We’ve just published a post regarding eBay Fashion Item Specifics and how sellers are starting to discover listings which fail to renew due to item specific changes. Over the years we’ve highlighted many times just how difficult Item Specifics are to manage and in view of today’s news it’s time to revisit them.
With millions of categories it’s impossible to address all the issues, so we’re narrowing our focus to just men’s suits and we’re only going to address size Item Specifics, although there are many more attributes eBay would like you to complete and they’re all just as confusing for both buyers and sellers.
As a man, when buying a suit there are only three measurements I really need to know – Chest size, waist size and trouser length (something like a 48″ Chest, 36″ Waist and 34″ leg (Or possibly 36L for a 36 waist long leg) works well for me) and are pretty standard fashion Item Specifics so you’d think buying from any retailer (including eBay) these would be easy to search by.
eBay Size Item Specifics for Men’s Suits
Looking at men’s suit sizing, on checking eBay today the size attributes are
Chest Size
Could be a number (presumably inches, maybe centimetres in some cases, but ranges from 34 to 72?)
Could be letters (S, M, L, XL etc)
Could be ‘Trousers only’
Trousers size
Could be a range from ’26 in.’ to ’68 in.’
Could be letters (S, M, L, XL etc)
Could be One Size Regular or One Size Big and Tall
Could be Jacket Only
Even looking at the inch sizing, no one has a clue whether it’s the waist size or the leg length when listing or when buying (although it’s unlikely there’ll be 68″ legs.
Size Type
Regular, Big and Tall or not specified
Fit
Athletic, Classic, Modern, Portly, Slim
If anyone can tell me what the difference between an athletic and slim fitting suit is then you’re more informed than me.
Length
Extra short, Short, Regular, Long, Extra Long
Both size Type and Length are subjective measurements and therefore not much use, especially when considering international sellers where “Long” in China is “Short” in the UK.
How useful and logical are eBay Size Item Specifics for Men’s Suits
Buying a suit on eBay is a nightmare – the sizing is ambiguous both as to the units and what’s being measured. When numbers are used sometimes they’re specified in inches but in some cases they could be centimetres. Many sizing attributes are subjective and so not helpful.
It’s somewhat telling that out of 172,000 results for a ‘Suit’ in the ‘Men’s Clothing – Suits & Tailoring’, for each of the size attributes somewhere between 40,000 and 70,000 listings have the attributes ‘Unspecified’. Sellers can’t understand eBay’s Item Specifics. Buyers can’t understand eBay’s Item Specifics. They are simply too complex and difficult to work with.
Knowing how hard it is for sellers to work with Item Specifics, those sellers who have seen listings fail today following eBay’s fashion updates are naturally irate and frustrated with the workload they face to fix them at the busiest time of the year.
5 Responses
We’re not in clothing, but we’ve never bothered with item specifics for several reasons.
Firstly, the specifics offered by Ebay are often irrelevant and making up your own is pointless – they will never be seen.
Secondly, in these unstable times on Wenig-era Ebay, sellers don’t feel sure that investing effort in making changes is worthwhile. The whole thing could change again and make all the work pointless. This has happened several times in recent years. Hundreds of hours of work down the drain.
Finally, if Ebay would actually get the searches working properly, and stop trying to soak sellers with their visibility racketeering, then the need for all these “extra” tweaks would vanish.
The four years of Wenigland have been wasted – just going round and round in pointless circles.
Now seeing the following advert banner on Ebay listings: Use compare the market and get an Amazon voucher
Are they nuts at Ebay?