item specifics

[dasarock]

per the following on ebay's Listing with Structured Data page ... https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/listing-with-structured-data.html#m22_tb_... ...

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"What tools and guidance are available to help me optimize item specifics in my listings?

In Seller Hub, you can see which of your listings are missing item specifics. ..."

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... now, looking over everything on the seller's hub page, i find nothing regarding item specifics.  did i just miss it?  or is this, again, the typical help and resource that ebay promulgates all the time? does anyone else find where to edit in bulk in spreadsheet style format, the item specifics?  gotta love it

this is just one of the "LINK" i followed from the most recent "NOTICE" that ebay promulgated on the seller's hub page.  i found other links that lead to bad and false guidance information also.  tried following the guidance i 'did' find to edit item specifics in 'spreadsheet' style from 2 accounts and guidance doesn't work for either.

i just love ebay 😄

[dasarock]

... quoted from above mentioned ebay help pages...(tho notepad did change formation some):

Bulk editing and revision in My eBay

To edit multiple live listings at once, follow these steps

Click My eBay at the top of any eBay page. You may be asked to sign in.
In the left column, click Sell.
Click the Edit button, and your listings will appear in a spreadsheet-type form.
Click the boxes you want to change, such as title or price, and make your changes.
Preview how a listing will appear by clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the right side of the spreadsheet.
Click Submit all at the bottom of the page, then click Confirm and submit or Cancel to go back and make more changes. It's here that you'll see if you've incurred any new fees following the changes.

[charity_scents]

Haven't ever tried to bulk edit Item Specifics, however on bulk edit on item Description, the HTML find & replace doesn't work. I have to bulk pull them up then go through individually, highlight and paste, then go to the next. 

[shipscript]

@dasarock 

I found the feature in seller hub.

Do you use seller hub? If so, checkmark all the listings you want to edit.

Then click the "Edit" button within Seller hub.

A new page will open (the Bulk Edit and Relist "BEAR" tool ) as shown below.

Checkmark all the items on that page.

From the "Edit Fields" dropdown list, select "Item Specifics".

Seller Hub - bulk item specifics

You should then see a new popup containing the categories used for your listings. In the screenshot below, I chose group by category, since items within the same category will all have the same options.

Seller Hub - bulk item specifics categories

In this screenshot, I selected the category with the most items for bulk editing, so you can see that each listing contains slots for all of the recommended specifics in that category.

Seller Hub - bulk item specifics editing 

There are three options for bulk editing:

• Edit listings in bulk
• Edit listings individually - grouped by category
• Edit listings individually

The first will apply all the same item specifics to every listing in the batch.

The second will allow you to change values as they pertain to each listing.

The third is a one-at-a time editor that looks more like the listing form editor and you would step through each listing one at a time.

[shipscript]

@charity_scents 

The bulk HTML editor may not work if your HTML has hidden codes that you are not seeing or copying. There are little quirks like extra spaces, hard spaces vs soft spaces, ampersand vs the &  cod, and curly quotes vs straight quotes. If the wrong version is searched, it won't be found.

[dasarock]

ty shipscript.  i do understand and know all of that tho.  that is not the point of the post.  the point is that following the links on the latest ebay notice takes you to bad information.

you found the information on the sellers hub "listing pages", not on sellers hub.  sellers hub is one page.  it just links to other pages and areas.  

that is just one of the bad info that i found.  another tells you to go to my ebay and click sell in the left column.  sell does not exist there.

ebay may have the tools set up, but the instruction and guidance is very very out of date and bad.  also there is no obvious flow or information management in 90% of ebay's promulgated information.  it makes it very hard to find and use for many sellers.  it would be much easier for people to find and use information if it was in a manual form - with hyperlinks to ALL the "CORRECTED" information.  if they put out a notice like they did yesterday ALL of the information in it AND referred to by it and LINKED to it should be correct.

also the bulk editor is very limited in what it can do and how it does it, unfortunately.  but i just picked it from the notice and links because the information leading to it and where to find it and such are incorrect.

sellers hub is very good in as far as it makes a central location to access many areas.  it would be even better if it linked to a central HELP HUB that located and indexed correct and up to date help information.

...anyway that's my 3.7 cents worth for tonight... and we can always wish for good information and help

[shipscript]

@dasarock 

Can you share the notice? I didn't see one on my pages.

Let's put it all together and ask eBay to fix it -- I'll be happy to prepare something for eBay. I know you are complaining in general, but every specific and timely recommendation we offer can help clean up the mess.  (I do this all the time....)

[dasarock]

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@shipscript wrote:

@dasarock 

Can you share the notice? I didn't see one on my pages.

Let's put it all together and ask eBay to fix it -- I'll be happy to prepare something for eBay. I know you are complaining in general, but every specific and timely recommendation we offer can help clean up the mess.  (I do this all the time....)

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New Key Item Specifics for Better Listings  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/New-Key-Item-Specifics-for-Better-Listings/ba-p/29917693

i was reading it like i always do (for my own edification) and following all the links to the various issues and links of the structured data.  then following links from them.  i found many that were unclear, a couple of which i noted above.  even the links in the faqs gave outdated information, on many of the pages i landed on.  i read each page completely and followed all links in addition to trying steps outlined to get the desired effects of each.

ebay really needs to create a Help Hub ... 

    ... the effective center of an activity, region, or network.  "the city has always been the financial hub of the country"

(... synonyms:   center, center of activity, core, heart, focus, focal point, middle, nucleus, kernel, nerve center

"the kitchen was the hub of family life").

the definition above is why i was saying the references to locating bulk editing of item specifics were not on sellers hub.  nor are the instructions i located for locating and editing item specifics in bulk even close to the steps that you have to take to do bulk editing of them.

in addition i am finding that ebay is removing customized item specifics from categories not even in the new update, and from new listings of the same.  (but i put that into another post here.  question is, why should a seller spend the time to add 'customized' item specifics if ebay is going to wantonly remove them?  they are there to help locate and describe items ... in addition to the standard specifics.

the upshot of all is that ebay really really needs to update ALL policy and help pages.  and it would be a relatively simple matter to create a "HELP HUB" similar to the "SELLERS HUB"; and to link both.  it would not do much good with outdated HELP though.  and whoever creates this "HELP HUB" needs to have actual knowledge and/or experience in creating/writing publications and manuals.  it would ensure the HELP interface would be as complete and user friendly as possible.  I do understand that most if not all of the info pages can be found here on the discussion boards ... if the user can come up with the 'correct' keywords, phrases ... and knows what they are looking for.  otherwise it is a VERY frustrating and time intensive policy hunt that leaves the sellers searching very frazzled and discontented with ebay.  because IF they found what they were looking for through discussion boards or google, then they were most likely unable to follow the guidance because it is not user friendly and extremely confusing; or led them on a 'goose chase' which wasted much of their time.  

(i gave myself a pay raise and just put in my 7.8 cents worth .... 😄  )