Best practices

To use MIP efficiently and effectively, follow these best practices.

Password

OAuth tokens need to be used to access MIP through the SFTP Server option (preferred option). To generate (or mint) access tokens, see Get OAuth access tokens.

In cases that require you to get a new SFTP token manually using the MIP user interface (UI) and you cannot automate completely, see the Alternate password option in FTP setup.

Product listings

• Define items as an individual products, a product group, or as a variant (such as color or size) within a product variation group.

  • In a CSV file, you define each product and assign the same group ID to all variants of each product

  • In an XML file, you first define the product group, then provide the variant information for that group.

• Include a product identifier such as UPC, EAN, or ISBN in every manufactured product. If your product has variations, add product identifiers at the SKU level.

• To make changes to any product, upload the product feed with the changed SKUs to the Product folder. If any information for that product is missing, it is omitted in the listing.

• When updating product listings, change the image URL only when an image changes.

Out-of-stock listings

The MIP platform is designed to help you maintain your inventory seamlessly on eBay, even when items are out-of-stock (OOS). This feature ensures that you do not lose product information and can replenish inventory without creating a new listing each time. Please note the following: 

• If an item remains OOS for an entire month and you do not end the listing, no insertion fee will be charged for that item. This allows you to manage your inventory without incurring additional costs for items not currently available for sale.

• However, if you end an OOS item listing and then relist it (even with zero quantity), an insertion fee will be charged. This is because the platform treats it as a new listing which requires additional processing.

To avoid unnecessary fees, enable out-of-stock control on your listing until you can replenish the stock. This can be done through Selling Preferences in My eBay, or through the Trading API (see Enable Out-of-Stock for more information on enabling this feature via API). This strategy not only saves costs but also keeps your product data intact for future use.

For more information on insertion fees and out-of-stock listings, see Insertion fees and credits.

SKUs

• Each product and variation of a product (size, color, etc.) included in a feed must have a unique SKU.

• There is no limit to how many SKUs can be contained in a feed file.

Feed files

Contents

• When creating a feed file, start with the same type of sample file downloaded from the Sample feed and response files page. eBay recommends that you use the sample file, including all columns, as a template.

• Alternative: if you already have feed files, start with one of your own known good feed files of the same type.

• Before uploading a completed feed file, you may remove all unused columns if they do not contain required fields.

• You can remove a field (for example, subtitle) from the combined product, product, availability and distribution feeds by leaving the value empty. When you upload the feed, MIP revises the listing and removes the subtitle from it.

• Always reference the fields or columns by their names, and not by their absolute or relative position in a feed. Periodically, new fields are added to MIP feeds. In most cases, new fields in CSV files are appended to the end of changed feed file, and new fields in XML files are added to the end of the request/response payload or to the end of an existing container. Changes are communicated through the What's new section. It is recommended that all integrations be coded to accommodate these scenarios.

Uploading feeds

• You can upload any type of feeds multiple times per hour.

• You can upload up to 10 feeds at one time. Feeds can be of the same type or a mixture of different types.

• After uploading your complete set of feeds, only upload feed files when needed, for example, when products, price, and quantity change.

• Upload product feeds before availability or distribution feeds when SKUs are added or changed. Otherwise, upload availability feeds independently when quantities change, and upload distribution feeds independently when prices change

Processing (information)

• Feeds of the same type are processed sequentially, in the order queued on the server.

• Feeds of different types are processed in parallel.

• While a product feed is processing, availability and distribution feeds are locked because these feeds can’t be processed simultaneously. While a combined feed is processing, product, availability, and distribution feeds are locked.

ZIP files

• You can upload a feed file directly or zip it to reduce file size. MIP unzips a zipped file before processing.

• Do not include anything in a zip file except a feed file. A zipped file must not contain a file folder.

Image files

• Minimum of one image file (photo) for each SKU/listing

• Maximum of 12 image files for each SKU / listing (one image in each of 12 available columns in the feed file)

• Each image file must have a unique URL

• See Listing Best Practices and the eBay seller center for image requirements and recommendations.

More about images

When you upload a feed that contains image URLs to MIP, compares the URL(s) in your feed with the URL(s) it already has. MIP does not look at your computer, storage device, or cloud storage to see if the contents located at the URLs have changed. If the URLs in the feed are the same as the URLs in the listing, it does not upload anything. If it detects a new image URL, it uploads the file and displays the image in the listing. If it detects that a URL it already has is missing from the feed, it deletes the file and removes the image from the listing.

To replace an image in a listing, in the CSV file, simply replace the URL for the image you want to replace with the new URL. The new image will then be located in the same place in the listing as the old one was.