New eBay Seller Standards

In addition to pricing changes, eBay's making the minimum standards for selling on eBay more stringent, primarily to discourage bad seller behavior on the site. This will be accomplished in two ways: through decreased listings exposure in search and safe payment requirements.

Starting in February, they will decrease listings exposure in search for the sellers who have a high buyer dissatisfaction rate and low DSRs over the last 30 days, especially for charging excessive shipping and handling. Second, they will be requiring sellers with high buyer dissatisfaction rates to offer a safe payment option.

Seller Standards – For PowerSellers
They're also going to raise the bar on what it means to be a PowerSeller. Given that this program has historically only required a certain level of sales and a 98 percent positive feedback rating, a number of buyers have complained that there's not a consistently great experience when they're buying from PowerSellers.

PowerSeller status will become a competitive advantage by setting a higher bar for sellers using their DSRs. Starting in July, you will need to have a minimum 4.5 score in all four DSR criteria over a 12-month period to be designated as a PowerSeller (or remain in the program).

Discounts for PowerSellers
Better payment protection for PowerSellers, and for all qualified sellers, greater exposure for listings in search

Great sellers who provide buyers with an experience that consistently means:

• Describing items well
• Communicating with buyers effectively
• Shipping items quickly
• Charging fair and accurate shipping costs.

These criteria, are the ones used in Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs). Great sellers will receive new rewards and economic incentives in the form of increased exposure in Best Match search, plus discounted pricing and other benefits for PowerSellers who qualify.

While the vast majority of eBay sellers do the right thing, a relatively few sellers create a high percentage of dissatisfied customers. At eBay, they will consider a buyer dissatisfied if:

• The buyer leaves a 1 or 2 DSR rating on any of the attributes
• A seller get complaints from buyers about items being "significantly not as described" or "item not received"
• A seller receives negative or neutral feedback from the buyer.
• If a seller has any of these activities in the last 30 days, these will cumulatively count as dissatisfied customers for that seller. We then calculate what percentage dissatisfied customers represent of a seller's total customers.

Sellers with a high percentage of buyer dissatisfaction will receive reduced visibility in Best Match search. Also, because excessive shipping and handling continues to be one of the biggest pain points for buyers, sellers with the worst DSRs for shipping and handling charges will see a decrease in their listings exposure, as well.

For more details, please read the Seller Standards information page and FAQ.

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