Setting Up eBay Compatibility for Your Auto Parts Listing

To specify vehicle compatibility, sellers of auto parts and accessories on eBay can use the platform’s product catalog. This is a great solution for many eBay sellers, especially because the information can be either uploaded in a bulk or the Part Compatibility tool already contains the information about your parts. However, when selling on eBay, the product catalog comes with certain limitations – your parts may not be included in the catalog information, details included may not be appropriate, or may not be available in your country.

By providing the right information in your auto parts listing, you will see fewer inquiries from your buyers asking whether a part fits their vehicle. It will also increase confidence in their purchase of automotive parts and accessories, reduce returns from buyers that bought the wrong part, and increase your exposure to buyers. In other words, specifying auto part compatibility details on your active listings will bring the ultimate shopping experience for both the auto part seller and the buyer and lead to increased sales. 

eBay Fitment

Also known as Parts Compatibility Listings, eBay Fitment is a feature that allows buyers to search for vehicle parts based on the specific make, model, and year of their vehicle. This information takes the form of eBay Product IDs (ePIDs), and there are two types of them:

  1. Fitment ePIDs – Information corresponding to a specific make, model, and year of a vehicle. The list of Fitment ePIDs is always kept updated.
  2. Catalog ePIDs – Information that refers to a specific part in your catalog, which is organized by MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) and Brand. These translate into all of the known motor parts compatibility information for that part. Click here to find tables that list the current Catalog ePIDs.

Fitment/Compatibility Setup

Manual fitment setup

Before you can begin adding compatibility information to your auto parts listings, you need to make sure that you have custom fields for Fitment and Catalog ePIDs as well as Fitment Notes created and mapped to the right fields in your settings. Also, you will need to make sure that your Fitment Settings are set up in a way that works best for your business.

  • How to set up your Fitment custom fields

The first thing to do is to create custom user fields for Fitment ePIDs, Catalog ePIDs, and Fitment Notes (if you don’t already have them).

Click on “+ Add Custom User Field” and create the Fitment and Catalog ePID fields. Enter product information and item specifics in the Add Custom User Field form (select the type from the dropdown field). Once you do that, click on Save Settings in the bottom right corner of the website page, and the new field will be created.

Next, you will need to create the Fitment Notes field. Enter the information in the Add Custom User Field form and click on Save Settings.

Now, you have created all of the custom user fields that you will need for listing your parts with compatibility information.

  • Adjust fitment settings

To make adjustments to your fitment settings, go to Settings, and then click on Channels. Once on the Channels settings page, click on the name of an instance that you would like to adjust the Fitment settings for. When you click on a name, the section will expand, and you’ll see its settings. Scroll down until you see the Fitment ePID Field, Catalog ePID Field, or Fitment Notes Field settings, or just type the name into the search bar. There are five settings that control how Fitment works on an eBay instance – Fitment ePID Field, Catalog ePID Field, Fitment Notes Field, Fitment Compatibility, and Fitment Refresh.

  • Fitment compatibility – This setting controls whether the compatibility data is sent to eBay, as well as whether the Fitment section in the single item editor page can be displayed. The setting is an ON/OFF toggle switch. If it’s set to ON, the Fitment data can be sent to eBay, and the section in the single item editor will be displayed (in the single item editor page). If it’s set to OFF, data won’t be sent, and the section won’t be displayed.
  • Fitment refresh – This is another ON/OFF setting which controls whether it will remove or keep the previous Fitment data from the listing when you update or relist an item. When set to ON, the previous data will be removed and replaced with new data. When set to OFF, previous data will not be removed but added to the previous data.
  • Fitment ePID Field and Catalog ePID field – These settings have a dropdown field that lets you choose a custom user field to map to the Fitment ePID and Catalog ePID fields.
  • Fitment Notes Field – A dropdown that allows you to choose a custom user field to map to the Fitment Notes field. Click and select the “fitmentnotes” value.
  • Adding fitment/compatibility information to an item

Once you’ve completed the Fitment setup, you are able to add compatibility fitment data to your eBay listings. Go to the New Product or Edit Product Page, fill out item information, and then enter your fitment information in the Fitment section. If the Fitment section is not visible after you’ve entered your item’s information, you should check certain parts of your listing:

  • Fitment compatibility setting – This setting must be ON. Check that by going to Settings > Channels > eBay Options.
  •  eBay Site ID – This must be set to eBay Motors.
  • eBay Category ID – This must contain a valid eBay Motors Category ID. Find a list of eBay Motors categories here.

Adding Fitment ePIDs

Fitment ePIDs refer to a specific make, model, and year of a vehicle, and eBay provides a list of them here. By using an up-to-date ePID allows sellers to specify a vehicle or a range of vehicles that their part is compatible with. In addition to the Fitment Notes field, the Fitment ePID section has six more dropdown fields – Year (start), Year (end), Model, Make, Trim, and Engine.

  • Year (start) and Year (end) – the first and last year of a year range. If a part you are selling is compatible with multiple model years, you should select the earliest and the final year of that range in these fields.
  • Model – Specifies the model of the vehicle that a specific part will fit.
  • Make – Specifies the make of the vehicle that a specific part will fit.

Catalog ePIDs

This section allows sellers to select an ePID that refers to a particular part in eBay’s catalog, and those parts are organized by MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) and Brand. They translate into all of the known compatibility information for that specific part. When in the Catalog ePIDs section, click on the search box and enter in a search term. When the search is completed, you will get a Catalog ePID Search Results dropdown. Click on “Select an Option” in the dropdown to get all of the results for the term(s) that you searched for. If your part is compatible with multiple vehicles, the results will be paginated.

Fitment Notes

This field allows sellers to enter notes next to Fitment ePIDs in their auto parts listings. The Fitment Notes field is an excellent space to place information that you think your buyers should or would like to know (space is limited to 500 characters).

Whenever you enter a note into Fitment Notes, each one of them will apply to both Fitment ePIDs and Catalog ePIDs. In other words, the Fitment Notes you entered will override notes associated with Catalog ePIDs that you have already chosen for your listing.

Importing Fitments in Bulk

To upload fitment information in bulk, you will need to go to the Inventory Menu and click on Product Info. Next, click on Import eBay Parts Compatibility List, download the data template, enter the compatibility data next to the ID, and save the file. Now go back to the Import eBay Parts Compatibility List page, choose the previously-saved file, and upload it.

When selling auto parts on eBay and improving buyer experience, remember the value of catalog fitments. With plugin integration from myFitment, auto part sellers can rest assured that their fitment data is complete, accurate, and in the right format. The solution can transform ACES data (for Amazon) to eBay Fitment data, as well as eBay to ACES format in an automated, seamless manner.

myFitment acts as a central database for your fitment data, helping you pull information from multiple sources and bulk data entry by uploading Excel spreadsheets. Our platform is powerful in terms that it allows sellers of auto parts and accessories to manage their data from one place for various eCommerce platforms. The advantage of having a list of compatible auto parts listed by Make, Model, and Year is that it helps buyers easily search for the parts they need.

We have helped thousands of auto part sellers create fitment for eBay, as well as other platforms like Amazon, Walmart, AutoZone, NewEgg, and others.