More Thoughts about eBays New Feedback System

In the long run, it seems like the new change in feedback is making eBay work a lot more like Amazon.com. It is similar in that the feedback does not count toward your score after 1 year, and that you can not give bidders negative feedback.

What everyone is afraid of is that this is going to make it so that you can not retaliate against bad bidders. But at Amazon it is normal for great sellers to have about 97% - 99% positive feedback rating. Everyone comes across a bad bidder, it is a universal experience.

The feedback changes won't just affect some sellers, they will affect all sellers. The only way these random negative feedbacks will negatively affect you is if your only way of keeping 100% positive feedback is to hold feedback hostage (giving negative tit for tat).

However, if you have good selling practices, and work hard with your customer service, you should not experience any problems. A great seller might get some bad feedback, but a bad seller will get a lot of bad feedback, and will be forced out of the competition!

This is actually a good thing, as sellers that try to please their customers will shine (even with a lower than 100% feedback rating).

Remember, now all of the honest sellers will be getting unwarranted and impossible to avoid negative feedback, so even though you might get a negative feedback you will not be able to respond to, you will still be on a level playing field!

Good luck, focus on customer service, and you will be fine.

Changes to eBays Feedback: Buyers Will Only be Able to Receive Feedback

eBay's change to feedback will undoubtedly lead to a decrease in the number of sellers with 100% positive feedback. Now that buyers are only able to receive positive feedback, there is no way for a seller to hold their feedback hostage.

This means that now, if a buyer gives a seller negative feedback the seller can not give the buyer negative feedback in retaliation. I know of many power sellers who rely on this system to keep their feedback at 100%. Giving feedback to get a mutual feedback withdrawal is no longer an option.

Now if you want to guard your feedback, you might want to sign up for Square Trade. However, this is a service you will have to pay for, increasing your cost to operate even more.

Changes to eBay's Feedback System

Things are really changing over at eBay! Today they announced a new way to reward sellers with positive feedback.

eBay Writes:

Search visibility will be tied to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is reflected in a combination of DSRs, Feedback, and fewer complaints filed of an item being "significantly not as described" (SNAD) or "item not received" (INR). In March 2008, Best Match will become the default sort in search to give more buyers the results they want and will:

• Increase exposure for sellers with DSRs 4.6 and above and at least 95% customer satisfaction in the last 30 days.
• Decrease exposure for sellers with low customer satisfaction or Shipping & Handling DSRs.

Now that feedback is playing a role in getting your items to show up in searches, it will be even more important to please your customers. If you don't want to get left in the dust with this feedback change, you might have to alter your selling practices. If you are getting complaints about high shipping, you may have to lower it. If you ship only a couple times a week, and people notice, you may have to step it up a notch.

Customer service is key in this game, and in order to become a PowerSeller on eBay, you are going to have to bend over backwards to make sure you stay at the top of the searches.

The Importance of Good Feedback

When buying and selling on a community like Ebay Good Feedback is crucial! If the first thing you do on Ebay is start selling, you will make far less money until you get your feedback rating up. This is because Ebay is synonymous with scams. There is no way to prove that the Apple Ipod you are selling is real, or you just used stock photos, other than to see how satisfied other people have been with your transactions. Good feedback creates trust in the community, and the higher your feedback, the better your auctions will sell.

The place where the lack of feedback is not such a big problem is when you are selling low cost items, or when you are bidding on other peoples auctions. Few sellers will turn away bids on their auctions because they want a bidding war, and you can't have a bidding war with only one bidder.

So, the best way to get good feedback is to start buying on Ebay. Buying on Ebay will also help you familiarize yourself with how auctions work, and how other sellers act. If you do buy to build up your feedback, try to buy from Power Sellers, or people with a lot of feedback ratings. Then you can not only get good feedback, but you can also learn to see what they do as far as customer service goes.

When buying, make sure to be very prompt with your payment, as this is the goal and the only real thing sellers care about (besides customer complaints). And the faster you are, the better your feedback should be.

Also, do not hesitate to ask for feedback in your emails. As a seller I do not give good feedback until I receive it, so if you are pleased with your item, give the seller feedback, and then ask for some in return.

Another way to get good feedback, and make a little money at the same time is to sell low cost items. Items where there is little chance or reason you would try to scam someone. Though you will not sell as many items at first, and your final bids might not bring you as much money as you would like, this is still a good way to start getting feedback.

I would not consider selling anything that was worth more than $24.99 until I had a good 10 or 15 positive feedbacks. And make sure they are good ones, not mediocre saying things like "item arrived, and is nice," but something like "A++ Ebay Superhero, Best Seller Ever! I want to buy more!" That might be too many characters, but you get the idea.

After you get about 100 positive feedback people tend to stop reading them before they bid, and you will notice an increase in percentage of sales as well as an increase in the final bid.

Remember that when you are selling, not just while you are starting out but through the duration of your Ebay career, you should strive to be as accommodating as possible. The customer is always right, and if you want your feedback to stay positive you should try to do as much as you can for them. Quickly respond to questions, ship with care, refund when necessary.

If you buy something from me, I will give you great feedback! Check out the top right of the sidebar, for what I am selling now!