eBay Reminds TRS Sellers of Bonus Requirements

As usual with eBay's semi-annual seller updates, there is a lot of news for sellers to absorb in Tuesday's announcement of SR1-2012. So on Wednesday, eBay made sure its Top Rated Sellers (TRS) were aware of an extra bonus it was awarding them if they comply with new requirements by posting another announcement.

As part of SR1 changes, eBay is raising the bar for sellers eligible for the 20% TRS discount on fees. Beginning in June, only TRS sellers who offer 1-day handling and a 14-day or longer return policy with a money-back option will get the greatest average boost in exposure and 20% final value fee discounts.

According to eBay's announcement, "Listings (from TRS sellers) that don't include these services will continue to get some boost in Best Match and the Top-rated seller badge, but not the 20% discount or greatest average boost."

To encourage sellers to begin adding those services in listings right away, eBay is offering an extra 5% discount now through May 31st on top of their current 20% discount for all TRS listings with 1-day handling and a minimum 14-day return window with money-back option.

The Promotional Rate will apply only to items sold during the Promotion Period (includes existing, new, revised or relisted listings). The discount will not apply to listings that start, or items that sell, after the Promotion Period. Details on the TRS Bonus are found on this page on eBay.com.

eBay is also lowering the annual sales requirement for TRS sellers to $1000. But one change has certain types of eBay TRS sellers upset: eBay will begin requiring sellers to upload tracking information to eBay within their stated handling time on 90% of transactions with U.S. buyers in order to retain top-rated selling status. Sellers described the challenge in this Letter to the Editor and during the eBay Town Hall meeting with sellers on Wednesday.

Comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog