The importance of Ebay item specifics

The importance of Ebay item specifics varies between the different categories, but in some, such as the clothing category, they are absolutely essential. When a seller fails to include item specific in his Ebay listings, the products are most likely to appear way down in the search results.

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The goal of each Ebay listing is to attract shoppers and obtain a high conversion rate, which means sales. One of the best ways to reach this goal is to optimize listing by adding to it the relevant item specifics. The item specifics are what enable shoppers to find the product and let them know exactly what they are buying. 
 
Item Specifics Explained

Item specifics provide shoppers information about the product they are viewing. They include the product’s most important attributes and characteristics, such as brand, size, color, type etc., depending on the product category. The item specifics provide shoppers with sufficient information about the product to allow them to make an informed purchasing decision, by helping them to really get to know the product, and easily compare it with others.   

The importance of Ebay item specifics varies between the different categories, but in some, such as the clothing category, they are absolutely essential. When a seller fails to include item specific in his Ebay listings, the products are most likely to appear way down in the search results. As some of the specifics are mandatory, failure to add them may cause the whole listing to be rejected.
  

For example, if a seller who sells dresses, but does not add the size item specifics relevant to them, shoppers will have a very hard time finding the products. Anyways, on the way there they will first find the competitor’s listings and buy there. 

Here is an example of how to accurately add item specifics:

Optimize Listings with Item Specifics

Adding item specifics is a great way to optimize your Ebay listings. Including the most relevant item specifics helps boost exposure both in the ebay search engine, as well as third party search engines. Most importantly, item specifics help bring the products to the shoppers who are looking for them. As shoppers navigate the store by selecting the relevant product attributes, item specifics are what makes sure the product will appear in the results, making the shopping experience much more streamlined and efficient. That is also why failing to add item specifics can be very detrimental to the product.

In addition, item specifics are very significant for other sale channels, such as mobile phones, where item specifics appear at the top of the listing, making it even more important.

When optimizing listings for third party search engines, sellers should put a special emphasis on Google, as this is the leading search engine. Sellers should use specific product identifiers, which are Google’s equivalent of Ebay’s item specifics, to help the product appear at the top of the results. 

Sellers should take advantage of this, and use their ebay listing whenever they can, so the item specific can save up a lot of work, replacing the identifiers. If not item specifics are added to the product, the Google identifiers are to be added manually.

Category	Required Unique Identifiers
Books	International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
Media	Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). This is the barcode found on every retail item.
Clothing	Brand, Size and Color (as relevant)
Custom made goods	Either brand or Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
All others	If no GTIN exists: Brand and MPN

As in years before, Ebay has announced that new item specifics in the below categories will be required on February 22, 2022 for all new and revised listings.

• Collectibles & Art: Download details
• Jewelry: Download details
• Musical Instruments: Download details
• Parts & Accessories: Download details
• Sporting Goods: Download details

 

Conclusion

Item specifics are an important part of any Ebay listing. Year after year, their importance increases in relation to product visibility and findability, as well as in third party search engines.  

Simply put, failure to add item specifics to a listing, will most probably cause it to drop down to the bottom of the results, and sometime, when the item specifics are mandatory, will cause them not to appear in the results at all. Sellers who wish to boost conversion rates and increase their listings’ exposure on Ebay and beyond, should optimize their listings with item specifics.