Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

I am *so* sick of being nagged by these. Either give us a way to mass-edit listings to toggle "do not remind me about these reccommended specifics again" for multiple listings at a time, OR make these *required* and be done with it. 

I have been running an ecommerce business for 10 years, and *nothing* is more of a *constant* nag/makework project that these.

Even worse, using the current method of having to select all, and edit one-by-one often leads to *frequent* errors, which is

*just*

*Enraging*.

Ebay, FIX this. If you want sellers filling in this fields *so* badly, make them mandatory, rather than inconveniencing all of us to entice the minority who will do so to fill them all in. 

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

Anonymous
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Why DO WE HAVE TO add item specifices??  It is absured and waste of time.  Buyers DON'T check the item specifices!!  All they are is the title of what items are, etc not detailed item specifices!!  eBay needs to STOP being insane!

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

@cardconnoisseurs 

The 'Suggested" Item Specifics are optional. You can ignore them.

Not so the Required  ones, although in my categories I can often use "N/A".

 

@Anonymous 

Item Specifics are supposed to get picked up by SEOs (Google, basically) and they are repetitive to catch as many different keywords as possible.

Not using them pushes your listings lower in Search even on eBay and leaves you unseen on the wider internet.

They are not meant to be used by eBay Searches.

My favourite is in Books , where most sellers put the author's name and the book title into Title on the selling form. But IS requires both Author and Title again, along with 'series' which seems silly as a Requirement since most books are one-offs.  Again N/A can be inserted.

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

marnotom!
Community Member
I sometimes check item specifics if the seller’s description is vague or too good to be true. If there’s a serious discrepancy or confusion, I give the item a miss.

It depends on the nature of the item, of course.
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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!


@Anonymous wrote:

Why DO WE HAVE TO add item specifices??  It is absured and waste of time.  Buyers DON'T check the item specifices!!  All they are is the title of what items are, etc not detailed item specifices!!  eBay needs to STOP being insane!


When I have my buying hat on I use Item Specifics to refine almost every search that I do. If your listings show "not specified" in the left side filters I won't be seeing it much of the time.

 

eBay's search algorithm uses Item Specifics to rank Best Match search results.

 

Google uses eBay's Item Specifics for Google Shopping.

 

 



"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!


@reallynicestamps wrote:

@cardconnoisseurs 

The 'Suggested" Item Specifics are optional. You can ignore them.

Not so the Required  ones, although in my categories I can often use "N/A".

 

@Anonymous 

Item Specifics are supposed to get picked up by SEOs (Google, basically) and they are repetitive to catch as many different keywords as possible.

Not using them pushes your listings lower in Search even on eBay and leaves you unseen on the wider internet.

They are not meant to be used by eBay Searches.

My favourite is in Books , where most sellers put the author's name and the book title into Title on the selling form. But IS requires both Author and Title again, along with 'series' which seems silly as a Requirement since most books are one-offs.  Again N/A can be inserted.


@cardconnoisseurs 

 

Creating a new listing this morning one of the available options for an IS was Huh??? Pretty much sums up majority of the general requests. I've ordered a replacement N/A button but it's stuck somewhere in GSP purgatory!!! 🤣

 

-Lotz

 

 

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

byto253
Community Member

I use them when they make sense.  But they are often a very blunt tool with silly suggestions that would be very misleading if I went with all the suggestions.  

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

Advanced notice/warning from the funny pages for sellers of Jewelry etc.

 

This morning I had a note to update an item specific because it was REQUIRED. The item in question was a pair of earrings listed over a year ago. The IS required was Earrings. Guess earrings are suddenly no longer earrings....when eBay says it is so.

 

-Lotz

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

amen.  I have no problem adding necessary info to increase searchability as well as for the buyers benefit but come on, make it easier for us to add in, and make sure the info is actually needed.  I just spent about 7 hours over three days adding in CD "color" to 900 odd listings it out of nowhere flagged as delinquent.  I mean, who searches for CDs based on "color"? Is there anyone on the planet who is looking for this information? The question is rhetorical, we all know the answer.  

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

They may have flagged it but it isn't a required item specific so you didn't really need to add it.  I fill out the important item specifics when I do the listing so I just ignore the recommendations that they 'suggest' later on. They often make no sense.

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!


@darak10 wrote:

 flagged as delinquent.


 

A bit of an exageration? Since when does "recommended" translate to "delinquent"?

 

I list CD's, only THREE Item Specifics are "required" and colour isn't one of them. You wasted time filling in that I.S.

 

Many of the IS for cd's that are "recommened" are worth filling in but Colour is NOT one of them.

 

 



"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Message 11 of 14
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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

I am not against the Item Specifics as a concept. I am against the notification on the seller main page to ADD them. And more specifically, I am sick of the way EBay forces us to remove these noticifcations *one* at a time. The NOTIFICATION is the issue I have. I actually *like* the Item Specifics as a concept, it's cleaned up my titles *big* time. I just don't want to be treated like a child by a company *I* am a paying customer of. 

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

Well, one of the Required IS for Books is Title and another is Author.

 

I would have thought those were no-brainers for titles, but apparently there are sellers who use Title to say what the book is about "Training Dashhunds and Parrots"  Or  "daschhund weiner dog norwegian blue sausage" for example instead of "The Bird and Dog Care Manual by IM Pethappy".

 

 

 

 

 

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Re: Fix the way we manage "Suggested Item Specifics" *now* please!

beautiful plumage on that dashund

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