Last time, we looked at the eBay Store Performance Dashboard to see how it could identify areas to work on within an eBay store. A very important KPI within the dashboard is the Missing Item Specifics percentage.
It goes without saying you should be trying to get that percentage as low as possible but it's worth noting it's equally important to ensure your already completed Item Specifics are working for you.
Today we'll look at how Optiseller tools can you help you improve your Item Specifics.
Aspect Finder+
By now, your initial Aspect Finder+ report should be ready to open.
If you want to improve your listing visibility, this is a great place to start! This tool will help you find which item specifics need added or changed per category and show you which are most important to work on, will offer you suggestions and can even help improve your titles.
Click on 'View Report' and you will be presented with a Summary Report (see example) that shows you all the categories where you have live listings. The headers indicate the different levels of importance of item specifics and show you the number of listings missing at least one value of that level. The other headers give you an idea of the size of the category in terms of number of listings, units sold and quantity available. You can filter by clicking on any of the headers to help you decide which category you want to work on.
Select the first category to work on by clicking on the leaf level category name, highlighted blue. The goal is to complete as many of the important item specifics as possible and to use eBay default values – a good job at this stage will mean better visibility for your listing, particularly in filtered search. eBay default values will show whenever you click into a cell.
Below are our suggested steps for working on item specific improvement in order of importance:
- Complete any red missing 'Required' elements
- Swap out any pink 'Seller created' values for default eBay values focussing on 'Required, 'Recommended' and all item specifics with high buyer demand (yellow stars)
- Complete any missing 'Recommended' specifics
- Apply quick wins in bulk to the less important specifics – eg if you know you offer a 12 month warranty on every product in a category, apply the default eBay value to all at once using 'Find and Replace'
Once you have completed all the changes in a given category, you have a couple of options on how to get your live listings updated.
If you normally list manually to eBay, you can push your changes directly to eBay individually or in bulk by sending 'selected' or by sending the whole category using 'revise all'.
Alternatively, if you use a 3rd party listing tool, you can export an output file to upload into your 3rd party to then revise to eBay. Multiple export file formats are available.
Yes, we’ve already mentioned 'use default eBay values wherever you can', but it's worth repeating this point as it is so crucial to how eBay works – if you want to see just how important it is in the categories where you sell, have a quick check using our Category Look Up tool. In there you can see how many potential buyers have filtered on a particular item specific within that category over the past 30 days – and if you don't use a default eBay value, your listing will not make it in front of ANY of those eyes.
Top Tips
- Before starting work on your item specifics, check over the categories in your summary sheet to ensure there are no surprises
- If you want your listing to be visible while potential buyers filter for their ideal product, you need to be using default eBay values from the dropdowns provided
- These need to be exact. For example t-shirt size 'S' is NOT the same as 'Small'
- Want to have multiple eBay values against a single item specific? You can use a comma to separate different values that will then each appear available in filter
- If you cannot find an appropriate default value for your item in 'Type' or 'Product Type' this could be an indication it's in the wrong category
- In the event you spot some incorrect categorisation, you can use our Category Suggester tool to help you find a suitable alternative
- The lower the OptiRating, the more scope for improvement – click on the OptiRating to access the Single Listing Review to get a view on all the areas to work on for that listing
- Improving your item specifics will give you better results for title suggestions so make sure to update your listings' specifics first
- If you are light on data to help complete item specifics, try using our Product Suggester tool – input your exact product details and see which ‘high confidence' returns you can borrow from your competition
Next time: We'll take a look at how you can use Optiseller tools to improve your eBay titles.
If you have questions on the tools and reports mentioned above, you can find out more at the links below, or alternatively, schedule a demonstration call with one of our experts here: calendly link
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