eBay categories and item specifics

When we create a new eBay listing, we send the product’s title to eBay and use the first category eBay suggests. If eBay suggests none, we use the Default category from your eBay settings. Item specifics, such as Brand or Colour, come only from facts already in your product. We don’t use AI, and we never guess. A missing required specific stops the listing until you add it.

How we pick the category

1. We take the product’s title from your main store. Any # signs come out.
2. We ask eBay’s category suggestion service where that title belongs on your eBay site.
3. We use eBay’s first suggestion as it comes. We don’t send the description. We don’t filter the results either.
4. If eBay returns nothing, or the request fails, we use your Default category.

This happens once, when we create the listing. A listing that’s already on eBay keeps its category when we update it.

There’s no category setting per product, so the title does the work. “Tan leather tote bag” tells eBay more than “The Willow”. Set a sensible Default category too. Products eBay can’t place end up there. You’ll find it in the eBay store’s Review settings, under Settings, Stores, Manage.

Where item specifics come from

Each eBay category has its own item specifics, and eBay requires some of them. We fill them from what your product already says:

• The eBay listing. When we update a listing, we keep the specifics it has.
• Attributes. A WooCommerce attribute that isn’t a variation option, such as Material, fills the specific with the same name. A WooCommerce brand fills Brand.
• Vendor and product type. Your vendor fills Brand. A Shopify product type fills a required Type.
• Options. An option such as Size or Colour fills the matching specific. We treat Color and Colour as one name.
• Labelled lines. A line like Material: Leather in the title or description fills a required specific that nothing else did. Some fields take only eBay’s own values. Then the line must match one.
• Your own entries. Values you add with Edit eBay item specifics.

We don’t read Shopify metafields, including the attributes under a product’s category. So a colour stored only there won’t reach eBay. Use a labelled line or the editor below.

When a specific is missing

We stop before creating the listing. The product waits under Needs attention as eBay item specifics need attention. It names each field and the problem, such as Brand: required. Other problems read choose an allowed value, value too long or number required.

The fix that lasts is in your main store. Add the fact there as an attribute, an option or a labelled line. If your main store has nowhere to put it, enter it in QuickSync:

1. Open the product on the Products page. Go to its Needs attention tab.
2. Click Edit eBay item specifics.
3. For each field, pick where its value comes from. Or choose Enter verified facts for all variants and type it.
4. Tick I verified these facts. Manually entered values apply to every variant of this product.
5. Click Save item specifics. Saving doesn’t publish anything.
6. Run Sync products on the Products page to try the listing again.

The condition can stop a listing too. We use the Item condition ID from Review settings, such as 1000 for New. If the category eBay picked doesn’t allow that condition, the listing stops. We never swap in a different one.

Common questions

Does QuickSync use AI to fill eBay item specifics?

No. We fill item specifics only from facts already in your product. That means its attributes, vendor, product type, options and labelled lines, plus values you enter. If eBay requires a specific we can’t find, we stop the listing and name the field. We don’t publish a draft with guessed values. Add the fact in your main store, or enter it with Edit eBay item specifics.

How does QuickSync choose an eBay category?

We send the product’s title to eBay’s category suggestion service and use the first category it returns. We don’t send the description. If eBay suggests nothing, or the request fails, we use the Default category from the eBay store’s Review settings. A listing that’s already on eBay keeps the category it has when we update it.

What if eBay picks the wrong category?

Fix the title in your main store before we create the listing. Make it say what the item is. The title is the only thing we send. There’s no category setting per product. Check your Default category as well. Every product eBay can’t place goes there. Once a listing is live, our updates keep the category it has on eBay.

Why does my eBay listing say item specifics are missing when Shopify has them?

We probably can’t see where you keep them. We don’t read Shopify metafields, including the attributes under a product’s category. From Shopify we read the vendor, the product type, options and the description. Add a line such as Colour: Black to the description. Or use Edit eBay item specifics on the product’s Needs attention tab.

Next step

For eBay’s other listing rules, from SKU length to photos, read Connect eBay. Every status the Products page can show is in What each product status means.