QuicksilverVoHo-
Glad to hear from you.
Certainly prompts have been valuable function for some sellers. I have personally spoken to many sellers, especially apparel folks such you, about the value of prompts for both buyers and sellers. I know how much prompts help.
First, just to be clear, the primary reason prompts were removed was to make way for soon-to come eBay functionality, including attributes. If we could have done this change completely in-sync with attributes rollout, we would have - believe me.
Now, the reason eBay does not support a prompts function is that it creates a relatively inconsistent buyer experience. For example, a buyer looking at a search-results page will not know what size your T-shirt is if you had just used prompts. Keep in mind that MANY more buyers visit the search page than item pages, so it's crucial to be consistent there.
Given that prompts are no longer available, I want to focus on how it is best for sellers can adapt and grow in a prompt-free site. Two key things – increase listings, improve titles/descriptions
First, is important to adapt by creating listings for each configuration of your item. For example – if you have three sizes of shirts, you should now create three listings. While it creates additional listing effort, it is indeed the best way to make sure buyers know what you have to sell and can find your items. Better buyer awareness like this creates more sales.
Second, along with my point of buyer experience, I strongly recommend including attribute-type information in the title of your listing as consistently as possible. Again – making your listing more findable to buyers is the way to drive sales. Because of this, it is crucial to include important size or specification information in the item title.
Again, I know prompts was a powerful concept. In fact, eBay is currently working on projects to identify ways to make prompt-style functions work for both the buyer and seller’s advantage. No answers yet, but we’re definitely trying.
