All In for

Aspects

Era Johal
Senior Technical Product Manager

June 25, 2019

Agenda
1 What we learned in 2018

2 Pivoting to item specifics

3 Case study

4 Findability

5 API overview
What we learned in 2018
2018 APPROACH
Explicit Association Catalog API

with Product Catalog

New APIs and capabilities to

facilitate (and mandate) Product-Based
Category
Specifics and

sellers to adopt products Compliance API Shopping Features

through Trading
Experience API
from eBay’s product catalog.

eBay mandates compliance

and shares violations.
Inventory
or
Trading API
New Listing – Recommended Workflow
We Hear You
Requiring sellers to
pick an ePID and/or
file a change request
was problematic
Updated
Approach
Top-Down Bottom-Up
ePID Item Specifics

Unique identifier specific Use top item specifics

to a product SKU to describe item

Links to an eBay- Improve relevance & findability

specific code
Enrich existing products
Change request to create with more aspects
or edit products
Associate that grouping
of aspects with a product—
i.e., an ePID
Item
Specifics
NAME VALUE
LABEL DESCRIPTOR

Brand Levis

Size 34

Style Bootcut
Item Specifics,
Products, &
Entity Types
Product

PRODUCT LINE
CODY JAMES CASEY
Product
Product
Brand Cody James
Size 11 Men’s
Style Boot
Material Leather Product
Color Brown
Heel height 3″
Toe type Square

Blue: Required
Green: Preferred
 65–80%
of eBay inventory
do not have the
top 3 item specifics
& the listings
“unavailable in filters”
when buyers filter

But We Have
a Problem...
UK Women’s
Dress Example 82%
Color

Filtering allows quick

& easy identification
of suitable products Style 43%

80%
of customers use
Length 35%
filters to search
UK Women’s
Sales Year-Over-Year Outperformance
Dresses

Item specifics
up-rev results

Women’s dress
TEST 0%

Women’s clothing
summer categories
2018 2019
CONTROL
Findability Engine

1. Search recall enhancements

2. Filtered experiences & personalization
3. Demand based search engine indexing
API Updates:
Trading API – GetCategorySpecifics
Request Response
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GetCategorySpecificsRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents"> <NameRecommendation>
<WarningLevel>High</WarningLevel> <Name>Model</Name>
<CategorySpecific> <ValidationRules><ValueType>Text</ValueType>
<CategoryID>9355</CategoryID> <MaxValues>1</MaxValues>
</CategorySpecific> <UsageConstraint>Recommended</UsageConstraint>
<RequesterCredentials> <SelectionMode>FreeText</SelectionMode>
<eBayAuthToken>TOKEN</eBayAuthToken> </ValidationRules>
</RequesterCredentials>
<MaxValuesPerName>400</MaxValuesPerName> </NameRecommendation>
</GetCategorySpecificsRequest> </NameRecommendation>
<NameRecommendation>
<Name>Style</Name>
Response <ValidationRules>
<ValueType>Text</ValueType>
<GetCategorySpecificsResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
<MaxValues>1</MaxValues>
<Recommendations> <UsageConstraint>Optional</UsageConstraint>
<CategoryID>9355</CategoryID> <SelectionMode>FreeText</SelectionMode>
<NameRecommendation>
<Name>Brand</Name>
<ValidationRules> </ValidationRules>
<ValueType>Text</ValueType>
<MinValues>1</MinValues>
</NameRecommendation>
<UsageConstraint>Required</UsageConstraint>
<MaxValues>1</MaxValues>
</Recommendations>
</GetCategorySpecificsResponse>
</NameRecommendation>
API Updates:
Taxonomy API – getItemAspectsForCategory
Request Response
{
POST https://api.ebay.com/commerce/taxonomy/v1_beta/category_tree/0/ "localizedAspectName": "Model",
get_item_aspects_for_category?category_id=9355 "aspectConstraint": {
"aspectDataType": "STRING",
"itemToAspectCardinality": "SINGLE",
"aspectMode": "FREE_TEXT",
"aspectRequired": false,
"aspectUsage": "OPTIONAL",
"aspectEnabledForVariations": false
},
"aspectValues": [ ... ],
Response },

{
"aspects": [
"localizedAspectName": "Style",
"aspectConstraint": {
"localizedAspectName": "Brand", "aspectDataType": "STRING",
"aspectConstraint": { "itemToAspectCardinality": "SINGLE",
"aspectDataType": "STRING", "aspectMode": "FREE_TEXT",
"itemToAspectCardinality": "SINGLE", "aspectRequired": false,
"aspectMode": "FREE_TEXT", "aspectUsage": "RECOMMENDED",
"aspectRequired": true, "aspectEnabledForVariations": false
"aspectUsage": "RECOMMENDED", },
"aspectEnabledForVariations": false "aspectValues": [ ... ],
},
"aspectValues": [ ... ],
}
},
Required, Recommended, Optional

Required Recommended Optional

This item specific is critical Item specific is typical for Item Specific may apply to
for buyer purchase decision this category & is highly smaller portion of the listings
making influential to buyer purchase for this category
decision making

Must include to prevent Provide this to increase Include it if the item specific
getting blocked competitiveness within a is relevant for your inventory
category
Does Not Apply?!
A CLOSER LOOK
AT 3P LISTINGS
High Volume,
Low Fill,
Low Precision
Root Cause Analysis

Diapers has a 13%

does not apply Rate!

Does Not Apply

was pre-filled
by the 3P Tool
Next Steps
Adopt aspect
usage metadata

Promote use of
recommended
To create the item specifics
best experience
for your sellers Revise existing
and their buyers listings using eBay
recommendations

Stay in touch
erjohal@ebay.com
Thank you!
Q&A
eBay Connect
2019

June 25-26, 2019