Third-party services Optiseller and Kyozou are out with reports about eBay Item Specifics, which is the feature that allows sellers to add product attributes to their listings to make it easier for shoppers to find their listings.
Kyozou explained, “Item specifics are descriptive keywords that tell a buyer about your item. They may include brand, size, length, width, height, type, color or style, and many more, and vary depending on what you’re selling. They’re easy to add directly through eBay or within third-party tools.”
Kyozou, a solution for multi-channel sellers, said one reason why it was vital for eBay sellers to add Item Specifics to listings: “You will gain rank in the search algorithm (since you have provided lots of relevant specifications) and your product will be visible in the top search results on eBay.” When people use eBay’s search filters, listings without those Item Specifics will be eliminated from search results, it said.
Like Kyozou, Optiseller reminded sellers of eBay’s new mandates to add Item Specifics for listings in several categories, and it took a “deep dive” into how this impacts sellers who list in eBay’s Parts & Accessories (P&A) category.
Readers might recall that eBay announced the changes as part of the Fall Seller Update, making “soon-to-be-required” item specifics available on October 12 and requiring them in February, impacting the following categories:
- Collectibles & Art
- Jewelry
- Musical Instruments
- Parts & Accessories
- Sporting Goods
Optiseller said it was vital to comply with eBay mandates but said sellers could do even more to boost their eBay sales performance. For example, P&A sellers should provide as much parts compatibility information as possible. “Including as much information on which parts are compatible with which vehicles will leave less room for confusion and reduce the risk of negative reviews being left on your site. As well as this, it also saves you time answering FAQs that will come up if a buyer is unsure about an item,” it explained, along with providing additional tips.
Interestingly, according to Optiseller, there are 90 million Parts & Accessories listings live at any one time on eBay with thousands of people searching for parts each day.
Optiseller ran a webinar last month where it reviewed the changes in Parts & Accessories and explained how its tools help sellers keep up with eBay’s Item Specifics mandates.
Typically such mandates don’t grab sellers’ attention in eBay’s periodic Seller Update announcements, so sellers who list in one of the five categories with newly mandated Item Specifics should check if their listings comply and determine if their visibility has been impacted.
