eBay

momcqueen · ‎09-26-2016

If only this initiative included the actual Product Catalogue details which are often if not always, incorrect.

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/abblog/blog.pl?/pl/2016/9/1474916749.html

The ACTUAL ebay.com announcement is here:

http://announcements.ebay.com/2016/09/sellers-help-us-improve-the-integrity-of-our-product-pages/

SELLERS: HELP US IMPROVE THE INTEGRITY OF OUR PRODUCT PAGES

eBay is built on the strength of our seller community. So we’re giving sellers the opportunity to help make sure the right products reach the right buyers every time.

Effective immediately, if you see an item that doesn’t belong on an eBay product page, you can flag it to be reviewed and possibly removed.

First, look for the flag symbol next to any item on an eBay product page.

If you believe the item doesn’t belong on the page, click the flag symbol and “submit.” We’ll review and remove it, if necessary. Once removed, the item will still be available on the site for purchase, but will no longer be associated with this particular product.

By letting us know about irrelevant items on our product pages, you’ll help buyers see the most relevant listings. Plus, you’ll improve the eBay experience for everyone in our community.

Here’s how to find product pages on eBay:

From any listing that has a corresponding product page, you’ll see a “See more…” link at the top. Clicking that link will take you to the product page for that item.

As always, thanks for selling on eBay.

dutchman48 · ‎09-26-2016

Sure, that we we get to pay them and do their jobs for them.

Lose, lose proposition

momcqueen · ‎09-26-2016

When at first I read the blog post, I was excited because I thought it meant eBay had unrolled an easy- to-use method of reporting incorrect Product Catalogue item specifics. Then I found the actual announcement. I'm not sure these Product Catalogue Pages will be good for any medium- to small-sized seller since it looks to me like they cater to high-volume products instead of unique ones. I don't need or want eBay to pre-select what it thinks I want. I have my own brain, thank you.

momcqueen · ‎09-26-2016

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m09/i27/s01

Apparently, this iniative is not widely received.

dutchman48 · ‎09-27-2016

Nothing Ebay has done for the last few years has been well received!

around_again_records · ‎09-27-2016

Huge sigh

OK, am I reading this right.

When I make a listing, I have to accept what I know to be wrong information from the catalogue

Then when I post my listing, I go to the listing and go through the process as posted above to alert eBay that the information is wrong at which point they may or may not remove and/or correct it?

I must be reading this wrong (I hope) because that is a ridiculously time consuming process, especially since in my very limited testing so far about 98% of new listings I have made either have no information available in the catalogue, or have wrong information.

I'm a pretty patient person, but I'm getting really frustrated, trying to change over from Turbo Lister to a very awkward and non-intuitive selling manager.

Shortening my listings to 800 characters

Reading reviews on my listings that have no business being there, and make if look like I'm trying to do a hard sell on customers.

Trying to get pre-filled information in my listings without totally corrupting the listing.

Another huge sigh.

Like I say I don't mind change, but please eBay try to get the details in place before foisting the changes on your sellers.

Back to the original topic, Am I understanding this process correctly?

momcqueen · ‎09-27-2016

Yes and no. The Product Page details are different than the Product Catalogue itself. The Product Catalogue forms the basis by which like/similar items get out on to a Product Page. As you have inferred, the process is inherently flawed. They'd have to actually get the Item Specifics for the item's place in the Product Catalogue correct before adding those items together to a Product Page. I think the Product Pages are being created in-house while this Product Catalogue has been out-sourced.

I'm in the same boat as you with incorrect details. Wherever I have found an actual match, it is grossly incorrect. I've never seen the Product Pages noted above, unless I'm coming into eBay from a Google search.

rose-dee · ‎09-27-2016

@around_again_records wrote:

Shortening my listings to 800 characters

I know this is only obliquely related to the topic at hand, but since you mentioned the matter of shortening listing descriptions, I thought I'd suggest the following, which I hope might save you some time and aggravation, if it isn't too late. Basically there are 2 choices to avoid the "bots" writing your listing summary -- either keep the entire description to 800 characters, or flag with HTML codes the exact wording that you want eBay to display as your own summary.

I've reproduced below Raphael's explanation about this from one of the weekly sessions in the spring of 2016. As he suggests, save the HTML tags somewhere and just copy and paste them to delineate your summary text as required.

As for the Product Catalogue, I have no suggestions to offer because, thank heavens, I don't have to use it for my items (one of the very, very few advantages on eBay of selling OOAK or vintage items -- at least so far). It sounds like yet another dysfunctional monster eBay has created. I feel for you guys!

"Here is an example, from our announcement FAQ, of the actual coding that you'll be able to use for specifying which part of your description should be used as a summary. I have highlighted the HTML tags so you can spot them easily:

<div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Product"><span property="description">This paragraph contains almost 800 characters of text to be displayed in the mobile item description. And the text in this paragraph through this sentence contains 250 characters, which is the amount we will display without any actions on your part. When you tag this paragraph with these simple HTML breaks, the content will be displayed to shoppers looking at your item. This will allow the shopper to see the key information you want to display, without them having to click through to the complete description. If your complete description is 800 characters or less and uses basic HTML we will display the entire description without any action by you—so the best practice is to keep it within 800 characters. If you have a long description, make it easy for your buyers by using this option.</span></div>

If you save these tags somewhere and just like in the example, put them at the beginning and end of the text you want to use as a summary, you'll be all set."

around_again_records · ‎09-27-2016

@mjwl2006 wrote:
Yes and no. The Product Page details are different than the Product Catalogue itself. The Product Catalogue forms the basis by which like/similar items get out on to a Product Page. As you have inferred, the process is inherently flawed. They'd have to actually get the Item Specifics for the item's place in the Product Catalogue correct before adding those items together to a Product Page. I think the Product Pages are being created in-house while this Product Catalogue has been out-sourced.

I'm in the same boat as you with incorrect details. Wherever I have found an actual match, it is grossly incorrect. I've never seen the Product Pages noted above, unless I'm coming into eBay from a Google search.

OK then, so this new announcement is totally irrelevant to the issue of getting the right information from the catalogue into our listings in the first place?

I can just ignore it?

God, I don't even understand what they are doing anymore? Why are they junking up the site with all this garbage in the first place. It's starting to look like a junkyard. There's another selling site, won't mention the name, but it's a Jungle too, I don't know what I'm looking at when I go there, too much vegetation to weed through. Why would eBay try to emulate that???

momcqueen · ‎09-27-2016

As far as I can tell, the Product Pages are pulled together from the Product Catalogue. And we both know those product catalogue details are often incorrect. This announcement is about Product Pages. I only WISH there was an easy way to report all those incorrect details on the item specifics. This, so far as I can discern, is not that.