Ebay editing sellers item description - new format

[chameleon54]

I just viewed one of my listings and was suprised to see a very shortened, edited item description. My eight line description had shrunk to two lines.

It turns out this is another ebay " improvement ". A brief random section of the description is shown with buyers needing to click on yet another icon to see the full description and sellers terms. No doubt this is to make things simple for the phone app buyers, but will cause further problems for sellers. If a fault or colour is mentioned, but does not show in the grab ebay have selected, we will see a rise in INAD desputes as impatient , want it now phone buyers click "buy" without clicking the link to see the full description.

Looks like we will have to be very carefull in the "item condition " box when listing and need to get all of the important information crammed into the first two lines in the description. Basically we will need to change ( again .........) the way we do our page layouts when we list items.

[gec2002]

---

@bigbrickshop wrote:

You can add Description as a field in Item Specifics.

---

You can add a new field and call it Description, however your character limit is 65.

This sentence is 65 characters long not really viable description

[chameleon54]

---

@gec2002 wrote:

Is the shortened version only on a mobile or on mobile and PC. ? If its on both its a Friday glitch on Wednesday.

The "Improvement" should show on mobile only and show approx 200 characters (CR count as 50 characters), you should see 800 characters if you use CSS and HTML.

---

I am seeing it on my PC. I dont use the phone app.  It is only happening on my main store account. My smaller store and non store, 40 freebies per month accounts are not affected. If its a trial, I would like the option to opt out as it may damage my sales or cause INAD problems.

Having said that,  I have to admit I have still sold a few things on that account today and the dollar figure in sales is quite good for a Wednesday, which is normally my slowest day of the week..

[davewil1964]

---

@gec2002 wrote:

Can you give an item number for this, as I don't think your can add descriptions to the item specifics.  Howver for many items such as books and DVDs the item specifics include a description based on the UPC or EAN.   You can add a few things like genre etc, but not descriptions.

---

Anybody who buys into that is a mug. A good 20% of my paperbacks come up as Audio books when eBay's bot automatically subscribes me to prefill. Given I have the actual paperback book in front of me when I do my listings, there is a fair chance one of us is wrong. And it ain't me.

[bigbrickshop]

It is enough characters if you want to add some extra info about a New item.

[gec2002]

---

Anybody who buys into that is a mug. A good 20% of my paperbacks come up as Audio books when eBay's bot automatically subscribes me to prefill. Given I have the actual paperback book in front of me when I do my listings, there is a fair chance one of us is wrong. And it ain't me.

---

I never said anyone had to buy into it, or use it, I was stating a fact that by using the EAN etc a detailed item description is added.  It maybe what Bigbrick saw in item specifics, since adding your own Description to item specifics only allows 65 characters, where as the UPC, EAN descriptions in the "Detailed Item Info" have considerably more characters and are more detailed.

In all likelyhood many buyers don't read down to what is written in the description and as the Item specifics and Detailed Item info comes before your written description buyers are more likely to see those before what sellers write.  So provded you check that the info is correct, mightn't be a complete mugs game. 

[gec2002]

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

---

---

I am seeing it on my PC. I dont use the phone app.  It is only happening on my main store account. My smaller store and non store, 40 freebies per month accounts are not affected. If its a trial, I would like the option to opt out as it may damage my sales or cause INAD problems.

Having said that,  I have to admit I have still sold a few things on that account today and the dollar figure in sales is quite good for a Wednesday, which is normally my slowest day of the week..

---

Are you using CSS with an external stylesheet by any chance for your descriptions, recently I have had a few descriptions not showing because eBay is failing to call the CSS stylesheet?

[chameleon54]

---

@gec2002 wrote:

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

---

---

I am seeing it on my PC. I dont use the phone app.  It is only happening on my main store account. My smaller store and non store, 40 freebies per month accounts are not affected. If its a trial, I would like the option to opt out as it may damage my sales or cause INAD problems.

Having said that,  I have to admit I have still sold a few things on that account today and the dollar figure in sales is quite good for a Wednesday, which is normally my slowest day of the week..

---

Are you using CSS with an external stylesheet by any chance for your descriptions, recently I have had a few descriptions not showing because eBay is failing to call the CSS stylesheet?

---

Sorry to admit it, but I dont even know what CSS with external stylesheet is, let alone how to use. I,m afraid my computer skills are very basic, as are my listings. I only use the basic ebay listing tools, nothing fancy at all.

My buyers are crusty old men in sheds who probably prefer a simple layout with basic, honest text, photos and service. I only use IE to search on ebay, with occasional google chrome if IE is playing up.

[gec2002]

The photos you include are they on the ebay servers are are they hosted on an external site?. 

Just check if you can if the "See full item description" is only occuring when the description is viewed on Chrome Browser, but ok on Fifefox and/or IE.  If that is the case its due to the New Secure Browser requirements that have just been brought in by Google Chrome.

[chameleon54]

I dont use any stock photos, I take all of my own, transferring them from a file on my laptop, direct to ebay. The problem is occuring when viewed with IE. It is only happening on one of my selling accounts. The other two are not affected. I use exactly the same listing process for all three selling accounts, so it must be an internal ebay thing.

Sales on the main store which has the problem have slowed to a trickle in the last two days where as the other two selling accounts are making good sales. This does not necassarily mean anything though as sales tend to be up and down anyway.

[chameleon54]

---

@chameleon54 wrote:

I dont use any stock photos, I take all of my own, transferring them from a file on my laptop, direct to ebay. The problem is occuring when viewed with IE. It is only happening on one of my selling accounts. The other two are not affected. I use exactly the same listing process for all three selling accounts, so it must be an internal ebay thing.

Sales on the main store which has the problem have slowed to a trickle in the last two days where as the other two selling accounts are making good sales. This does not necassarily mean anything though as sales tend to be up and down anyway.

---

I have just checked the selling accounts again and both stores are now affected. The non store account seems OK at the moment. The smaller store had pretty reasonable sales today, so it may not be having an impact on sales.