Skip to main content

Find the answer to your question

Advanced Search
Published: November 13 2014, 2:40:00 PMUpdated: August 22 2022, 12:03:53 PM
Product

 

Summary

This article gives you information on eBay catalogs and how you can use them in your listing process.

Detailed Description

What are eBay Catalogs
eBay Catalogs have prefilled product information along with stock pictures.  Product details from the catalog can help create more visible and appealing listings.

Why use eBay Catalogs
There are two reasons to use eBay Catalogs:

Reduce time and effort to list items.  The following information is prefilled for you when you use catalogs:
•     Title
•     Description
•     Picture
•     Item Specifics
•     Category

Comply with mandatory use of prefilled product information:  eBay requires listing with product information in many consumer electronics, which will likely expand to other categories.  For more information, see Seller Updates page: 2012 Spring Seller Update.

How to use eBay Catalogs
You can list with catalog product information with any of the following identifiers:
•     UPC
•     BrandMPN
•     ISBN
•     EAN
•     eBay ProductReferenceID (ePID)
•     TicketListingDetails

Specify this in the ProductListingDetails field and you can omit the item title, description, item specifics, category and picture.

Note:  If you have the ProductID (also known as memento string) you may send that in.  However, we do not recommend using ProductID as it can change over time.


Determining if the product exists in eBay catalog

You can use FindProducts call from the Shopping API for the following use cases:
•     You do not have any universal identifier and need to find relevant products based on keywords
•     You have a large number of products to list and want to determine if they exist in eBay Catalogs before attempting the AddItem call


Example
Here is an example of how to make a FindProducts call using keywords to get the relevant products for the blu ray Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

http://open.api.ebay.com/shopping?callname=FindProducts&appid=<your app id>&siteid=0&Version=715&QueryKeywords=Harry%20Potter%20and%20the%20Order%20of%20the%20Phoenix%20Blu-ray


If the product that you want to list is not found in eBay Catalogs, you will need to send in the complete information in your AddItem request.  Even in this case, send in your ProductListingDetails container with the Product information and the field ListIfNoProduct set to true.  The benefit is that if buyers search on the site for the product with the product ID, your item will benefit.

Examples

Listing an item if the site and category support eBay Catalogs Listing an item if the site or category do not support eBay Catalogs
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<AddFixedPriceItemRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <WarningLevel>High</WarningLevel>
  <Item>
    <Country>US</Country>
    <Currency>USD</Currency>
    <DispatchTimeMax>3</DispatchTimeMax>
    <ListingDuration>GTC</ListingDuration>
    <PostalCode>95125</PostalCode>
    <PaymentMethods>PayPal</PaymentMethods>
    <PayPalEmailAddress>test@test.com</PayPalEmailAddress>
    <ConditionID>1000</ConditionID>
    <ProductListingDetails>
     <ISBN>9780307338402</ISBN>
    </ProductListingDetails>
    <Quantity>1</Quantity>
    <StartPrice>100</StartPrice>
    <ShippingDetails>
      <ShippingServiceOptions>
        <ShippingServicePriority>1</ShippingServicePriority>
        <ShippingService>UPS2ndDay</ShippingService>
        <ShippingServiceCost>0</ShippingServiceCost>
      </ShippingServiceOptions>
    </ShippingDetails>
    <ReturnPolicy>
      <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
      <RefundOption>MoneyBack</RefundOption>
      <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_30</ReturnsWithinOption>
      <Description>Text description of return policy details</Description>
    </ReturnPolicy>
    <SKU>2345644</SKU>
    <InventoryTrackingMethod>SKU</InventoryTrackingMethod>
  </Item>
  <RequesterCredentials>
    <eBayAuthToken>*****</eBayAuthToken>
  </RequesterCredentials>
</AddFixedPriceItemRequest>		  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<AddFixedPriceItemRequest xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
  <WarningLevel>High</WarningLevel>
  <Item>
    <Country>US</Country>
    <Currency>USD</Currency>
    <DispatchTimeMax>3</DispatchTimeMax>
    <ListingDuration>GTC</ListingDuration>
    <PostalCode>95125</PostalCode>
    <PaymentMethods>PayPal</PaymentMethods>
    <PayPalEmailAddress>test@test.com</PayPalEmailAddress>
    <ConditionID>1000</ConditionID>
    <ProductListingDetails>
      <BrandMPN>
        <Brand>Sanyo</Brand>
        <MPN>POALMP90</MPN>
      </BrandMPN>
      <ListIfNoProduct>true</ListIfNoProduct>
    </ProductListingDetails>
    <Quantity>1</Quantity>
    <StartPrice>100</StartPrice>
    <ShippingDetails>
      <ShippingServiceOptions>
        <ShippingServicePriority>1</ShippingServicePriority>
        <ShippingService>UPS2ndDay</ShippingService>
        <ShippingServiceCost>0</ShippingServiceCost>
      </ShippingServiceOptions>
    </ShippingDetails>
    <ReturnPolicy>
      <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
      <RefundOption>MoneyBack</RefundOption>
      <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_30</ReturnsWithinOption>
      <Description>Text description of return policy details</Description>
    </ReturnPolicy>
    <SKU>2345644</SKU>
    <Title>item title</Title>
    <Description>item description</Description>
    <PrimaryCategory>
      <CategoryID>15251</CategoryID>
    </PrimaryCategory>
    <PictureDetails>
      <PictureURL>http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqN,!i8E2LKMGz(YBNi912433Qw~~_3.JPG</PictureURL>
    </PictureDetails>
    <ItemSpecifics>
      <NameValueList>
        <Name>Type</Name>
        <Value>Lamp Bulbs</Value>
      </NameValueList>
      <NameValueList>
        <Name>To Fit</Name>
        <Value>Movie Projector</Value>
      </NameValueList>
      <NameValueList>
        <Name>Compatible Brand</Name>
        <Value>Universal</Value>
      </NameValueList>
    </ItemSpecifics>
  </Item>
  <RequesterCredentials>
    <eBayAuthToken>*****</eBayAuthToken>
  </RequesterCredentials>
</AddFixedPriceItemRequest>


To get a list of recommended Item Specifics, you can make a call to GetCategorySpecifics

FAQs

  • Can I use the Shopping FindProducts API call for motors compatibility?
    No, you should use the Product Services API for motors compatibility.
  • If I send in multiple identifiers, which one takes precedence?  e.g. if I send in ePID and UPC in an AddItem request, what will be used?
    ePID take precedence over UPC / BrandMPN.  If you send multiple identifiers, AddItem will return a warning giving you the information on which identifier was used. 

    If your AddItem request contains the following:

    <ProductListingDetails>
      <BrandMPN>
        <Brand>Apple</Brand>
        <MPN>MC540LL/A</MPN>
      </BrandMPN>
    <ProductReferenceID>92352708</ProductReferenceID>
    </ProductListingDetails>


    Here is an example of the warning message:
    <Errors>
      <ShortMessage>Product found for ProductListingDetails.<ProductReferenceID> <92352708>.</ShortMessage>
      <LongMessage>Product found for ProductListingDetails.<ProductReferenceID> <92352708>.</LongMessage>
      <ErrorCode>21916690</ErrorCode>
      <SeverityCode>Warning</SeverityCode>
      ...
      <ErrorClassification>RequestError</ErrorClassification>
    </Errors>

 


Additional Information:


Documentation: 

Listing with product details

Shopping API: FindProducts call

Working with Custom Item Specifics

How well did this answer your question?
Answers others found helpful

Print

Email this page