EBay’s recent “Summer 2009” announcement will have an impact on how sellers do business on the online marketplace. These changes will take affect on eBay between September 22 and October 1, 2009.

Rewarding Sellers: Changes to eBay’s Focus on DSR

EBay has said it plans to make changes that will put a bigger emphasis on rewarding sellers who deliver a good buyer experience.  A large part of the new policy changes center around eBay’s Detailed Seller ratings (DSR) ratings.

EBay warned sellers that DSR would evolve over time, so it is not surprising to see that eBay has plans to tighten its DSR ropes and further use the measurement as a way to reward good sellers and weed out the undesirable sellers from listing on the site.

The DSR the rating system is based on a one to five-star scale with five stars being the highest rating and one star being the lowest. Currently, buyers are rewarded —or suspended—based on whether they can keep a set 4.3 minimum average in the four DSR categories.

Going forward the company will shift away from average DSRs to focus on the number of low DSRs (1s and 2s) that a seller receives.  This, according to eBay, will give buyers a more accurate measure of customer satisfaction.  In October there will be a new minimum standard for eBay sellers based on the number of low DSRs received. The new DSR standard will apply only on domestic transactions—i.e., U.S. buyers.

EBay’s new DRS policy states the following:

“In October, all eBay sellers will need to have 1s or 2s for item as described on no more than of 3.00 percent of transactions, and on no more than 4.00 percent for communication, 4.00 percent for shipping time, and 4.00 percent for shipping and handling charges.”

New PowerSeller Rewards and Initiatives

EBay also announced plans to introduce a new top-rated seller status to the existing PowerSeller program in October.  The new program works in eBay's new DSR strategy, and will reward sellers who have only a few 1 and 2 DSR scores. Top-seller status will offer the highest PowerSeller final value fee—a discount of 20 percent.  

EBay plans to continue the current PowerSeller fee structure (based on 30-day DSR averages) through April 2010 when they move to the new lower DSR format.

In addition to the final value fee discount, top-rated sellers can also expect to gain increased visibility in search results for Fixed Price listings, and these sellers will also have a top-rated seller badge prominently displayed on item pages.

The badge, which is also new, is slated to be tested in search results pages this summer.  EBay plans to discontinue the popular and well-known PowerSeller icons on buyer and item pages.

Small Sellers can be Top-Rated TooOne of the most interesting bits about the news is that any seller on eBay can achieve a top-rated seller status. According to eBay, all levels of PowerSellers can qualify as top-rated sellers if they have at least 100 transactions and $3,000 sales in the past year, and low (1s and 2s) DSRs on no more than 0.50 percent of all U.S. transactions. The low DSRs must also be in all four DSR categories.

Lower-volume sellers, described by eBay as those with fewer than 400 annual transactions, can also obtain top-rated seller status. Smaller sellers will be allowed two instances of low scores on each of the four DSRs before the 0.50 percent requirement is applied.

EBay Help Opportunities for Sellers

EBay has set-up a discussion board for sellers to ask questions about these new changes.  To further assist sellers, eBay has also published an easy-to-digest chart of its proposed requirements and rewards changes. The chart lays  out which changes will take effect in October of this year and which we can expect to see in April 2010.

Lastly, eBay will also offer two Webinars this week, to help sellers with the new seller policies and to gain a better understanding of how the new DSR standard will work.

Vangie Beal is a veteran online seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com. You can tweet with her online @AuroraGG.