It’s most definitely ‘late August’ now that the August Bank Holiday is out of the way, so it’s time to start submitting new entries to the eBay catalogue and suggesting improvements where details are lacking or incorrect. This is part of the drive towards eBay UK‘s new Shop by Product experience for buyers. This is according to the latest Autumn 2018 eBay Seller Release published on the 7th of August.
We haven’t noticed an official announcement from eBay informing sellers that the ability to submit edits and amendments to the eBay catalogue is live, but based on previous announcements we have to expect that sellers will be able to make eBay Catalogue edits this week. It’s now critical that sellers get their listing matched to catalogue listings as, with September looming, the push towards the busy Q4, Black Friday week and Christmas is well under way.
The reason it is critical to start getting your products aligned with eBay’s catalogue is that from ‘late September’, which is now less than 30 days away, eBay will take away the ability to list new products or revise existing listings in the mandated categories unless they are matched to the eBay Catalogue. Revising listings doesn’t just mean amending details, it can be as simple as adding in additional quantity because it’s a busy time of year and as you sell out you’ve got more inventory arriving that you want to make available.
Not only will you be unable to list new product or revise existing listings, but Good ‘Til Cancelled listings that aren’t matched to the eBay catalogue will significantly lose visibility once Shop by Product is made the default experience. Your listings will literally be dumped and not shown to buyers unless they really really search for them if you don’t match them to the eBay Catalogue.
As a reminder, the 12 categories that eBay Catalogue matching will be required for by the end of September are: Cardio Equipment; Cell Phones & Smartphones; Computer/Tablets, Networking Tablets & eBook Readers; Humidifiers; Major Appliances; Portable Fans; Programmable Thermostats; Small Kitchen Appliances; Space Heaters; TV, Video & Home Audio: Internet & Media Streamers; TVs; and Voice-Enabled Smart Assistants.
eBay have already defaulted to Shop by Product for the initial product lines (Amazon; Apple; Dyson; Google; Jawbone; Nest; and Roku).
What is eBay Shop by Product and why does it require eBay Catalogue matching?
In the latest Autumn 2018 seller release, eBay summarised the changes with a ‘What you need to know’ section:
- Shop by Product is a new buying and selling experience on eBay that requires sellers to match their listings to products in the eBay catalogue.
- Starting in late-August, if you sell in these 12 categories, you’ll need to start matching your listings to our catalogue. If what you’re selling isn’t catalogued or it has incomplete details, you’ll need to submit new products or improvements to existing product details in order to match your listings.
- From late-September, you won’t be able to create new or revise existing listings in these 12 categories without matching them to the catalogue.
- With your support, we plan to further expand the scope of Shop by Product to 22 more categories, starting by enabling you to submit new products or improve existing catalogue entries in these categories from October 2018. We’ll require catalogue matches for new or revised listings in these 22 categories in early 2019.
– eBay Seller Release Autumn 2018
14 Responses
I have items listed in Toys and Games and in my Dashboard Ebay informed me that they did not conform to their criteria.When i looked at them item specifics and the MPN number had been deleted by Ebay!I had to change them back to how they were before to get rid of all Ebay warnings.Yet another halfhearted change!
Graham White… I know we had the same. then i checked out a listing in a section not affected only to find that ebay had replaced my description and pictures with the ebay catalogue stuff!!!! The description is generic and we all know that when google sees generic descriptions repeated across many items it downgrades your placement, hence we always change the manufacturers description to something more custom.
As for the picture… it was dreadful!
Since when have ebay been able to just go around changing listings at will?! First time i have ever encounted this, although i see them offering to do it when listing some new stuff.
The problem with the ebay catalogue is once again you get alot of people making changes with no real knowledge! Then ebay staff over seeing… again with no real knowledge. I simply don’t buy anything car related now as the car parts catalogue is horrific! My car has 3 variants… all with different engines, exhausts, brakes etc… yet ebay says they all use the same parts!
I know what they are trying to do, but as it’s ebay… it’s a shambles as normal. It’s ok though, because the customer gets the wrong part or wrongly described, the seller gets the blame and return costs… ebay sit pretty on their fees.
NDR
Had an issue with the grouping of listings at the weekend, the product title being used to group the listings included “2X” so customers would have thought they were getting two of the items for the price if they pressed the Buy It Now button.
This I am assuming arose from a BOT that added the product to the eBay catalogue, from a listing with 2X in the title, along with the EAN to match / group all items.
getting somebody at eBay to understand the problem was difficult.
I had a call from ebay telling me that 95% of my 10k+ listings will become invisible if I dont link them to a catalogued product, I explained that most of my lisitings are not consumer products (they are spare parts and components) so dont have epid, GTIN, EAN etc.. I asked for advice on how to move forward. I sent them an example of a new listing and simply asked how do i make this a catalogued product ? I did not get an answer, as the end of August approached I had sleepless nights expecting all of my listings (and ten years of hard work) to dissappear. Nothing happened. I chased up my initial enquiry with ebay and got this very vague response over the weekend.
“Thank you for contacting eBay Concierge, I will be helping with your query today, I hope all is well with you. I have spoken to the team that gave you the call and you don’t need to do anything at all and if that changes he will give you a call again.It seems the date has been pushed out with no date given for now meaning the feature will not be live for some time.”
I hope this helps you come to a resolution, please let me know if there is any further assistance you need.
Have a nice day.
Concierge Sell Expert
Can’t they make anything work?
Just logged into eBay to another new message:
‘Match with a product from the eBay catalogue or provide a valid product identifier ‘
It says I have 5 items that don’t match (everything was fine last night). So, I click on the link and it shows me just 2 listings, not 5. One of them is out of stock, the other is a Samsung washing machine. eBay’s catalogue is of course wrong for the item. Incorrect washer size, energy rating, MPN etc etc etc. All of which are already in the specifics of my listing.
Anyway, I updated the catalogue for them and get presented with an error. One of the boxes has too many characters in it – the dimensions box which has their pre-entered data in it.
This is going to be an absolute nightmare for some….
Here is a great example how eBay are getting it totally wrong.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/CPL-Traditional-House-Coal-25kg-X-10-for-Open-Fires/1330499719
All items are grouped together and the lowest price for this item, 10x 25kg bags of coal is £14.30 and if your quick you can just click the buy it now button and you have got yourself a bargain. But what you will get will be just one bag of coal.
The highest price is £135.40
I have tried explaining this problem to CS but they do not see it as a problem.
This has clearly happened by the “Bot” taking the first item, that it finds, with an EAN and adding that to the catalogue with the listing title, including the x10, all the others are then grouped under that listing.
Just had an email land in the in-box:
‘Dave, some of your listings need to be matched to our catalogue
You’re at risk of losing visibility on eBay. Some of your listings need to be matched to our catalogue’
A warning has also popped up in Seller Hub:
‘Some of your listings need revising – Match your listings with our catalogue to have them show up in our new Shop by Product experience. Start now.’
So, I click on the link and get:
0 of your listings need to be matched with a product from the eBay catalogue. -Learn more
Another confidence-filled eBay experience. Great work, NOT.