eBay Item Specifics are additional pieces of information about products listed on the site that are specifically directed based on the category of the item.  For example, a movie would have fields based on the rating or the duration, and a golf club would have fields based on the type of club and manufacturer.  These additional fields of data are used by the eBay system to identify characteristics about specific items and allow potential buyers to filter based on that data using the search results.  This allows you to better define your item beyond just using the title information in the search engine, and gives more detailed information to the shoppers to clearly describe exactly what you have available.

Prerequisites

• eBay Getting Started Guide

Why are Item Specifics Important?

Item Specifics are promoted to the shoppers in the search results and the individual item pages.  If your items do not have the item specifics elements submitted, they will not be included if a user asks to only see the items with a specific value even if you have that item.  If you sell a Callaway golf club, but do not specify "Callaway" in the Brand field of the item specifics, your item will not be included in the results if a shopper selects that they only want to see results that are a Callaway brand.  Including this additional information not only reassures the buyers of the exact item they are purchasing, but it increases your exposure to additional potential purchasers that may not have seen it before.  

Types of Item Specifics

There are three main types of item specifics that are used:

• Catalog Item Information
• Enumerated Option Lists
• Open Text Entry

All of these have important value and should be properly understood so that you can make the best use of them for your items.

Catalog Item Information

Please Note: This model of catalog information has been replaced by the new catalog lookup functionality in the September 2010 release.  Details regarding the new catalog implementation are available on the Automatically Mapping Inventory Items to eBay Catalog Listings page.  This more complex option will be removed in early 2011 to simplify and consolidate catalog matching to a single easy to use method.

Catalog Item Information is available in certain categories where a catalog of relevant items is available   While comprehensive catalogs exist in categories like movies and music, there is generally no such catalog for collectible items.  When eBay has been successful in building a catalog that covers many of the popular items in the category, they have made it available and encouraged sellers to identify their items from the catalog if possible.  While this means that your items can be clearly compared with other users selling the same item, it also means that all of the product defined Item Specific fields (unlike Condition, which is unique to your specific item) can be automatically entered for you, as well as having the option to use eBay's stock information about the item, including a description and photograph.  You can either configure to have the posting system try to automatically find your item in the catalog for you or individually look them up one at a time.

For more information on this functionality and how you can use it to quickly map your inventory to the eBay catalog, see Automatically Mapping Inventory Items to eBay Catalog Listings.

Enumerated Option Lists

Enumerated option lists are values that are configured by eBay and only the specific values that have been defined may be used.  While the use of these options is decreasing, there will always be some cases where eBay will want to restrict the list of values that can be used.  In these cases, the value submitted must match one of the options that eBay has provided.  Submitting any other value will result either in your information being ignored or as an error when the posting is submitted to eBay.  While the most common case for these lists is the Condition attribute, there are many other situations where they may be encountered.  You can see the entire list of potential options by reviewing the selection list on the posting template or the item specifics tab on the ad.  In a few cases there are situations where multiple values can be submitted, and in those cases checkboxes are provided to make it easy for you to select the appropriate values.

Open Text Entry

Open text entry item specifics allow any value you would like to submit.  They may have a short list of the most commonly used values displayed to help encourage your choice of one used by other sellers.  While it may be novel to always submit your own unique information, it is to your benefit to use one of eBay's recommended values when appropriate and possible.  These are the values that are given to the shoppers that are searching for items for them to use as filters in the search results.  If your submitted value is not in the filter list, it will have the most frequent impact of causing you to be removed from the search results when one of those filters is applied.  The exact value you submit will be shown on your individual item page, but it may reduce traffic and potential buyers to your item if you are using something unique.

Each of these three types of Item Specifics may be used in each category and sometimes all three in the same category.  Making the effort to accurately use as many elements as possible will increase your item's visibility and ultimately result in higher sales than if ignored and left blank.

Using eBay Item Specifics on your Posting Template

In order to use item specifics on a Posting Template and have them automatically apply to all of the ads using the posting template, it is required to assign a category to the posting template.  This is required to properly define which Item Specifics should be displayed.  Without knowing the category, it is impossible to determine if the options for movies, golf clubs, or some other product type should be used for the selection.  To assign a category to a posting template, just select the checkbox when creating or editing the posting template:

When you continue, you will be asked to select the appropriate eBay category.  By selecting it here it will automatically apply to all of the ads and will not need to be assigned to each of them.  On the next page, you will see the traditional posting template, with additional fields as relevant based on the selected category.

Here we can see all three types of Item Specifics. 

• Catalog Item Information - The Pre-Filled section allows us to define parameters that will be used to search the eBay catalog of golf clubs to see if it has the one being sold.  In order to configure this functionality, select how the catalog should be searched by selecting one of the options in the Search By element.  If an acceptable option is not available, there is no way to automatically search the catalog for your items.  Most frequently a unique identifier like a UPC or EAN code will have the best success, but even then it becomes a matter of the detail available within the catalog.  Once the method has been selected, define the value used.  This is most frequently a template tag identifying information from the inventory item.  This value will be used to search the eBay catalog and see if an item exists that can be used.  In the event the search finds zero or more than one item, the rules configured in the Catalog Mapping system will determine how that is handled.
  
  Please Note: The pre-filled item specifics section on the posting template will be phased out in early 2011.  It has been replaced with the new simpler and easier to use catalog lookup functionality released in September 2010.
   
• Enumerated Option Lists - These are the elements that have a drop-down list followed by the "Template Tag:" option, such as Condition, Dexterity, and Gender.  These values have been explicitly defined and must match exactly to one of the ones in the list in order to be successful.  If the appropriate value for all items using this posting template will be the same, you can just select that value here. The Template Tag option is available to identify the inventory attribute that should be used.  When configuring values on your inventory items, it is very important that the value match one of the options in the list in order to avoid errors when submitting items to be listed.
   
• Open Text Entry - On the other hand, fields such as Club Type, Brand, and others are Open Text entry and will accept any value submitted.  You can see the difference here by the "OR" option instead of the "Template Tag" field.  While there is a list of recommended values available, this is not exclusive and any value submitted will be accepted.  While it is often best to use one of the options in the list to increase visibility to potential buyers, there are times when none of the listed values are appropriate and a new value should be submitted.  Similar to the Enumerated Option lists, you may either select a value from the list or enter your own value or template tag in the text box.  If you enter a template tag, it will automatically be checked against the list when the item is submitted and the appropriate information included in the item listing.

If you want to avoid creating category-specific posting templates and have the approrpiate details on your inventory items, you can use Automatic Matching for Item Specifics.  This allows you the flexibility of just creating a single posting template and having the ChannelAdvisor system automatically match your inventory data with the eBay Item Specifics information when the item is listed.

Using eBay Item Specifics on Individual Ads

Item Specifics for Ads are nearly the same as for Posting Templates, but are simplified because they address just a single item at a time.  Template tags are not used because the information is directly available from the inventory item and is being selected for a specific item.  The settings are accessed by selecting the "Item Specifics" tab when editing an individual ad.  Since the category has already been assigned to the ad, the exact options that are available are known and displayed.  Similar to the options from the Posting Template, the Golf Club Item Specifics are here:

The fields and options are the same, without the Template Tag additional field for Enumerated Option lists.

Because editing an ad is only addressing a single item at a time, the options for Catalog Items include additional options and the ability to manually look up items in the catalog.  By clicking on the "Catalog Item Information" tab, the options for the search and any previously mapped item will be shown.  In order to find an item in the catalog, choose the field to search by and then enter the value to use for the search.  Once submitted, eBay will be queried and the summary of results shown.  After the appropriate item is found, select it and save to make the association between the eBay catalog item and this ad.  As long as the association is not removed, it will be submitted with the ad each time a listing is posted.

Once the association has been made, you may also want to use either the stock photo, stock image, or both.  Select those options and save.  If you decide that this item is no longer appropriate and would like to remove it from the association, just click the "Remove" link.