eBay UK have issued an update on the eBay Item Specific October roll out which has caused concern for sellers who discovered they could not launch new listings or edit existing ones. It contains UK specific information and we reproduce they contents below:
“As previously announced, on 15th October 2019 two changes were made to the site – category and classification changes andadditional item specifics requirements in some categories.
The category and classification changes involved relabelling item specifics data in existing listings. Unfortunately the process of relabelling this data has taken longer than expected to complete.
At the start of this process, sellers were unexpectedly unable to revise or create new listings in some categories. We’re pleased to say sellers are now able to revise and create new listings, provided that required item specifics data has been entered.
Please be assured that the process of relabelling data is expected to be completed soon and this should resolve other outstanding issues which have been reported by sellers:
- Some sellers revising or bulk editing listings are not able to view data they had previously inputted, e.g. in the Size item specifics field,
- Some item specifics values available in drop-down menus are not corresponding with the item specifics
- Some buyers have been unable to access corresponding filters to narrow their search results, and
- Users of the Optiseller tool and other tools have experienced issues when analysing their listings to check for, edit or add missing item specifics.
Please note that Optiseller relies on the data provided by eBay to perform their analysis. Their tool is functioning correctly and we still recommend sellers use it.
Unless you need to revise an active listing to add missing item specifics which had not been previously added, we recommend you wait for confirmation from eBay that the changes are complete before attempting to make revisions. The item specifics data which is not currently visible in listings is being relabelled and should be visible again once the changes are completed.
We’re aware that some sellers have chosen to end their listings and use the ‘sell similar’ feature to change the information in their listings. If you decide to do this, please 1) check your remaining free listing allowance first to avoid incurring additional insertion fees; and 2) be aware that ending a Good ‘Til Cancelled listing will remove its sales history.
Please bear with us as we complete these changes and we sincerely apologise for any confusion or disruption this has caused you.
We will provide you with another update as the changes near completion.
– Regards, The eBay Team
9 Responses
As of yesterday all of our Men’s Casual Shirts are not compliant with item specific changes – Sleeve Type now is required and Sleeve length is not. Almost all listings in the category do not have “Sleeve Type” entered as the eBay recommended values are ridiculous. Who in their right mind searches for a “Cold Shoulder Sleeve” as opposed to a “Short Sleeve” shirt?
Sleeve Length – 3/4 Sleeve;Long Sleeve;Short Sleeve;Sleeveless
Sleeve Type: Asymmetrical Sleeve;Balloon Sleeve;Bell Sleeve;Cap Sleeve;Cold Shoulder Sleeve;Dolman Sleeve;Flared Sleeve;Flutter Sleeve;Puff Sleeve;Raglan Sleeve;Roll Tab Sleeve;Slit Sleeve;Strappy Sleeve
I have huge doubts that this will all be fixed properly – I imagine a huge burden will still be left upon sellers to make edits that were not announced.
I haven’t got a clue what a ‘cold shoulder’ sleeve is 😀
I would be interested to know which other categories have been affected. We are unable to revise any of our jewellery listings. ‘Invalid variation specific’ error message. No work around editing in bulk or individually.
You can’t bulk edit items today either, only max 200 per page instead of up to 500 as it should be.
Presumably, they’re trying to conserve server capacity due to the millions of sellers desperately trying to sort out the mess Ebay has created.
We have 1,298 listings which have failed and are not live on eBay at the moment. I can only imagine it is harder for buyers to find these items now than it was when they were live regardless of the quality of item specifics.
This afternoon I’d like to be working on a deal I have on deck to get another 3,000 items in. Instead I’m going to have to rummage in the data to see if I can fix this.
eBay do this every year.. right before the Christmas period. Quite frankly, it could be a weeding out exercise – just to get shot of some iffy sellers. However, it is really onerous on the rest of the world! I cannot believe that their developers specifically choose this time of year on their own, it must be a management led decision. It’s a right pain for me!!
Anyone having issues with barcodes? “Does Not Apply” seems to have vanished
Still unable to revise our jewellery listings many of which have been active for years. Cannot add multi buy and disgusted with no straight answer from Customer Support.
Christmas season has now kicked off and this is the last thing we need in a category where the genuine uk sellers have to compete with counterfeit jewellery sold by chinese sellers.
Also to mention the big balls up with the new seller hub updates. Poor UX and UI execution. Nightmare to carry out basic activities such as finding an order as the search results are all not in order.
Frustrating as always mostly at the lack of information and advice. eBay need to invest in a robust, systematic business support infrastructure and provide a commercial sellers community hub for all us sellers to be able to voice our concerns share ideas and be heard. We need official spokespeople for each area of the country and / or ebay category.