eBay Detailed Seller Ratings to Help Determine Search Position, PS Eligibility

[mandy]

***A Message from Brian Burke  A Look at Detailed Seller Ratings Data & Other Feedback News*** 


Hi everyone  this is Brian Burke from the Trust & Safety Feedback team. It's been about six months since we began introducing Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs), and I felt it was time to provide a brief update to let you know more about the progress and results we're seeing with DSR data.

DSR adoption rates
We're delighted that buyers are leaving detailed seller ratings over 72% of the time. In some countries, such as Australia, daily adoption rates are above 80%. In addition, the overall rate of Feedback being left remains at 70%. This is a positive result, because it shows that the introduction of DSRs has not had any negative impact on buyers' willingness to leave Feedback.

A look at marketplace DSR scores
With over six months of data, the DSR scores for eBay.com are showing some healthy early patterns. Our data proves the vast majority of our sellers perform well in satisfying their buyers.

Below is a table with a breakdown of DSR scores by seller percentile. The median score reflects the score that a seller in the middle would get, if sellers were ranked by their buyers from best to worst. As you can see, scores are 4.8 for most categories and 4.6 for shipping costs.

Bottom 10% of Sellers Bottom 25% of Sellers Median Seller Top 25% of Sellers Top 10% of Sellers
Item as Described 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.0
Communication 4.5 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.9
Shipping Time 4.3 4.6 4.8 4.9 4.9
S&H Charge 4.3 4.5 4.6 4.8 4.8

Using DSRs
Detailed Seller Ratings are a measurement of buyer satisfaction, and they give sellers a tool they can use to evaluate how they are performing. When an individual set of DSRs (visible to sellers by mousing over the stars in their profile) is compared with the chart above, sellers can get a sense of how well they are performing compared to the marketplace as a whole. Sellers with scores lower than the median can take advantage of this data  which is provided by buyers across the marketplace - to reevaluate and adjust their business practices.

As we look to ensure that buyers have great experiences on eBay, we will be leveraging this DSR data in several ways in 2008: to help us evaluate seller performance, to determine PowerSeller eligibility and the benefits associated with the PowerSeller Program, and to influence priority in search results.

Other Feedback news  Removing Item Title from Buyer Profile page
Last spring, the inclusion of the item title on the "Feedback as a Buyer" page brought immediate controversy. Buyers viewed this as an invasion of privacy, even though this information is readily available through advanced search. Sellers complained because they feared buyers would not bid/buy, since no other e-commerce site includes buyer purchase history so prevalently.

We surveyed buyers and over a third of them were concerned or extremely concerned with the visibility of this information on the "Feedback as a Buyer" page. So, effective today, we will be removing the item title from this page.

You'll be hearing more about the use of DSRs in the future, so please stay tuned.

[I want 1 2]

As we look to ensure that buyers have great experiences on eBay, we will be leveraging this DSR data in several ways in 2008: to help us evaluate seller performance, to determine PowerSeller eligibility and the benefits associated with the PowerSeller Program, and to influence priority in search results.

Yep, I saw that one coming a mile away.....
So glad I don't have to deal with the ebay BS any more !

[sneakymagenta]

PowerSeller eligibility

2 sales in 6 months is apparently the current requirement for PowerSeller status arcasm1:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=the_sharper_image&ftab=AllFeedback

[sneakymagenta]

I'm back 

This information will be available when this member receives at least 10 detailed seller ratings.

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=alibris

How is it possible to not receive at least 10 detailed seller ratings when you've received over 5000 feedback ratings in the past month and over 10000 feedback ratings in 6 months?

[FiberGuy]

Fluff better clean up her act:

Detailed Rating

[amy]

How is it possible to not receive at least 10 detailed seller ratings when you've received over 5000 feedback ratings in the past month and over 10000 feedback ratings in 6 months?

They sell on Half.com--no DSR on Half.

[mandy]

A related article from the Auctionbytes blog:

eBay has put the final nail in the coffin of its supposed operating philosophy of a "level playing field." The nail came in the form of black ink on the pages of Friday's Wall Street Journal with a quote from John Donahoe, president of eBay's auction and marketplace business. "While sellers will be given the same opportunities, he says, "we're going to emphasize and reward our best sellers. The ones who aren't will deal with the consequences or (receive) less exposure.""...

full article: http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blo...56739.html

[BellisimaJ.]

"While sellers will be given the same opportunities, he says, "we're going to emphasize and reward our best sellers. The ones who aren't will deal with the consequences or (receive) less exposure.""...

Um, they've been doing this in one way or another all along, IMO. Of course, they never admitted it.  :

[amy]

[quote author=BellisimaJ. link=topic=16636.msg65589#msg65589 date=1192293068]

"While sellers will be given the same opportunities, he says, "we're going to emphasize and reward our best sellers. The ones who aren't will deal with the consequences or (receive) less exposure.""...

Um, they've been doing this in one way or another all along, IMO. Of course, they never admitted it.  :
[/quote]

My biggest complaint was always that they lied about there being a level playing field--at least they're finally admitting there isn't one.

[sneakymagenta]

Fluff better clean up her act:

Does she offer combined shipping?  :twistedevil: