New eBay size labels: How do you handle manufacturer sizes like S/M, S/L or L/XL?
Summary: anifler discusses a new update from eBay requiring standard clothing sizes, expressing concerns about difficulties selling items like lingerie and tights, which use combination sizes. miriam@ebay responds, suggesting highlighting the original size in descriptions and considering 'One Size', while noting eBay will consider adding combination sizes. lisamoda shares frustration with eBay's changes, especially for items like belts, emphasizing the impracticality of the new size system and potential customer confusion. miriam@ebay acknowledges the feedback and promises internal review, noting current limitations and future considerations for eBay's system to better accommodate popular sizes.
Hello everyone,
I received a notification from eBay that starting in August, only standardized sizes are to be used for clothing and shoes.
According to eBay, if the manufacturer size is not available, we are supposed to select the “best matching size”.
However, I’m now facing the following problem:
I mainly sell lingerie, tights, and bodystockings. Many manufacturers intentionally use combined sizes such as
S/M
S/L
M/L
L/XL
XXL/XXXL
These sizes appear both on the label and on the packaging and correspond to the official manufacturer specifications, since the items are made of very elastic materials.
In the clothing categories, however, only single sizes like XS, S, M, L, or XL are offered in the size field. Combined sizes are completely missing.
In my view, this creates several problems:
If I choose S, for example, for an item with the manufacturer size S/L, buyers who filter by L will no longer find the item.
If I choose L instead, the item will not be shown in a search for S.
If I enter S in the size field, the buyer will still receive an item labeled S/L. That can easily lead to questions, misunderstandings, or even returns, even though the manufacturer size has been stated correctly.
It is true that you can add an extra item attribute such as “manufacturer size”, but I’m worried that many buyers will overlook it. If a buyer orders based on the size field S, for example, but then receives an item labeled S/L, misunderstandings are, in my view, inevitable.
So I’d be interested to know:
How are you going to solve this problem?
Which size would you choose for S/M, S/L, or L/XL?
Have you already received a response from eBay support?
Do you think eBay will add the industry-standard combined sizes back into the selection list in the future?
I’m looking forward to hearing about your experiences and opinions.
Thank you!
miriam@ebay
Hello @anifler and thanks for raising the issue. We understand your concerns; especially with lingerie, tights, and bodystockings, combined manufacturer sizes like S/M, S/L, or L/XL are absolutely common.
At the moment, we recommend selecting the standardized size that fits best from the available options. You should also clearly state the original manufacturer size in the title, in the item description, and ideally also on the product photos, so buyers can easily see this information before purchasing.
For items with a particularly broad size range, for example S/L, choosing “One Size” may also make sense depending on the product and fit.
We’re happy to take your feedback on the missing combined sizes on board. We’re aware that these sizes are standard in some categories, and we’ll look into whether such sizes can be added as standardized options in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences and thoughts!
Best regards
Miriam
lisamoda
·6 days agoHello Miriam,
I’d like to jump in here in response to your answer, because I have never had such a lack of understanding toward a sales platform as I did yesterday toward eBay.
With more than 220,000 items sold and more than 20 years of experience, I am seriously considering whether I will stop selling on eBay in protest at the end of the week.
In principle, I welcome the standardization of sizes in order to improve the search. Amazon implemented this very well a few years ago, and it works better than it does here.
But if eBay rigidly imposes its specifications from amateurs or ignorant people instead of involving specialist retailers or people with expertise, or even taking a look at other platforms, then that is amateurish and unacceptable.
Example category men’s belts:
Worldwide, belt lengths are used as the measurement in centimeters or inches, depending on the unit of measurement. For decades, a customer in a store in Germany has bought a men’s belt in, for example, length 95 cm if they have a waist measurement of 95 cm. Asians like to give the total measurement on belts, so the 95 belt is labeled 110 cm. But all of that can be represented, and until now it simply hasn’t been standardized on eBay. So if eBay offered 95 and 110 as sizes, that would not be a problem. The rest would go in the description. WHAT DOES EBAY DO? Since yesterday there are now only the sizes XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, one size and 6-7 (is that some kind of 67 joke or what is that supposed to be???)-these are not used anywhere in the world for belts????
Like many specialist retailers, we offer belts in sizes 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170. How are we supposed to assign these 20 common sizes to the nonsensical eBay specifications that nobody knows and that, in case of doubt, only cover 6 or 7 sizes, and then that’s it?
As of today, eBay sellers have changed 10,693 of nearly 210,000 belt listings to the “new” letter sizes, 13,085 have opted for one size, and 186,027 (!!!) belts have no size specified because they do not have the new sizes. This shows that sellers here do not know how to convert these to the new sizes. There are listings attached to this that have been running for 10 years in some cases, have thousands upon thousands of sales, and now have to be wiped out because you are not listening or finding a fix!
In the women’s belts category, your “specialist department” then thought it would be a good idea to offer sellers, alongside the letter sizes XS to 4XL (apparently, in your thinking, there are rather more full-figured women than men, with men stopping at 2XL), the alternative of length measurements from 75 to 120. That is already better, but what about longer belts that are standard retail items and not a niche product?
Your note “At the moment, we recommend selecting the best matching standardized size from the available options” is no help to us if there is no “best matching size” and far too little selection available.
This situation can be applied to any number of other categories—girls’ underwear is commonly made by us and by many sellers in dual sizes such as 146/152, but we can only select a single size. (Amazon offers a “from-to” module for size selection, which makes perfect sense.) That would also solve the problem for “anifler,” who also cannot get her items set up properly. The tip to simply list the item under both sizes then requires a permanent split and monitoring of inventory, since these would have to be duplicated or divided.
Finally, I would like to point out that it is certainly not good advice to list items in size 40/42 under the “best matching size offered by eBay” 40, 42 or M, because the ordered size would then not match the delivery size, which could constitute misleading consumers and would not improve the buying experience, but worsen it significantly. Let’s wait and see when the first warning letter sender will take up the issue...
I would be happy to receive a prompt reply on how eBay will deal with the deterioration, since since yesterday the listings can no longer be edited compulsorily and it is therefore no longer possible to change quantities, prices, etc. without switching to the “new” sizes. This costs us all a lot of money!!!
Frustrated regards
Matthias
miriam@ebay
Hello @lisamoda and thank you very much for the detailed feedback! I'll take this on directly and make sure your criticism is seen and discussed internally. As soon as we receive feedback that I can share here, I'll do that!
Best regards
Miriam
miriam@ebay
Hello @lisamoda - as promised, I'm getting back to you once more. Your examples were looked at internally and we've since received feedback.
Especially with men's belts, it's understandable that the currently available sizes are not sufficient to sensibly reflect the industry-standard lengths. The team is therefore already reviewing a revision of the available belt sizes. Existing listings for belts that have not yet been converted to one of the new sizes will remain visible. However, when editing a listing, such as changing the price or quantity, it may still currently be necessary to select one of the new sizes. We are aware that this is not a satisfactory solution, especially given the size selection currently available. The team is also reviewing this restriction. Unfortunately, we still can't give a specific date for an adjustment at the moment.
Your example with the double sizes in children's clothing, such as 146/152, was also looked at, and such combined sizes have already been noted as a request for the next review of the available sizes. From October onward, it will be possible to see which additional sizes can be added based on the existing listing data.
The basic idea behind the standardization is to reduce different size formats and thereby enable buyers to filter and compare listings more reliably. However, your examples clearly show where too much standardization means that industry-standard sizes can no longer be represented sensibly. This feedback has reached the responsible team and will be included in the further review - thank you for that!
Best regards
Miriam
lisamoda
·2 days agoHello Miriam,
thanks for the quick reply. It sounds good that the "team" may want to revise the sizes again, although that really should have happened before going online with it. And that it takes until October is also anything but impressive.
So the whole thing certainly won’t have the desired success, because your "team" is underestimating the sellers’ creativity:
In the last few days I looked at a few belt offers from competitors and they found a simple, pragmatic solution to still be able to revise things and get around your pointless sizes. They simply set the "size" to the value "one size" and then specify an additional attribute "length", where they enter any length measurements. - That way, these belts still won’t be found by the customer in the dropdown under the sizes you intended, and the customer still has to keep searching through the 180000+ belts...
Well, I’ll wait the 3 weeks and if nothing comes of it, I’ll stop selling.
Thanks to you and kind regards
Matthias