eBay Executives repeatedly emphasized buyers' increasing expectations in the ever-more competitive (and mobile-oriented) world of of ecommerce as the reason for the latest round of seller standards changes. They also confirmed that sellers will need to run a report to see which transactions have DSR's that contribute to their defect rate.
Among the top issues on eBay sellers' minds in the session, which featured Senior Manager of eBay Seller Protection Jonathan Haney, and Brian Burke, eBay Director of Global Trust, were the neutral feedback now counting the same as a negative; the consequences of opting in (or not) to the 90-day return window around this year's holiday season; and how different sellers' defect rates would be calculated based on the minimum number of buyers depending on the volume of a seller's transations in a given time window.
The session opened with a quote by an eBay seller identified as "Justin W.," who said, "I want more sales, and to keep buyers coming back."
Haney emphasized this is also what eBay wants, and that today's buyers "bring increased expectations." A video shown a bit later said buyers expect a "retail-like experience" on eBay. They are also spending more time on smartphones than desktops - and throughout the session, Haney and Burke talked about the importance of checking out their listings on both smartphones and tablets to make sure they weren't turning those mobile shoppers off with things such as embedded Flash.
A slide reminded sellers of the new seller standards for both Top-rated sellers and also "All sellers": the maximum defect rate for TRS is now 2%, and 5% for all sellers. Both TRS and all sellers have a maximum of 0.3% of closed cases without a resolution.
In terms of shipping, sellers must have a (domestic shipping) defect rate of no more than 90%; this includes sellers meeting their one-day handling time.
More Details on Holiday 90-Day Return Window for Top-rated Plus Sellers
Haney and Burke expressed that sellers were concerned about the extended return period for the 2014-15 holiday season, but said that said sellers could, for example, only opt-in certain categories of their listings for this
90-day return guarantee; not necessarily all their items, or categories of items.
"You do not have to offer holiday returns to be a Top-rated seller; you only have to offer holiday returns to gain top-rated Plus status and the badging," said Haney.
The rest of the year, sellers would go back to the 14-day return window standard, as before, to be a Top-rated seller.
Haney said the rationale for the long holiday return window was that eBay had found in talking to eBay buyers that they were not spending as much on the holiday season on the site as the execs were expecting because, the buyer would say, "I can't return the item before I know the buyer wants the gift or not." This apparently drove buyers away from holiday shopping on eBay.
"Item as Described" Defect-Rate DSR Standard: Why Are "3's" Included?
"We found that even when a buyer leaves a 3, they purchase less frequently than they did before," said Haney.
This was similar to their rationale in making only a "1" DSR for ship time count as a defect; the decrease in purchasing for those who left a "2" as opposed to a "1" was not as great as it was for disparity between "3" and the other numbers in "item as described."
Why Include Neutral Feedback in the Defect Rate?
Burke said buyers who leave neutrals purchase less often; the same as buyers who leave negative feedback. So sellers should "not think about the term neutral, but think about the buyer behavior that occurs when that buyer leaves that neutral," which is that they purchase less frequently.
Seller-Cancelled Transactions
This was an area many sellers were worried about on the forums once the new standards were announced. eBay wants to "understand the reason why" a seller cancels a transaction, said Burke; "Is that coming from the buyer saying hey, I no longer want the item," or is it coming from the seller because they don't have inventory anymore, or they dropped the vase on the way to packaging it? Those things create poor purchasing experiences," and they don't want those.
Haney pointed out that the DSR for communication and the DSR for ship cost were not on the defect list. Burke said it was not that those things were not important, but they wanted the sellers to focus on the things that were most important.
He also added that a defect would be looked at per transaction; there would not, in other words, be two defects counted if a buyer both left
a negative feedback and they opened a case on the same transaction. "That transaction had a defect," said Haney.
Safeguards
The defect rate won't affect your status "unless we see at least eight different buyers with transactions with a defect," said Haney. In the case of Top-rated sellers, they would look for at least five different buyers who had a transaction with an issue.
Tips to Lower Your Defect Rate
At this point in the webinar we were walked through the timeline of the new defect rate, starting April 16, when sellers can start to see their defect rate.
Sellers were then treated to a seller named "Janet," who likes to buy vintage
clothing on eBay. Janet said she looks for an "emotional connection" in a listing, and good photography that shows the texture of the fabric, etc.
"The one thing sellers should stop doing altogether is really high shipping prices," she said. She also appreciates tracking info and watches out for her items in the mail.
Haney then talked about things sellers could do to lower their defect rate, including:
- Clearly describe your item with multiple views/angles of the same item
- Zoom in on blemishes
- Use eBay picture services; have eBay host your photos
- Check out your listing on mobile devices, both tablets and smartphones.
- Title - use as many descritive words as piossilve
- Use item specifics; people use them to refine search, and wrong ones may lead to a defect
Again we heard about the importance of stocking regularly, and if you sell on multiple sites, make sure you keep track of what's where.
- Be clear about all your shipping details - service, cost, handlign time, upload tracking.
- Answer questions quickly
- "Consider a 30-day return window"
- Accept returns for any reason
- Pay for shipping on all returns
He also suggested sellers opt in to "Hassle-Fee returns." One questioner later in the session asked how to do this; Haney said go to eBay.com/Returns, and you can click "opt in" there.
Q & A
Now to the fun part! Moderator Mary Windishar started pulleing questions from the queue.
"John" asked about optimizing for mobile. Haney suggested sellers think about creating an intro, such as 3-4 bullet points, rather than including a lot of text - 3 or 4 paragraphs, in their listings so as to not overwhelm mobile shoppers.
"Gary" asked about "misunderstandings with buyers - if a buyer contacts the seller through the message system, and the case got resolved, it shouldn't count as a defect."
Burke responded that when buyers open cases, they are less likely to come back, and likely to purchase less. We're "focusing on open cases," said Burke. And when a case
is opened, they're expecting "the seller will take care of that buyer."
"Will neutral feedback count the same as negative feedback on the defect rate?"
The short answer was yes. But Haney emphasized again only one defect would be counted per transaction.
Another seller asked if she'd get a 20% discount without offering the extended holiday returns.
Haney said no, you won't, unless you were in one of the categories excluded from it.
"John" wanted to know "who pays for return shipping in Hassle-Free Returns?"
"It's a policy decision," said Haney. Sellers may want to pay for return ship for one set of items, but on another they may want the buyer to pay.
"Julia" (Hmm) asked, "Will sellers have to run a report" to see their defect DSRs?
"For detailed seller ratings, for item as described and ship time, that information will be available at the transaction level at the end of April," said Haney. There's a defect report that will show you "how many open cases, how many cancelled transactions, negative/neutral feedback etc." he said.
At the end of April they will include the rate of low DSRs for "item as described and ship time," but yes, "it will be a report."
"Ross" asked, "What is the advantage of opting into holiday returns other than a badge stating top-rate plus?
Haney said it was the badging, marketing, search and best match; "we view these as those items we believe will convert and drive sales most aggressively during the holiday period."
"Robert" with a "side note from Warren" asked, with the extended holiday return time, "What provision is made to protect sellers from the return of used goods that can't be resold or refunded?" And "Warren" added, "The scammers awake like zombies during the holidays." (This brought a laugh from the execs).
Haney said the seller's return policy would still be in effect, with its seller protections, and "we're still going to back up the seller if they have issues with that." And he added that they continue to look for buyers who are "bad actors" and take action even up to "asking them to leave our platform."
One eBayer had a question about how many buyers were counted as a maximum toward a defect rate. "Is it 8 different buyers every month, or over the 3-month lookback period?"
"It's 8 unique buyers for the evaluation period," said Burke. "So if your sales velocity is greater than 400 transactions per month, then you'll have the three-month lookback." So it would be 8 for that three-month period. "If you're in the 12-month lookback, it would be eight in the 12-month period."
"Michele" asked about what would happen if there was a problem with USPS - presumably such as if they did not show validation or a scan for some reason. Burke answered that eBay just looks fo the seller to upload the tracking within the stated handling time, and a scan at any point of the USPS counts as validation. But they will look for validation only 90% of the time, which leaves some margin of error.
One of the last questions came from a seller asking what to do if a buyer wants a partial refund.
"These I suggest taking on a case-by-case basis," said Haney. "I would not encourage partial refund to be like "hey, 5 bucks off because this has an additional blemish,"" he said. He suggested sellers simply take the item back in those cases. But. if the seller does choose to do a partial refund, they should "do it through PayPal."
Haney and Burke each wrapped up the session with their final thoughts. Haney said, "This is the start of a dialogue," and sellers would have time with the staggered rollout of all the changes to "figure out what business practices you need to change."
Burke said, "We're here as partners with you. Our goals are very much aligned."
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