How listing templates and description affixes work
Templates and description affixes let you maintain the parts of a listing that never change — shipping notes, policies, sign-off — in one place instead of inside a thousand listings. Change it once and it applies everywhere it is used.
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The problem with pasted boilerplate
Most sellers accumulate standard text: how fast you ship, what your return policy is, a note about measurements, a thank-you. Pasted into each listing, that text becomes unmaintainable within months. When your shipping time changes, you have a thousand listings saying something untrue.
Worse, marketplaces increasingly penalise listings whose descriptions are mostly boilerplate. Text that says nothing about the item does not help you rank and does not help the buyer decide.
Prefixes and suffixes
A description prefix appears above the item-specific description; a suffix appears below it. They are defined once, applied to the listings you choose, and edited in one place. That means the item description stays about the item, and policy text stays maintainable.
| Belongs in | Content |
|---|---|
| Prefix | Rarely used. A shop banner or a brief positioning line, if anything. |
| Item description | Everything specific: what it is, condition, measurements, flaws, provenance, styling. |
| Suffix | Shipping timeframe, returns, bundling, care instructions, contact line. |
Per-channel differences
Marketplaces differ in what they allow in a description. Some strip HTML, some limit length, and several prohibit contact details or links that route buyers off-platform. Affixes are applied within those constraints, but the policy responsibility stays with you — text that violates a marketplace's rules is your listing at risk, not a formatting problem.
- Never include email addresses, phone numbers or external links in marketplace descriptions unless that specific marketplace permits it.
- Avoid referencing other marketplaces you sell on. Most platforms treat that as diverting their buyers.
- Keep formatting simple. Rich HTML is stripped or rendered inconsistently on mobile, where most browsing happens.
Review your boilerplate annually
Standard text is where old problems go to live forever. Most sellers have a line addressing a dispute from three years ago that no longer applies. Once a year, read your suffix as a buyer would and delete anything defensive that is not earning its place.
Frequently asked questions
Do affixes apply retroactively to existing listings?
Changing an affix changes what is published going forward, and you can push the update to existing listings with a bulk edit. Whether to do that depends on whether the change matters enough to touch established listings.
Can I have different affixes per marketplace?
Yes, and you often should, because what is allowed and what reads well differ by platform. A Depop suffix and an eBay suffix are rarely the same text.
Does the AI write around my affixes?
The AI drafts the item-specific description. Affixes wrap it, so the drafted text does not duplicate your policy language.
Should everything have a template?
No. Templates are for text that is genuinely identical across items. Anything that varies belongs in the item, where it can actually help the listing rank and convert.
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