New clothing 'Size' Requirements HUGE PROBLEMS
Summary: knickersboxersglory raised concerns about eBay's new policy of standardizing fashion sizes, which has resulted in many size options not being available for listings. This policy has frustrated sellers as it forces them to list items inaccurately, risking returns and negative feedback. jmcsupplies and others have expressed similar issues, noting the policy's potential to drive sellers to other platforms, such as Amazon or TikTok, that accommodate a wider range of sizes. There is a call for eBay to rethink this update due to its implications for clothing listings, especially in children's wear, and the impact on seller business. Some participants have suggested including detailed sizing in photos or descriptions as a temporary workaround, but this is not ideal.
eBay sent an update yesterday stating,
'We’re standardising fashion sizes. Update your fashion listings this month to keep selling smoothly.'
The issue is that loads of size values are not available. So we have items which are the following sizes across multiple categories that can now either not be listed on eBay or we are now required to list items as the wrong size (not the actual size of the item).
8-10
10-12
12-14
14-16
16-18
18-20
20-22
22-24
24-26
26-28
28-30
30-32
One Size
S/M
M/L
L/XL
XL/XXL
So all items with these sizes can only be listed as a single size, i.e. a size 12-14 garment can either be listed as a size '12' or a size '14'. This is totally misleading to buyers and is going to create massive problems with returns, item not as described claims and negative feedback. If you selected size 12 would you expect to receive a size 12 or a size 12-14?
eBay currently have 310,000+ clothing listings with the size '10-12'. All of these listings either cannot be listed or sellers will need to incorrectly list as a size 10 or a size 12.
eBay have not explained what's going to happen to the sales history of items which are best sellers.
swappy-shope
·4 days agoSizing UK Issues
I just had items hidden from selling & flagged as issues (for their sizing) by Ebay.
These items have been on my page for a while, without issue.
The sizing options are inadequate, as they seem not to take into account UK Sizing?
There is NO Option for Inches or No option for Larger sizes, unless you just want to put
L or XL, which is no real measurement.
Thanks, for Reading!
knickersboxersglory
OP4 days agoUpdate from eBay and it's not good news
Current listings cannot be revised and you cannot list anything on eBay with the 'Size' attribute unless the Size of the item is on eBay's list.
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We have turned off and removed the option to input custom text sizes on variation listings.
Moving forward, the platform will no longer accept custom text inputs for sizing fields in these categories. Sellers must now select only from the pre-defined, standardized size options provided on the variation listing page.
Why This Change Matters :
Our primary goal is to protect your business health. By standardizing how sizes are displayed using UK Alpha sizes (e.g., 2XS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL), we aim to drastically reduce buyer confusion at checkout. Clear sizing expectations prevent "Significantly Not as Described" (SNAD) cases from being opened against your account, keeping your performance metrics strong and your returns low.
Recommended Workarounds & Solutions :
The policy officially went into enforcement on 10th June 2026. Since the pre-defined options strictly follow standard UK sizing, you can manage numerical or EU inventory using these methods:
For Numerical Sizes: Select the closest standard UK Alpha size for the primary listing. You can then mention the corresponding numerical values directly in your item description, or upload a breakdown chart into your image section.
For EU Sizing: You can list the item directly on our EU platform to match its native sizing, making it available to international and UK buyers alike. Alternatively, if you want to keep the listing exclusively on the UK site, you must use the standard UK size field and upload an EU-to-UK conversion chart as a product image or detail it in the description.
Our goal is always to provide fast and accurate support. If you need further assistance with adjusting your listings or navigating this new format, please feel free to reach back out to us via chat or phone.
Thank you for choosing eBay!
2007dcase
·5 days agoIt's going to be a problem for children's clothing, especially socks and tights. I've had a pair of tights removed which were size 7-8 years, had to amend to 7 to get them visible again. It was easy to do as this was a single pair, not sure what will happen to MVL's. Looking at girl's tights listed almost 23,000 are now showing as size not specified in the search results. Even worse for kids socks which are labelled as the foot size range generally (eg 9-12)
Kids socks:
jophoenix63
·5 days agoTried amending man's shirt 15.5 collar and boys T shirt 12-13 no drop down available so cannot relist. It looks like ebay want to reduce the accuracy of description - to meet Vinted? Has anyone found a work around? I see commenting has been blocked
brenata-uk
·5 days agoI didn't see this thread until after I posted myself after getting an email from Ebay about one of my listings violating this sizing policy, it is actually a Men's shirt with the collar size of 17" denoting the size, that is how men's shirts are sized ... it's crazy, if I don't have that on the advert I will constantly be asked about the collar size, how else can I describe the size if not by the collar?? I've written to Ebay with a close up of the shirt where it shows '17' just below the collar ....this is just nuts ....
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoPut a complaint in and a ticket to the technical team through ebay customer service. The person i spoke with said ebay have pull updates before when there's been issues that will affect their revenue. And this is going to be a massive one for chiuldren's clothing since spitting kids clothing over multiple listing will not work, buyers will look elsewhere because it's time consuming, it looks amateurish which ebay don't want and it will plummet fees they erm. Oh and sellers will leave if they can't sell their products.
top_tee_shirts_and_baby_vests
·1 week ago · Editedhaving the same problem, went to list my baby vests which I do in 0-3m 3-6m 6-12m 12-18m and told I can't list 6-12m because it is a custom size. All my vests have always been bought in from UK supplier as 6-12m, now I have to list as 9-12m and explain in the listing that the correct size is actually 6-12m, but you can guarantee buyers are not going to look at description. I have the same problem with baby t shirts. Can only put one size in the item specifics which means people looking for a 3-6m or larger are not going to be shown it. Damn stupid idea.
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoPut a complaint in and a ticket to the technical team through ebay customer service. The person i spoke with said ebay have pull updates before when there's been issues that will affect their revenue. And this is going to be a massive one for chiuldren's clothing since spitting kids clothing over multiple listing will not work, buyers will look elsewhere because it's time consuming, it looks amateurish which ebay don't want and it will plummet fees they erm. Oh and sellers will leave if they can't sell their products.
sheba-knows-best
·1 week agoI am in the same boat. And yes, I was forced today into resizing various of my items.
All I can say is if you look at my listings I cut and paste my sizing details into a photo and usually include this photo in the first 4-5 photos. I have been doing this for a while now. (Any listings without this, are probably more than 2 years old).
Whilst this textual photo won't stop some people returning as SNAD (but those people always find a way to get a free return anyway), it will help decent buyers find the size they want despite ebay's item specifics.
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoPut a complaint in and a ticket to the technical team through ebay customer service. The person i spoke with said ebay have pull updates before when there's been issues that will affect their revenue. And this is going to be a massive one for chiuldren's clothing since spitting kids clothing over multiple listing will not work, buyers will look elsewhere because it's time consuming, it looks amateurish which ebay don't want and it will plummet fees they erm. Oh and sellers will leave if they can't sell their products.
knickersboxersglory
OP1 week ago · EditedIn some ways it makes sense, but you have to give sellers the values that items are. If a top is size '8-10' it's size 8-10. It's not a size 8 and it's not a size 10.
If a dressing gown is 'age 13' it's age 13, not '12-13', not '13-14'
Nowhere else would you not be able to choose the size that you will actually receive and that shown on the item.
We are stuffed either way - either don't list as the sizes shown do not match the actual products - or we list products as the wrong size, then have to deal with returns/negative feedback (rightly so) down the line.
Still mad that a company the size of eBay can mess up such a basic thing!. I mean you can see the items listed on your own site, and you can see that hundreds of thousands of products are in sizes that you have just wiped out.
jonatjonatjonat
·1 week agoNowhere else would you not be able to choose the size that you will actually receive and that shown on the item.
Not so - this is exactly how Vinted do it. Presumably ebay are accounting for the fact Vinted have brought a lot of new sellers into marketplaces - and they need to show that listing on ebay is as easy as they are used to.
knickersboxersglory
OP1 week agoReally? I don't use Vinted, so I have no experience of this. What a bizarre system.
So you buy a size 8 and get sent an 8-10? Or buy a size 16 and get sent a size 14-16? Maybe that's why Vinted returns and complaints are so high.
Never heard anything like this before. You certainly wouldn't get that kind of thing on Next, Amazon, M&S, H&M etc. You would order the size shown on the garment and that's exactly what you would receive.
It just creates problems all round - feedback, items not as described, returns.
jonatjonatjonat
·1 week agoWell on Vinted (and I'd do the same on ebay) i'd include the Age 8-10 data in the title of the product (and a photo of the label). The Size data is primarily for filters and I get it - but I tend to pick the smallest size of filter.
Though I only really list my kids old clothes so the size is always an age range of 7-8 or something like that - but the filters are limited to a year.
But if you order a Size 8 and get sent something that is Size 8-10 - well - surely you've still received a Size 8? If the clothing itself states its within a range?
knickersboxersglory
OP1 week ago · Edited'But if you order a Size 8 and get sent something that is Size 8-10 - well - surely you've still received a Size 8?'
We've sold clothing for 20 years. Buyers do not work like that! You might be a size 8, but closer to a 6, so ordering a size 8 when you are only just a size 8 is fine, but if you then get a size 8-10, this is not what you have ordered. Is a size 8-10 listed as a size 8 or a size 10? Totally different things
To take it to the extreme we have hoodies (like the poncho Oodie type things) which are for juniors - age 7-13 years. If we are forced to list as either '7 years' or '13 Years' those are wildly different things.
eBay have just messed this up - Amazon, as usual, do it better.
You need a 'Size Map' value not visible to customers to apply to your filters. HERE YOU CAN CHOOSE FROM A LIST OF SET VALUES, OR CHOOSE THE 'BEST' OPTION FOR BUYERS TO FILTER
As a reference point, Amazon have around 150 size options (not including mixed sizes, 10-12, 14-16, S/M, 7-8 Years etc) to select from, eBay have around 60...so there are items in the 90 sizes (plus all mixed sizes) that can be listed on Amazon, but not eBay now.
eBay have included options for US and French sizing as well (on .co.uk), but not loads of UK sizes. So as a British business I can list a French size 10 item or a US size 4 (neither of which 99% of UK businesses would ever sell), but not an age 13 years or size 14-16 garment.
You need a 'Size' value visible to customers where sellers can add the relevant sizing information that buyers need. This is the option that buyers actually select, and would be the ACTUAL size of the item.
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoExplain how age 18-24 months is not in the range upto 4-5 since thats how most kids clothes are made? It's a shocker from ebay thats going to cost them millions and alot of lost sellers. Vinted do not do this, they have all the age ranges and vinted cannot be compared anyway since its a one transaction per listing model.
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoPut a complaint in and a ticket to the technical team through ebay customer service. The person i spoke with said ebay have pull updates before when there's been issues that will affect their revenue. And this is going to be a massive one for chiuldren's clothing since spitting kids clothing over multiple listing will not work, buyers will look elsewhere because it's time consuming, it looks amateurish which ebay don't want and it will plummet fees they erm. Oh and sellers will leave if they can't sell their products.
jonatjonatjonat
·1 week agoSomeone has been busying copying Vinted again.
jmcsupplies
·5 days agoNo ones copying vinted! This is ebay feeding their search engine. Vinted is the most amateurish platform on the market.
knickersboxersglory
OP1 week agoAnybody else having this issue? It has changed today. We cannot list or revise any listings unless we used the eBay defined sizes (which do not apply to lots of products)
jmcsupplies
·1 week agoPut a complaint in with Ebay, and a ticket to the techical team through ebay support. This will affect millions of sellers across US,UK AND EU and needs to be pulled by Ebay.
knickersboxersglory
OP1 week agoWe were told it's a business decision and the agent we spoke to 'understood our frustration' and 'logged a complaint' which will 'sit on your account'
I told them it's like trying to sell a red car, when eBay give you the option of of listing as either green or blue.
jmcsupplies
·1 week agoI've had a ticket logged for their techinal team, after i explained this will cost ebay on a massive scale! Millions of sellers across the 3 regions ( US,UK,EU) will basically have children's clothing which standard sizing is 18-24 moths up-to 3-4 or 4-5. They're not going to split a style of clothing into 2 listings for items like what i sell, character clothing. They're more likely to leave for Amazon or TikTok who treat 18-24 months as a range in the same clothing sizes as 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5. This is an expect fail by eBay.
knickersboxersglory
OP1 month agoOnly had a brief look, but fairly certain some kids' sizes can't be listed any more as well. For example, we have items in these sizes,
7-8 years - CAN BE LISTED
9-10 years - CAN BE LISTED
6-8 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
7-13 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
2 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
3 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
4 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
5 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
6 years - CANNOT BE LISTED
Whoever came up with this policy should be embarrassed. Some basic research would tell you there are millions of items that cannot be listed with these set values.
You need a 'Size Map' value not visible to customers to apply to your filters
You need a 'Size' value visible to customers where sellers can add the relevant sizing information that buyers need
The only workaround that we can think of at the moment is to enter any value into the 'Size' attribute which will show in the item specifics, so still not ideal as misleading for customers (e.g. if you have a variation listing with sizes 8-10, 12-14, 16-18, 20-22 you would need to add '8' into the size attribute). So the 'Size' value is shown as an item specific only.
Then you would need to create a new attribute for the dropdown in the listing (e.g. Garment Size, Clothing Size, UK Size etc) where you could show the buyer the information that they need and the correct sizes for the items being listed. This would be the dropdown that they would select to place the order.
The downside is that all of the variations would probably be excluded from the filters by eBay except the one value included in the item specifics.
OR
Have 2 dropdowns in the listing. One with size, the other with 'Clothing Size' for your actual values, but this is just going to create confusion for buyers if they have to choose '8' from the Size dropdown, then '8-10' from the Clothing Size dropdown.
This update needs to be rolled back until eBay have a proper fix. Imagine having a retail marketplace where you can't list things!