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Quote:eBay UK announced it will begin changing the way it displays search results based on Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) for postage & packaging charges. Those sellers who consistently receive the lowest scores on postage & packaging costs - 3.9 or below - will receive "considerably reduced visibility" in default search results by appearing much further down the list of items...

Quote:***Clamping Down on Unfair Postage & Packaging Charges***


We pride ourselves on bringing sellers a large audience of engaged, active buyers. In the last month alone, almost 15 million people visited eBay.co.uk looking for great deals on all manner of items.

Over the last year we’ve been asking those buyers who have left eBay, or who no longer buy as much as they used to, why they did so. One of the most common reasons cited was the prominence of sellers who clearly overcharge for postage & packaging on their items.

The introduction of Detailed Seller Ratings on the site earlier this year allows us to identify clearly those sellers who are consistently rated poorly by buyers for postage & packaging charges. As a result, we’ll shortly be introducing changes to the way that we display search results based on Detailed Seller Ratings for postage & packaging charges.

For the vast majority of sellers, this will mean that your items will continue to be featured as normal in search results.

However, those sellers who consistently receive the lowest scores on postage & packaging costs will receive considerably reduced visibility in default search results by appearing much further down the list of items. This will apply to sellers whose Detailed Seller Ratings for postage & packaging are 3.9 or below, which accounts for roughly 0.5% of all sellers on the site.

This small group of sellers are responsible for a hugely disproportionate number of buyer complaints about overcharging for postage & packaging, and taint the vast majority of good sellers who buyers agree are charging fairly.

We will be introducing these changes during the week beginning December 17th, after the main Christmas trading period is over, and we encourage all sellers to continue to review their postage and packaging charges to make sure these are as fairly priced as possible.

We expect to make further changes to the display of search results to protect buyers in 2008, including extending the use of Detailed Seller Ratings to other areas of concern for buyers.

Quote:Next year they'll focus on rooting out sellers with unethical or questionable business strategies — particularly vendors who charge exorbitant fees, said John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces...

A year ago, Donahoe said, eBay began asking buyers to rank sellers' shipping costs on a scale of one to five. Users may now view that data in aggregate form and, if they want, decide whom to purchase from based on shipping fee scores.

The company may use the data in more palpable ways in 2008, such as incorporating shipping fee complaints into search algorithms; sellers with high shipping fees may not appear in the first page of search results. It also may include factors such as whether shipping was prompt or the seller responds to questions...