Attached is a file with instructions, an example spreadsheet, and results. The process is fully achievable in the UI using the same image structure described below.
SureDone does not have separate fields for eBay's different image roles. All three are worked out from how you arrange the images in your media fields across the variation family, so the image structure is what you are controlling.
Default Photos
Must be in every variation, including the parent.
An image only becomes part of the eBay Default Photo set, the listing gallery, if it is present on every item in the variation family. That means the parent and all of the children, using the same media slot on each.
Putting the image on the parent by itself is not enough. To eBay the parent is simply another one of the variants, so an image that appears there and nowhere else is treated as unique to that variant and becomes one of its Variation Photos instead.
Thumbnail
The first of the Default Photos is used as the eBay thumbnail.
The thumbnail is the image buyers see in eBay search results, and you do not set it separately. It is whichever Default Photo comes first, so whatever you put in media1 on every row is what you get. If you want a specific image as your thumbnail, put it in media1 on the parent and every child.
Variation Photos
Photos unique to an individual variation will be associated with that variant on eBay.
Any image that is not on every item is treated as belonging to the items that do have it, and eBay shows it when a buyer selects that option.
If more than one variation shares the attribute value, they all need the photos for that attribute. Two green shirts in different sizes should both carry the green photos, the red shirts in different sizes should all carry the red photos, and so on. A photo sitting on only one of the green shirts is unique to that one variant rather than to the color green.
The URLs have to match exactly across the sizes of that attribute value. Two files that look the same are still two different photos to eBay, so green_1.jpg on the small and green_2.jpg on the medium will not group even if the images are identical. This is worth checking on catalogs imported from another channel, since some channels create a separate copy of the image file for every variant.
Example image structure
A jacket in three colors and two sizes, laid out the way described above:
| guid | Color | media1 | media2 | media3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JKT100 (parent) | Black | group-shot.jpg | black-front.jpg | black-back.jpg |
| JKT101 | Black | group-shot.jpg | black-front.jpg | black-back.jpg |
| JKT102 | Red | group-shot.jpg | red-front.jpg | red-back.jpg |
| JKT103 | Red | group-shot.jpg | red-front.jpg | red-back.jpg |
| JKT104 | Blue | group-shot.jpg | blue-front.jpg | blue-back.jpg |
| JKT105 | Blue | group-shot.jpg | blue-front.jpg | blue-back.jpg |
group-shot.jpg is on all six rows, so it becomes the Default Photo and the thumbnail. Each color's two photos appear only on that color's rows, so they become that color's Variation Photos. Note that the two Black rows carry an identical pair of URLs, as do the two Red rows and the two Blue rows.
If you want more than one image in the gallery, add them alongside group-shot.jpg in the same way, repeated identically on every row, and the color photos begin in the slot after them.
Varying on one attribute
Photos may be varied based on one attribute only. eBay restricts this.
You can vary your photos by color, or by style, but not by both at once. Pick the single attribute that the images actually differ by, and make sure every item sharing a value of that attribute carries the same set of photos.