The aim of this tutorial is to explain how you can easily update the quantity and price of many Ebay listing, including items with variations. This task will be completed with one simple upload to Ebay File Exchange. If you have been re stocking your item quantity or revising prices manually, this is guaranteed to save you a lot of time.
I have decided to split this tutorial in to two parts, this first blog post will cover the basics on:
- What is Ebay File Exchange
- Creating a template for Ebay File Exchange uploads
- Revising the price and quantity of multiple single item listings
- Uploading to Ebay File Exchange
A second blog post will advance on what you have learned in this blog post, the next blog will show how to update listing with variations, and even multiple variation listings all from the same file upload.
So lets get started.
1. What is Ebay File Exchange?
Ebay File exchange is an advanced web based tool provided by Ebay. File Exchange allows sellers greater control to manage high volumes of eBay listings. I find File Exchange is very useful for quickly updating the quantity of items in stock, and altering the prices of items on sale. Basically File Exchange allows you to automate some otherwise time consuming, repetitive tasks.
1.1 Example use of File Exchange
Where i work we have 100’s of items listed on Ebay as Good Till Canceled (GTC), these items are all listed as buy it now listings, with a fixed price for each item and a set quantity. As i’m sure you will be aware Ebay offers no way to automatically re stock the items you have to a certain level if the item is listed as GTC. However you can create a template that will re stock all your items up to a quantity you specify, then simply upload this to File Exchange and have all your items re stock in a matter of seconds.
Once your template is set-up, you can simply upload to Ebay each day, which will re stock all your Ebay listings to the quantity defined on your spreadsheet. This is also useful to alter the prices of listed items too. You can simply glance through your spreadsheet, alter any price you wish, knowing this will be reflected on your Ebay listings when the next upload is complete. I have personally found this a great method of updating stock and prices, and has already saved us a lot of time in the couple of weeks we have been running this system.
1.2 Enabling Ebay file Exchange
Assuming you have an eBay account verified for selling it will take a couple of clicks to enable access to Ebay File Exchange on your account.
- Go to http://bulksell.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?FileExchangeCenter
- Sign in if required on the next page
- Agree to the terms and conditions of use
- You are now ready to start using File Exchange
2. Creating a template for Ebay File Exchange uploads:
Firstly open a blank spreadsheet, if you do not have a spreadsheet application Calc will do perfectly for this and is free open source software. I used Excel, however the process will be the same.
You will need to include the following information in the top columns of row 1:
A – Action(SiteID=UK|Country=GB|Currency=GBP|Version=745)
B – ItemID
C – Relationship
D – RelationshipDetails
E – Title
F – Quantity
G – StartPrice
Your spreadsheet should now look like this:
Please note the Action(SiteID=UK|Country=GB|Currency=GBP|Version=745) will be different if you are not selling on Ebay UK. For example if your item is listed on Ebay US, using dollars as the currency it would be the following Action(SiteID=US|Country=US|Currency=USD|Version=745)
Also to save you from having problems later on be sure to format the ItemID Column as Number, with 0 decimal places. If you don’t do this your ItemID will not export to a CSV file correctly. You should not need to format any other columns.
Below is how the ItemID column should be formatted in Excel:
Your revise template is now setup, next we will add some listing to revise.
3. Revising the price and quantity of multiple single item listings
Add the following to row 2 in your spreadsheet
Action = Revise (we are revising an existing item to modify the quantity and / or price, so revise is the action we will use)
ItemID = 100916777364 (obviously this vary for every item you wish to revise, your item must already be listed on Ebay)
Relationship = (not required for a single item, leave the cell blank)
RelationshipDetails = (not required for a single item, leave the cell blank)
Title = Matt’s Test Ebay Item (Enter the title of your item here)
Quantity = 15 (This is how many of this item you wish to list as been in stock)
StartPrice = 20.40 (this is the price if your item)
Your spreadsheet should now look like this:
It’s now simply the case of keeping to this this format and adding your Item ID, Title, Quantity and Price in a new row for each item you wish to update with your File Exchange upload, below i have added 5 items for this example.
You now want to save your spreadsheet as a comma delimited CSV file
To make things easier for yourself keep your original spreadsheet, CSV files will not retain any formatting such as what type of data is in a cell. I have my master template, then save a new CSV file to upload if i have added any items, or made amendments to the master template.
3.1 Example Files
For reference if you would like a working example download the following:
Example Ebay File Exchange Excel XLS Template Download
The CSV file below was created by simply saving the XLS document as a CSV file, it is ready to upload to Ebay.
Example Ebay File Exchange Excel CSV Download
Uploading to Ebay File Exchange:
Access the Ebay file exchange upload at the following URL: http://bulksell.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?FileExchangeUploadForm, from there it’s now a simple case of uploading your CSV file.
When the upload is completed you should be informed as to how many revisions were made and the success rate, however as i’ve found Ebay will often tell you the revisions were made when in fact if you download the more detailed view you will find everything failed. In the screenshot below we can see everything appears to have processed fine.
I downloaded the “Load Results Report” as we can see everything has been processed fine and the items were all updated ok.
So there we have it, you should now be able to revise multiple Ebay listings that contain a single items only. To revise Ebay listing with variations requires a bit more work, however once you understand the basics of what you are doing it is simple enough to adapt your upload to include listings with variations.
Is there an Easy way to get data in to my upload spreadsheet?
Yes, if you install Ebay Turbo Lister you can sync your listings to Turbo Lister, it’s then just a case of sorting your listings by listing type so all the listings with no variations are grouped together.
After doing that you can then highlight all the listings can copy them with CTRL + C, and paste the listings in to a new spreadsheet, organising the data so the columns are like your File Exchange Template.
Quick Tip – You can right click on the clumn headings in Turbo Lister and re arrange them.
Finally copy and paste this in to your File Exchange template, clean it up and you should have all your listings with no variation ready in no time at all.
In part 2 of this tutorial I will cover updating listing with variations using file exchange.
Read Part 2: Ebay File Exchange – Update Listings With Variations
24 Comments
Hi Matt! Thanks for the article. It is very interesting.
I sell literally hundreds of preowned sunglasses on eBay a month and need some way of listing faster than eBay’s listing system. Is it possible to create an Excel spreadsheet that would handle the various listing specifics varying from pair to pair and precise individual descriptions (as each pair is unique and preowned and each mark of wear must be disclosed)?
I have tried multiple listing tools out there and none work for my specific niche. Ugh!
Any thoughts?
I sure appreciate it!
AH
P.S. I’ve been doing this for quite some time, so I have the current process down to about 3 min a pair using the listing window provided by eBay. What I need is a way of creating a spreadsheet that would have all the repeated info already inserted (start price, duration, shipping, etc..), leaving me to only need to enter the title, a short description, and add my pics. I would (hopefully) run through about 50 at a time and then quickly upload the bulk load at once. (In my dream world.) 🙂
I’ve not really found any good way to batch list items on Ebay unfortunately, the products we sell are all repair parts with many dimensions and alternate sizes which need accurately listing in the description, which for me by the time ive typed all this out and created the picture content i need to in photoshop i could have probably just listed the item manually, checked it looked ok and be on with something else.
I can go through the normal Ebay listing feature using a web browser and get an item listed with many variations in 2-3 mins, this however is after i have prepared the template and images.
For me the process of listing the item is as follows:
1) Open the template i have created in Photoshop, this is for the main listing image of the auction. In here i simply type the product title, which already has the font size, style and fancy effects pre-applied. After I paste the product image in which has already been photographed and edited at an earlier date.
2) I export the above image as a jpg
3) Next i open my HTML listing template in Adobe Dreamweaver, this has all the relevant info in about our store, including shop categories and so on. So basically all i do in Dreamweaver is edit the title of the product, then write the description and technical dimensions of the product in. (I have a pre created table so its basically as case of filling the information in) Then if i have a YouTube video to go with the product i simply paste the URL in for that and it will be embedded in the Ebay listing once it goes live, if not i simply delete the video place holder.
4) Finally for technical dimension images i have it so a user can click on these in the listing and the photo fills the whole web browser window. For this i simply change the file name of the technical dimensions image which i’ve pre placed in the HTML template. e.g. the image is pointing to myserver.com/dimensions/test-image.jpg, i simply rename test-image.jpg to 5524.jpg where 5524.jpg is the id of the product in our database that i’m listing on Ebay.
5) I save the HTML template and upload the dimension image via FTP to our web server. (You can map an FTP server as a Network drive in Windows to save time, so its basically a case of dragging and dropping in Windows Explorer)
6) After that im basically ready to list the product on Ebay, which i do using the web browser and the normal ebay web based listing tool.
All i do here is type the product title, tell ebay the item is new, add the MPN number if i have it, choose the category, upload the main product image i created earlier in Photoshop then finally when it comes to the product description paste the HTML code in and submit the listing.
I guess the above sounds pretty complicated, however including creating the various images i can list a product from start to finish in about 10 mins. That does seem a long time, however given i need to create detailed content for each item i list i cant really see any easier way of doing so. If i did manage to get some sort of spreadsheet setup to batch list, i still need to edit my HTML template and create some images anyway.
Any software i’ve seen doesn’t appear to offer any real benefit over the current way i’m doing things. I would like to think someone had a better system than me, which im sure they might do for less complex listings.
For myself though detail is the key otherwise customers will just order wrong.
If anyone can suggest a better way of doing thing’s i’m all ears, anything to save a bit of time. However ive messed about listing stuff in various different ways and have found this works best / the fastest for myself.
Thanks so much to both of you! @Matt, sounds like you have a pretty solid system. I, too, am at the 2-3 min upload time per auction. I so wish I could get it up much faster, with no risk of error. It’s not easy with our particular niche of preowned frames (as it sounds with your inventory). I do appreciate the suggestions. You sound much smarter than myself though with the tech side of it all. 🙂
@Jim, Thanks! I will look into Garagesale.If I’m not mistaken, that may be a Mac Program, and I’m running a PC currently, though I’d love to be back in a Mac, and may look into that if it would bring me to a 15sec upload! Whew!! That would so rock. lol Thanks again both of you!
I had the same problem, selling comic books, where everyone is unique.
Use Garagesale software. Just drag and drop your unique sunglasses to a template you set up, and type a couple words. Done. Should take you 15 seconds each. Hundreds of templates can be uploaded in seconds, all individual and unique! All tracked and reported.
Your screenshots show ItemID as a field, however it is not a field in the downloaded template that you provided the link to, nor on the ones on Ebay’s site. . All of a sudden the template we have been using has failed, and when we downloaded the template to see why, we saw it was changed to include (SiteID=US|Country=US|Currency=USD|Version=745), after the word Action, and the ITemID field was missing. The template we have been using for years had a seperate column for Currency, which we populated with USD. When did this all change, and where is the ItemID field? Any help is greatly apreciated, as we no live listings at the moment, and losing lots of sales.
Correction – Your example csv DOES have an itemID field, however the one on EBAY does not – see here http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/pdf/us/file_exchange/FileExchangeBaseTemplate.csv
Maybe that is a template for listing items? as you would not have an ItemID if you were listing new items.
My template is for revising items already on Ebay and updating the price and qty of the items, nothing more, that’s why its quite basic. However you could add other fields in to revise if you wanted to get more advanced.
Your description works perfectly as stated on the UK ebay site, thank you very much
I am trying to do the same on some products we list on ebay.FR
we changed to
Action(SiteID=France|Country=FR|Currency=EUR|Version=745)
as per the french template but still having problems
we get the following (tranlated) errors
“Error – Enter only the digits of the postal code |.”
“Error – The currency is not changed when modifying or relisting an object |.”
we have both uk and FR in the feed which seems ok on the UK feed (just fails on the FR colums)
Any Ideas of what we need to change on the FR feed to make it work
Regards
david
Try moving the French items to a separate upload and see if that makes any difference. Also try revising only one part of the listing at once e.g. the price, then when you get that working add the next thing to the upload you want to revise.
One thing i did find when initially creating my upload for Ebay UK is the error messages often have nothing at all with what you have actually done wrong, which made things quite confusing when trying to fix things.
Hi,
This write up looks very helpful, although I ran into an error and am not sure why/how to fix it.
Error Code 291 – “Error – You are not allowed to revise ended listings.|”
We are located in Canada but list on eBay.com and sell primarily to the US.
Have you ever come across this? I did not edit or update the Postal Code during the process.
Wrong code, that was my 1st error. I revised active listings and the code I received is
17805 “Error – Enter only the numeric portion of the PostalCode.|”
This should make more sense.
Thanks
What are you trying to revise?
One thing i have found with Ebay file exchange is that the error codes displayed have absolutely nothing to do with what you are actually doing, i’ve had all sorts of errors that have nothing to do with what i’m revising.
I presume you have set your upload template up as either one of the following?
Action(SiteID=Canada|Country=CA|Currency=CAD|Version=745)
Action(SiteID=CanadaFrench|Country=CAFR|Currency=CAD|Version=745)
As per the info on Page 54 onwards of the File Exchange Manual – http://pics.ebay.com/aw/pics/uk/pdf/file_exchange/File_Exchange_Advanced_Instructions.pdf
Pingback: Ebay File Exchange - Update Listings With Variations
Hi Matt, that was really nice article. Do you have any article/Template for New Listings as well ? as i am getting error when i am trying to upload new listing. hope you will help thanks/
thank you
Hello Matt, thank you very much for your help on the listings , actually we do upload by sheets but the variation was unknown and i learned from you how to do it. i have download your sample “EbayMultipleVariationExampleUpload”
I left with one question : as i understood from you that those sheets are meant for “revising” , could i use those sheets also for “new” items ( non existing yet on Ebay) that we want upload , with code 100 ( for new items ).
thank you very much
samuel
Hello Matt, thank you for this valuable information. I have a question that everytime i want to update a product quantity with “0” (as it is out of stock at dealer side), it generates error, why, any resolution to this issue?
Are the products your setting to “0” a single listing or a variation? if a single listing you can’t do that (as it would delist the product), it will only work when a product is a variation.
Hey Matt-
the question above reading the “0” stock – I’m just doing my head in trying to figure out how to do this…. i have a website and ebay store so i have to be vigilent with my stock levels. as we turn over certain things quicky- we often run out and
whilst waiting for stock to come in to our warehouse I want to save the listing with 0 stock until more of the stock arrives- ebay has the “out of stock” (with little explanation) feature – how do you use this whilst updating the stock in the csv – i know you can put “end” rather than “revise” is there another way so i can save this listings?
thanks Matt,
Liz!!
I know what you mean, however i’m not sure how to do that with Ebay File Exchange. File Exchange is not something i’ve used for several years now, as sales grow it just doesn’t become viable.
As you have your own website you really want to be managing all your stock and listings from that website. You will honestly save hours of time and make things much easier on yourself as you grow.
If your website is based on the Magento platform then you can use Magento 2 Ebay (M2E): https://www.m2epro.com/ to list everything on your website on Ebay.
When you modify the description or change the price on your site, it will sync to Ebay. Likewise stock levels will sync in almost real time between Ebay and your website.
In addition you can also pull all your Ebay orders in to your main website which makes it a lot easier to process orders, especially if you have functionality to export data to generate address labels.
I know the above doesn’t solve your problem right now, however it will allow you to be far more efficient in the future. As you already have your own website it’s something you should certainly consider.
hi matt what do you use now? having a nightmare with FE
Hi Eiross, I use M2E as mentioned above. You will need an eCommerce website based on Magento to make use of M2E. You could run Magento Community Edition to manage Ebay without actually having an live eCommerce website.
Thanks a lot Matt :))
You have saved hundereds of man hours every month at my organisation.
It was simple but all the Blogs etc explained it in a complex way.
So KISS worked Keep it Simple Stupid
Cheers 🙂