Use Salestio to sync Shopify with eBay Store categories

Merchants on eBay can have a regular seller account or opt for extra features of the eBay Store package. Subscribers of the eBay Store program have access to various benefits from the marketplace.

• Increased visibility of listed products that leads to more sales.
• Access to additional tools, including listing promotion and email marketing.
• Customizable storefront to promote the items.
• Custom categories to organize the products in the store.

In this article, we explore how custom eBay categories work, and how to set up Salestio to use them when sending Shopify items to eBay. For a more general guide to configuring an eBay Store, check out this article.

Featuring unique categories on your eBay storefront helps customers find what they are looking for more easily. As a seller, you can configure the categories to align with your brand identity and promote specific categories from the store. Follow the steps below to set up the categories on the eBay account:

1. Go to Seller Hub > Store > Store categories or follow this link: https://www.ebay.com/sh/str/category (for non-US marketplaces please change the domain to the corresponding one)
2. Add as many categories as you need. Keep in mind that it’s possible to add subcategories up to three levels deep.
3. Go to Manage My Store> Edit Store and enable “Store Categories” in the “Category Preference” section.

How to connect custom eBay categories to Shopify

Connecting Shopify collections, categories, or product types to corresponding custom eBay categories can be done through eBay Store Mapping in Salestio. After mapping is configured, Salestio can list new items or update existing ones so they appear in the desired category on eBay, more on that later.

To add an eBay Store Mapping, go to Salestio > eBay > Profiles tab > Store mapping profiles.

Pick the target eBay account and move on to the mappings. To create a profile, you should add at least one mapping in the “Append new mapping” section.

In Condition, pick a Shopify category, product type, or collection. You can add multiple by clicking “Add another condition”.

In Category, select one of the custom categories from the eBay Store. Only the Primary category is required, so you can select only Primary or both.

Click “Add new mapping” at the bottom and save the new profile. You can add multiple mappings to cover multiple eBay Categories.

After a mapping profile is created, you can add it to your Selling Lists. First, Go to the Profiles tab > Ebay Profiles and edit the ones that you are using. Make sure that product creation is enabled, enable the “Allow Store Mapping” option, and select the new mapping profile. Remember to save changes and check if this Ebay Profile is selected in Selling List settings.

If you are not using Ebay Profiles, these options can be edited directly on the Selling List settings page.
Learn more about setting up Creation Profiles and sending products to eBay in the complete guide: Exporting Shopify Products to eBay Marketplace with Salestio

Now that the profiles are configured, you can create new eBay listings or update existing ones from the Selling List. Salestio will stick to the mapping and put the product in the corresponding categories that you have configured for your eBay Store.

To update existing items in Linked status, select them in the Selling List and run the Full Revise action. After a few minutes, the product will be updated.

To create new listings on eBay, select the items and click “Send to eBay”. The status will change to Pending, and then Linked after a few minutes.

Issue: listed products are shown under the “Other” category in the eBay Store

Products are placed in the “Other” category when it is undefined. Here are the possible reasons for this and how to resolve the issue:

• eBay Store Mapping is not configured.
  Check if the mapping profile is added in Salestio > eBay > Profiles > Store mapping profiles. To add a profile, follow the above steps from this article. Remember to save the profile when adding it.
• Product collection does not correspond to the mapping condition.
  There can be a case when the condition in a configured mapping does not cover a particular product. To resolve this, check the product page in Shopify and note the Product Type, Shopify Category, and associated Collections. Go back to the mapping profile and check the mapping to see if the conditions correspond to this item. Each mapping line can be modified if you click the Edit button. For example, a Shopify product is only added to a collection called Dresses, and mapping conditions are set to “Pants and Tops collections”. In this case, you should add the Dresses collection to the condition and save changes.
• Store Mapping is not assigned to products.
  The mapping has to be assigned to a Selling List to take effect. First, check the Selling List settings, Ebay Profile section and see which profile is selected. If you are not using a saved template, enable product creation and store mapping checkboxes. Verify that the correct store mapping profile is selected and save changes. If an Ebay Profile is selected, click “Edit” and enable these checkboxes there.

Having an eBay storefront neatly organized with custom categories helps customers find what they want, but also gives more marketing power to the seller. Salestio offers the tools to take advantage of this eBay Store feature and keeps both platforms in sync. Check out Salestio in the Shopify App Store.