New mandatory eBay item specifics for October 2019 announced

eBay have given sellers the promised 8 weeks notice that new mandatory eBay item specifics will be introduced this Autumn. The effective date is the 8th of October and four categories will be affected.

eBay are now routinely giving 8 weeks notice of new mandatory Item Specifics due to seller’s input that they needed more time to prepare. Check the list below to see if your products will be affected and if they are start gathering the data you need to complete the new mandatory item specifics.

Categories requiring new mandatory eBay item specifics

• Home, Furniture & DIY
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
• Jewellery & Watches
• Toys & Games

Edit now, or wait until you are forced to edit?

We know many sellers take a wait and see attitude and will only edit their listings when they have to – either to add new stock to an existing listing or to launch a new product (Due to popular demand, Good til Cancelled listings will continue to renew until cancelled without the mandatory Item Specifics being added). However, sellers who do this could very well start missing out on sales according to eBay stats – they say it’s worth your time adding the new mandatory item specifics to all your listings as soon as possible.

eBay say that sellers who make changes to existing listings now will stay ahead of the competition, improve visibility and drive conversion.

As an example, Based on average sales in the Furniture category on eBay UK from May 2019 to June 2019, Furniture listings with size item specific filled in sell 56% better than those without. This is regardless of whether you specify the size within your listing description – If a buyer uses the left Nav Bar on eBay to narrow their search using item specifics, and you haven’t filled them out, your listing simply won’t be returned in search results and you’ll have zero chances of a sale.

Use Optiseller for free until end of December

To assist you in finding which of your listings are missing key item specifics, eBay have made the Optiseller aspect finder tool free of charge until 31 December 2019. Optiseller is a third party tool which can identify and correct listings that are missing key item specifics from the relevant categories and whilst you would normally have to pay for this service, eBay have arranged for it to be available at no charge (frankly it’s better than any internal tool eBay currently have).

Optiseller’s Aspect Finder Tool will automatically review listings, identify which ones are missing item specifics and extract the information if it’s found elsewhere in the listing. The report can then be used to bulk update listings directly on eBay or through your listing tool.

Benefits of using item specifics according to eBay

• They ensure items appear in the search results when buyers use the left hand filters
• They ensure items get maximum visibility, pushing them to the top in search results and improving your chance of making more sales
• They improve visibility in other search engine results outside of eBay

Category Detail for new Mandatory eBay Item Specifics

More information on mandatory eBay Item Specifics can be found here in Seller Centre