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Health and Beauty 

With high street stores being forced to close, customers are resorting to shopping online now more than ever. It won’t be a surprise to many of you that health and beauty products have been popular online searches recently. Especially as self-care is essential for so many while we are all staying at home. eBay have noticed this too and mandated an array of health and beauty categories and their associated item specifics. In fact, it is the most affected category in this set of mandates. 

Fitness, Running and Yoga 

Another form of self-care for mental and physical health is getting active. People working towards their goals while stuck at home has only been spurred on with the burst of motivation that comes along with the start of a new year. Hence why the lifestyle and sports categories also have various mandated changes. 

Make the most of the mandates 

So, sellers in these sectors, you are in luck! That is if you take the time to make the changes before the deadline. It may sound like a lot of hard work for no good reason, but we are here to assure you that making these changes only improves your sales and eBay listing performance. If you had not heard about the mandates, don’t worry. We will give you a rundown of what is to come. 

Here are a few example categories and products affected by the mandate from Health and Beauty: 

Here are a few example categories and products affected by the mandate from Fitness, Running & Yoga: 

There are plenty more where they came from. If you are in either of these verticals it is worth checking how many of your listings will need updating. There really is no time to waste. Once you have made these changes, customers using the left-hand navigation on eBay can filter and will be able to find your listings more easily. Not only this, but customers will also be more confident in buying from you.  

The more information and product attributes they see before purchasing lessens the likelihood of a return. Put it this way, beauty enthusiasts know what they are after, they will almost certainly be searching by brand or type. They already know what they want, all they need to know is what you have to offer. The same goes for fitness. Customers won’t be willing to pay the big bucks for your equipment if they cannot be certain it is suitable. It is in your interest as a seller to set the expectations for the buyer.  

Going the extra mile 

While there are mandated changes that must be completed, there are also changes that would help your store massively which are not always required by eBay. Our Buyer Demand Indicator shows how many customers have been searching and filtering over a 30-day period for an item specific, the demand is then reflected via a star rating of 1-5. 

For the oral care category, teeth whitening is one of the categories mandated. As you can see from the image below, our Buyer Demand Indicator shows that while ‘Brand’ has 1 star, it is Required by eBay, meaning that you must fill in this item specific. However, ‘Type’ is Recommended but has a 5-star rating meaning this is heavily searched and filtered by customers. So, as you can see, just because something is not required, doesn't mean it should be neglected. 

The image below is an example of how an item specific can change from Recommended to Required Soon, to eventually Required. The Required Soon stage is vital to prepare sellers for any future changes. Take action as soon as you see the Required Soon status to stay ahead of the mandates. By making the most of these features, you are putting that extra bit of effort into your store. 

(Image taken from Optiseller’s Category Lookup tool.)

We hope that we have made the mandates a bit clearer for you. Time is ticking on the deadline - 22nd February. If you are unsure how you will manage in time, check out our Aspect Finder+ tool. It is free for all eBay users until 30th September this year. The tool is not only designed to automate these mandated changes, but also finds extra item specifics to make your listings more visible to customers. Make the most of the tool while you can and get your eBay store up to scratch.  

To sign up for Aspect Finder+, click here.

For more info, check out our other posts in this series.  

For an explanation of the changes as a whole, check out this post.

To see an overview of the changes, check out this post.