Dan Kramer

As you can see in my two earlier announcements directly below, we've been rapidly expanding the Custom Item Specifics functionality to categories that previously only offered "Item Condition." This gives sellers much more flexibility when describing their items, allowing them to highlight the details that are most important to their buyers.

Our tests have gone very well, so we're now going to add Custom Item Specifics to all categories on the site that don't offer standard Item Specifics in the next week. You can learn more about Custom Item Specifics on our information page.

As before, these Custom Item Specifics will be available through the Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister and the eBay API.

Sincerely,

Dan Kramer
Finding Team

	***Previous update: Create Your Own Custom Item Specifics ***
	October 01, 2007 | 10:51AM PST/PT Dan Kramer Hi everyone...I'm back with some more news about Custom Item Specifics. You can read all about them in my original announcement directly below. In a nutshell, they allow sellers to create their own "tags" for their items during the listing process that work just like our normal Item Specifics. For example, you could create Custom Item Specifics for your stapler listing such as "Brand: Swingline" and "Color: Red." These will be displayed in the same place within your listing as our standard Item Specifics, and will help the buyer find exactly what they’re looking for. In July, we introduced these as a test to about 90 categories that did not offer any standard Item Specifics other than “Item Condition.” Our first round of testing has gone well, so we recently expanded this test out to include about 3750 additional, similarly-structured categories (you can see which categories offer Custom Item Specifics on our information page). If all goes well with this second test, we plan to offer Custom Item Specifics in all categories that don’t offer our standard Item Specifics in the next few months. As before, these Custom Item Specifics are available through the Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister and the eBay API. Sincerely, Dan Kramer Finding Team
	***Original: Create Your Own Custom Item Specifics ***
	July 31, 2007 | 12:40PM PST/PT Dan Kramer Hi everyone…I'm Dan Kramer from eBay's Finding team. For the past several years, sellers have been able to use Item Specifics to describe specific attributes about their items like color, size, and condition. Item Specifics are a great way to complement your title and description. We're working on ways to make Item Specifics more versatile. In the next few days, we'll be launching a limited test of what we call Custom Item Specifics. About Custom Item Specifics Custom Item Specifics are a bit like "tags" that you find on other user-generated content throughout the internet. Essentially, they allow you to create an attribute and keywords for that attribute. For example, let's say you're listing in the Washers and Dryers category. You could create your own Item Specifics that give your buyers important details such as "Brand: Maytag," "Capacity: 3.8 cu. ft.," and "Energy Rating: Energy Star Compliant." This gives you the power to quickly add and display the information that will be most important to your buyers. Custom Item Specifics are created during the listing process. Depending on your item, we may recommend that you use certain Custom Item Specifics during the listing process, because we've seen them used successfully for similar items in the past. The system will "learn" over time, so the recommendations will get better as more items are listed and sold. All of these details will then be displayed on the item page where the standard Item Specifics are shown today. Not only will these Custom Item Specifics help you better describe your items, but they'll also be factored in when buyers search by title and description. (Note to sellers: Just make sure you choose keywords that are relevant – all Custom Item Specifics will be subject to our policies around keyword spamming). Our testing plan Initially, Custom Item Specifics will be introduced in roughly 90 categories (which is less than 1% of categories on the site). These categories have been chosen because they do not offer Item Specifics currently except "Item Condition." Sellers listing in these categories will be able to create and display their own Item Specifics – including both the attribute and the value. Custom Item Specifics will be available for sellers listing in the selected categories through the Sell Your Item form and through the API in the next few days. They'll be added to Turbo Lister a few weeks later. If our test goes well, we'll expand it to more categories in the next few months. In the meantime, thanks for your support. I'll be back with more updates as we have them. Sincerely, Dan Kramer Finding Team