eBay Spring Seller Update 2022 - Categories & Item Specifics

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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As with most recent eBay seller updates, the Spring 2022 update is coming with changes to category structure and item specifics requirements.

Listing & Promoting
In our Spring Seller Update, learn about new item specifics and updated category structures to help your listings get noticed.

New item specifics will be available in some categories starting May 17.These item specifics will be required in mid-July 2022.

When we release new item specifics, some category structures will also change, and we’ll update what we call some existing item specifics.

New item specifics will be available on May 17
To help your listings match what buyers are searching for, we’re adding new item specifics in the following categories:

  • Collectibles (Toys)
  • Health & Beauty
  • Home & Garden
  • Parts & Accessories

More information about which categories are changing can be found here:

Category Changes | eBay
Category changes necessary to verify that your item is located in the appropriate updated category
Preview Category Changes | eBay
Category changes necessary to verify that your item is located in the appropriate updated category

Category and item specifics changes in the past year have all been met with disdain from sellers, but there has also been a lot of frustration among buyers as well.

While eBay believes getting of sub-categories in favor of drilling down and filtering by item specifics provides a better buying experience, many buyers say it does not provide a better browsing experience, which can be crucial for product discovery especially for collectibles and one of a kind items.

eBay Category Changes Cause Frustration and Glitches
eBay made some big changes to category structures resulting in user frustration and technical issues.
Are eBay Category Changes Impacting Buyer Experience?
eBay sellers struggle with category & item specifics changes - are they affecting the buyer experience too?

I expect the Spring 2022 category and item specifics mandate to go over just as well as the rest of them have....in short, hold on to your hats, it's going to be rough!

Seller UpdateseBay

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcerned3 days ago
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks30473 days ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi4 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.