ebay Category tree

Why do product categories matter?

Product categories play a significant role for sellers on eBay. During the listing process, sellers have to specify a product category and it’s numerical ID. This makes it easier for customers to search for products, especially when they do not know which brand or model to buy in advance.Getting the product category right is crucial so that buyers on eBay can quickly find your listings in product searches and directly place an order. In order to increase your sales, it is therefore essential to be specific and accurate when selecting product categories.

Categorizing products on eBay

Let’s consider an example. A seller is listing an old porcelain cup on the eBay US marketplace. Would it be enough to categorize the product as Porcelain?The answer is NO. This is because there are 23 different sub-categories for porcelain on the eBay US marketplace and buyers are likely to search for porcelain cups directly, instead of going through all porcelain items. Therefore, sellers should select the sub-category, Cups and Saucers, under the category, Ceramics and Porcelain.Although the illustrated example seems logical and straightforward, it’s not as easy as it sounds! On the contrary, identifying the product category and eBay category ID for your listings can be a tedious task that can take much time and effort. This is because there are more than 15.000 different categories on eBay marketplaces.Often, sellers experience that there are multiple categories that apply to a product. As eBay charges fees for the same listing in different categories, it is important to choose the category that most customers search for in order to keep costs at a minimum. Product categories and their IDs also vary for marketplaces in different countries which makes the listing process for international sellers more complicated.

How Algopix’s category trees help

To overcome the said issues, Algopix provides sellers with eBay category numbers in Excel that will simplify the category research and the listing process. The category trees contain all product categories and their IDs for 17 different marketplaces around the world. These include the US, England, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Philippines, India, Hong Kong and Motors.With the help of the eBay category numbers, sellers do not have to worry about spending much effort and time on category research anymore. Instead, they can quickly look up product categories for their inventory and list the products immediately. This will allow sellers to concentrate on more important issues as for example product pricing or customer service.If sellers have specific products that do not sell well, it’s time to review the product categories. It often happens that a simple change in category specification will allow buyers to locate your listing faster and more effectively. This will translate into more sales on the buyer end.Sellers will also be able to identify product categories across different international marketplaces faster. This enables them to speed up the listing process and it makes tricky translations easier.What are you waiting for? Download eBay category numbers now!