How Are You Doing Under eBay's New Seller Standards?

by: rhawk

Well, for the first time in a very, very, very, LONG TIME I must say I like  what I see.

Kudos ebay.

Much better and no defects!

by: Stig of the Dump

I am utterly brilliant and probably deserve a medal.

I guess they weeded out the worst cases and now can back pedal. Also, finally finally they seem to realise they need the sellers.

by: sasikat9

Don't care as it makes no difference and I'm not going to lose any sleep over something so stupid.

by: Basset

Standards look very good. Actual sales don't.

by: moto-science

Fortunately, Silly @ss Ebay is not important to us at this point in our e-commerce curve. We catch a few sales here and there to round off the week, but nothing like it was 2-3 years ago.  Only cheap stuff is offered and look out for friendly fraud, born and bred on Ebay.

by: Ric

Sellers should exercise caution....

While eBay may have scrubbed the worst of the worst sellers from the site, sellers should not lose track of the fact that eBay management still maintains a very anti-seller corporate mentality.

Do not be lulled into a false sense of security based on the new standards.

As of this new system, defects for items rated by buyers as being  not as described may not count against sellers - for now.

Let's all keep in mind the fact that eBay changes standards frequently and often backtracks on new changes.

I have no doubt that defects for not as described will be reinstated at some point in the future, and when that happens, the defects will include any received during this short lived retreat.

At some point, eBay will need to further enhance their bottom line because they are unable to grow sales.  Just as management silently stopped supporting sellers who are victimized by return fraud, they will backtrack from this standard relief when they find their trap has been sufficiently baited.

eBay management has proven time that sellers can not trust their motives and methods and it is very likely that eBay will change course yet again in the near future. When they do, many more sellers will find themselves removed from the TRS program.

If I sound like I do not trust management, it is only due to the fact that past and present management have yet to demonstrate that they can be trusted to have the backs of their fee paying customers.

by: Marie

Ditto on what Basset stated.

by: Rexford

A blend of what both Ric and Basset said.

As we head into the Christmas season, it appears that all of the photos at the bottom the eBay.com home page are from enterprise sellers.  The rest of us are told that we need to use white or solid backgrounds but those rules don't seem to apply to the enterprise sellers.  

Looks like it's business as usual at eBay.  Wenig should have said "to hell with small sellers" instead of stating that eBay would be reconnecting with them.

by: Deacon Blues

In principle, these new metrics are kind to a majority of sellers. However, if you sell small inexpensive items internationally that ship economy without tracking (to remain competitive) like I do, then I fear that TRS status will be lost rather quickly. Some options to mitigate this effect are: (1) stop shipping to countries that have long customs clearance times (i.e. Germany, Spain, India, any South American country, Russia, etc.), (2) Change your default shipping standard to a slower option (i.e. surface), but still ship economy air, (3) don't leave immediate feedback for sellers - as not to encourage them to leave feedback.

Of course we shall have to wait to see what Feb 20th brings. I just hope it's not a case of "a ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch". Sales are very low at this point and unless eBay con do something to attract buyers, well....  

by: Volvo351

Seller standards don't seem to be the issue; the utter lack of TRAFFIC on the site IS. Based on recent activity I would guess that most of my customers are finding my items via web search engines, not by going into feeBay first. They are very SPOTTY buyers with LOW feedback. IOW, they'll buy on feeBay when and if they feel like it..it's not the GoTo site anymore. Only a FRACTION of buyers will bother to leave "feedback" anymore; why should they when they aren't fellow SELLERS and sense of "community" has been destroyed here?

BTW, my "seller performance" is rated "above standard" even though +FB% is barely 90% - lowest I've EVER had it. That's b/c of a couple of whiners within the last twelve months and barely ANY buyers leaving +FB. Even when you prompt buyer for confirmation of delivery [of course I have tracking so I KNOW they got it] they don't bother responding.

by: Volvo351

@Basset

Yep; 2nd that. Tweaking the "standards" means squat if they don't act to generate some freakin' TRAFFIC here.

by: Mark4

Well the new standards are great and all but the bigger problem is traffic! There are very few buyers left shopping on ebay. Ebay has become a ghost town, my buyers are finding my items on other sites, they all complain about how they can't find my OEM parts on ebay as they are buried in all the chinese junk that has flooded the site.

by: toolguy

One thing is for certain

eBay will continue to make changes year in and year out

Adapt or get left behind!

No one is making sellers sell on eBay, Amazon awaits you with open arms.

Not sure how this will affect my TRS status but I'll make the necessary changes to stay on top. . .

by: Marie

@deacon blues

TRS status has two different forms.  Your International sales do NOT affect your TRS status for the USA.  Only USA transactions affect your TRS status for the USA.

Take a closer look at your dashboard.  Just above where it states your Projected Seller Level, there is a box that has a drop down menu.  If you are a US seller, it defaults to the USA.  Change that to one of the other flags and see what you get.  USA and Global probably being the most useful.

@volvo351

I respectfully disagree.  Tweaking the standards in which sellers are judged does a great deal.  There are many positive things in the way they will be changing how we are rated.

Traffic is a completely separate issue.  Certainly a HUGE problem, but also not the same issue as how they are changing selling standards.

by: Frank F

Yep, according to the new standard, I have a perfect rating and do in the old system as well, but SALES are abysmal at best.... Ebay your new rating system is meaningless if our sales have been in decline and continue to decline... ADDRESS the REAL ISSUES! Get us back in Google, advertise, show our items in your abysmal search, quit favoring the Chinese, eliminate ALL the counterfeiting, and I could go on and on....

Still getting sales in spurts (2 or 3) in a 15 minute span at odd times (like 10 am on a weekday from 3 different buyers), and then nothing the rest of the day except crickets....

Page views are VERY low too and no watchers. There is just no traffic on ebay and our urls are not in the search engines. They tell us to use social media to drive traffic, but looks like they they steal those customer (OUR customers) to send to their enterprise vendors and 'most loved' via links in our listings, or that dreaded search that goes to all of ebay at the TOP OF OUR STORE (in the new store format)! I hate that as I get customers finally in my store and whoosh they are gone if they do a search on that prominent search box at the top (as they never see the tiny one to the right for my store)......

Worse Sept and Oct sales in our 12 year history by far, and Sept sales were off by nearly 90%.. Oct was a bit better, but still of over 50% and Nov is off to a horrid start...

SAD SAD Situation in ebay land, and it was all caused by bad governance and bad decisions by management.. Like I have said before, if I could bottle 'common sense', I could make a fortune around the San Jose area.....

by: mcposty

Its better to just have a standard on cases. Shipping is completely out of our control and its asking buyers of the package arrived on or before the "estimated ship date" which makes the estimate part actually a factual date and thats stupid. Not too mention buyers are dumb and will say no a lot of times

My preview is good except for ship times but thats insane since I ship same day or next day..what else can I do???? This is stupid.

I.guess ill put 5 day handling time, which will beat the system.

by: toolguy

I'm good either way.

.2% defects under the current system and well within the boundaries on the up coming one.

It's going to be a eBay Christmas for sure. . .

by: Marie

Some are talking as if you have to make some changes or compromises to survive under the upcoming changes for the requirements in which a seller is eval'd.  If they remain as Ebay has stated then if you are surviving under the current rules, you should excel under the new ones.

I think maybe some posters misunderstand what the changes are that are suppose to happen early next year.  It is positive changes for sellers.  Less dependency on subjective things such as DSRs.  

by: Rexford

Many small sellers complain of slow sales, but are sales slow for the enterprise sellers?  If not, they clearly have a visibility advantage. Of course I think we all know this anyway.  And they probably also don't experience rolling blackouts.

by: Orwellwasright

  Ebay changes or modifies any aspect of their site at their whim

  Anyone , who at this point, actually thinks ebay is going unshackle their sellers is delusional at best

  Did everyone forget that less then a week ago ebay flat out admitted that all claims, no matter how blatantly fraudulent would be accepted by ebay in the buyers favor?

  We are all simply playing whack-a-mole where we are the moles and ebay is the hammer ..  You can duck and weave all you want, but eventually the hammer will hit you too