Becoming a successful seller on eBay relies on building a positive reputation with buyers. This is done by leaving feedback. Both sellers and buyers can leave feedback for each other and this feedback will determine, in part, how many items you sell. A seller with a lot of neutral or negative feedback will not do very well. In some cases, eBay will step in and prevent sellers from selling if they consistently get poor performance ratings.

eBay assesses the seller ratings on the 20^th of each month. These assessments are based on sales history and quality of service provided. eBay will then give you a performance rating.

• TOP RATED – You are one of the best sellers on eBay. You give fantastic customer service, and you are meeting top rated seller minimums in sales.
• ABOVE STANDARD – You are more than meeting eBay’s minimum standard for both customer service and sales.
• BELOW STANDARD – You are not meeting the minimum requirements. This rating can result in lower search results. It can also lead to partial of complete sales restrictions.

How to Achieve Top Rated Seller Status

In order to become a top-rated seller, you will need an eBay account that has been open for more than 90 days. You must have over 1000 sales equaling over $1000 with US buyers and you must comply with eBay’s selling practices policy. Lastly, you must meet the requirements for transaction defect rate, cases closed without seller resolution and late shipment rate.

If you meet all of these requirements, eBay will give you the Top Rated Seller status. Having this status means that you will get listed near the top of the search results with your status prominently displayed. It also means that you get 10% off the standard final value fees, depending on where you are located and whether you operate as a managed payment seller or a non-managed payment seller.

As of July 2020, in order to qualify for a Top Rated Seller PLUS status, you must offer free 30 days returns if the item is in the same country as the listing. For example, if you are listing on ebay.com you must offer 30-day free returns on domestic US sales. If the item is in a different country than you have it listed in, you must offer 30-day free international returns.

Becoming a Power Seller

Power Sellers are the most successful sellers on eBay. They offer exceptional customer service and hit very high sales quotas. There are five levels to being a Power Seller: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and titanium.

To qualify for this status, you must have the above requirements for Top Rated Seller status plus have a positive feedback score of 98% or higher and have over $3000 in sales.

Your performance is calculated by eBay based on your transaction defect rate, cases closed without seller resolution, late shipments, and tracking validation.

The two issues that eBay looks at in your transaction defect rate are how often you have cancelled a buyer’s transaction due to no inventory or because you were unable/unwilling to send the item and the number of “item not as described” or “item not received” claims.

The best way to ensure not getting these negative transactions is to keep a close count on your inventory and list items accurately. eBay does have tools for managing stock for high volume sellers and a listing can be set up to show as no stock available when the count gets low. This is called the “out of stock feature”. Listing your item accurately includes taking as many pictures as possible and describing it accurately. It’s also a good idea to promptly update tracking information on the eBay site if you are not using the label printing feature.

Replying to Feedback Left

Positive feedback is important to most sellers so when a buyer leaves neutral or negative feedback, it can be quite upsetting. You can try and resolve the situation by either replying to feedback that was left or asking the buyer for a feedback revision. There is an option to reply to feedback that is left on the eBay platform. Your response will show right below the original feedback.

Here’s how you reply:

1. From your feedback page, select Reply to feedback.
2. Find the feedback you want to reply to and click Reply which is in the action column.
3. Type your reply, then choose Leave Reply.

You can also ask for a revision of feedback five times a year in most cases. If you receive 1000 feedback ratings, you will receive an addition five chances to request a feedback revision. The feedback must be less than 30 days old to be able to ask for a revision.

The buyer has the option to revise or decline. If they choose to revise, the original feedback will disappear from your site. If they decline, it remains. If they don’t respond in 7 days, eBay sends them a reminder and after 10 days, the request expires.

Leaving Feedback for Buyers

The best way to say thank you to buyers is to leave them a positive review. I personally leave feedback as soon as the buyer has paid. I find they are more likely to leave me positive feedback promptly as well when I do this.

To leave feedback:

1. Go to “Orders” in the seller hub or the “sold” tab in My eBay.
2. Click on all the listings that you want to leave feedback for and select Leave Feedback.
3. Select Positive, type a comment and click Leave Feedback.

If you have a dispute with a buyer, it is always better to try and resolve it before you leave neutral or negative feedback. Remember, you would want the same courtesy.

With both Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, you can use stored feedback comments. When you are leaving feedback, the system will display a random stored comment. You can either use that one or select another stored comment to use.

It is easy to create new stored feedback comments or edit existing ones.

Here’s how to edit or add or delete stored comments:

1. On the feedback page, click Edit Stored Comments.
2. Add, edit, or delete the comments you wish to change.
3. Click Save Comments.

If you want to set up automated feedback in Selling Manager Pro, you will need to go to the section called “Automation Preferences”. From there you can choose what option you prefer. You can have it set up to either leave positive feedback after the seller pays or after the seller leaves positive feedback for you. I personally always leave feedback after the seller pays.

Transactional Defects

If a buyer opens a defect case for either an item that was misrepresented or not received and you have additional information that will resolve it, you can request that the defect case be appealed.

Any of the following circumstances must apply to request an appeal.

• The dispute was opened by mistake.
• Tracking is uploaded and shows that your handling time was within the appropriate time frame.
• Tracking is uploaded and shows that the item was delivered to the buyers address within the appropriate time frame. If the item is worth $750 or more, a signature is required.
• If the item was shipped through our Global Shipping Program and arrived at the shipping center on time but was delayed from the center or with international shipping carriers.
• The transaction was cancelled by eBay, PayPal, or the Global Shipping Program.
• You have proof that an item returned to you was delivered to the wrong address.

There are certain circumstances that will prompt eBay to automatically remove a defect case from a seller. These can be that the seller is found at fault for the transactional dispute, the problem was caused by an eBay platform issue, or if the issue was beyond your control such as shipping service delays or weather delays.

Conclusion

eBay is an incredibly supportive platform to sell on and they make it easy to receive excellent feedback. Of course, you must do your part in offering excellent customer service and being realistic about handling times.

It is an easy site to navigate and to create a long-lasting positive rating on. And that makes it an excellent choice for selling and buying.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on! Get selling!