Optiseller is hosting a webinar to help online sellers adapt to eBay’s forthcoming Item Specifics mandate. The third-party vendor said its experts will offer practical guidance on what sellers should do – and how to benefit from the changes.
While announced as one of many changes in the Spring Seller Update on March 3rd, sellers were caught off guard when eBay began rolling out changes in May with no reminder.
In its post announcing the webinar, Optiseller executive Richard Falconer said that while it may feel like an inconvenience, the changes could pay dividends for sellers.
“In this webinar our e-commerce experts will show sellers how they can leverage item specifics to boost sales, Falconer said. “eBay’s objective in extending item specifics to more categories is to enhance the customer experience in the marketplace. Buyers can look for products in a more structured way to find exactly what they want. Therefore, sellers need to ensure their listing data is in the best shape possible so that buyers can find them. The more detail provided the more visible your products will be in eBay search results.”
You can learn more and register for the July 7th webinar on the EventBrite.co.uk website.
“[…]while it may feel like an inconvenience, the changes could pay dividends for sellers.”
I find this tough to believe. Over the years, eBay has required more and more item specifics (including many that make no sense whatsoever). Over those same years, the number of active listings I have has increased significantly. Yet, sales have done nothing but drop since around 2014 (my sales on other sites – while they have always been less than eBay – have all increased over that same period). With more active listings, you would expect more sales, not less. Item specifics are just one of many flaws making it more difficult for both sellers and buyers to use the site.
Hi lessthanthreerecords,
I’m Chris from the Customer Success team here at Optiseller.
Just to add some credence here, I have traded on marketplaces for over twelve years, in particular eBay so I have a good level of experience to provide an answer and insight into your query.
More listings does not always equal more sales, from my own experience this used to be the case on eBay historically. However, these days with the marketplace so competitive the quality of the listing is super important to increasing your onsite and offsite visibility. This is something Optiseller can help sellers such as you with, we have a variety of tools that can help you take an underperforming listing (from a data & sales perspective) to an excellent quality listing.
Item Specifics are those nuggets of information that help enhance your site visibility internally and externally. They help improve the buying and selling experience. I have seen countless examples of increases in views, conversions and sales by optimising eBay listings through item specifics (obviously the item has to be properly categorised in the first place to see fruits of the labour).
By all means signup and attend the free webinar, Optiseller is here to support you in your marketplace journey to success. Being seen is the first step and this is something we prioritise.
I would love to have a chat with you further to go into more detail about your post.
If you reach out to customersuccess[at]optiseller.com and I will personally pick this up.
I look forward to speaking to you soon.
Kind Regards
Chris
Customer Success
This is nothing but false, misinformation meant to deflect the issue(s) and bad decisions, and benefit Optiseller by an Optiseller employee. Ebay is now being driven by next-gen people who have NEVER started an online business or sold anything, in sufficient volume or consistency or successfully, to make a living year after year – or else they would be running their business and NOT working at Ebay/Optiseller, giving advice on how to do something they have never done! Best recommendation: don’t take the advice of fools. These actions on item specifics benefits Ebay, not sellers. We had to update thousands of items that already had TONS of complete information in the descriptions. In most EVERY CASE, more items listed = more traffic = more sales. Always.
I’ve been selling on Ebay for 8 years, so I have a lot of experience. It took me 2 1/2 hours to do these item specifics. I found them stupid, as almost every one was in the title of my listings. What an incredible waste of time!! If they’re in the listing title already, why should they also be in the item specifics? Ebay keeps making changes and most of them are not a help at all to their sellers. It takes more time doing listings & I don’t see any benefit to them at all when they’re already in the titles. Some of the “suggested” recommendations are just plane Stupid. I can’t see how they can help a buyer find something when they would never be looking for that item specific anyway. They have recommendations on the main things I sell, not the ones I just worked on, that are unanswerable in most cases for any seller who sells what I do.
Ebay treats their sellers shamefully & they don’t value us at all. If there was another really good site to sell on, I would leave Ebay in a heartbeat. They don’t realize that we, the sellers, are just as important as the buyers. Without us, they would have no buyers.
I understand your frustration. Agree 100% with your assessment how eBay treats and values their sellers. I am a small-fry, but on Feb 1, 2021 I bid [no pun] eBay goodbye after a 20 year presence. No regrets. I will have to work to build my business where I am now; but I am in control…….