is something like such-and-such."

steve_stuff · ‎10-14-2019

WOW!

As a person who has and still does own real book store(s) you're right. I can't tell you how many people said 'do you have [name of book] - (lots) and when asked who wrote it have no idea (half). But we also get lots of 'you have anything by [name of author] people so fill out any/all.

And yes I know I'm responding to something posted two moths ago - Two months ago is not "forever ago"