This week in eBay news, the company downgrades neutral feedback ratings to negatives, Gallery Plus is opened to more sellers, a refer-a-friend program debuts, a free application for the iPhone is introduced and a shopping management tool debuts.
EBay Auction Site News
eBay Senior Vice President of Auctions Philipp Justus this week outlined new enforcement measures for the company's Seller Non-Performance policy, which essentially means neutral feedback ratings will be considered as "negatives."
In a post entitled, "Understanding eBay's Seller Non-Performance Policy Enforcement," Justus explains the reasoning behind the move. "Through our quantitative research as well as many conversations with community members, we have found that neutral feedback is most often an expression of deep buyer dissatisfaction. Therefore, leaving it out of the calculation would mask a significant part of the issue. Ultimately, only positive feedback is an indication of satisfied customers."
According to Justus, only 1 percent of sellers cause 35 percent of bad buying experiences, damaging the reputation of the entire eBay community. To address this problem, eBay is going to implement a stricter method for enforcing the Seller Non-Performance policy that weighs a seller's buyer dissatisfaction rate.
There are currently two types of input from buyers used to measure a seller's buyer dissatisfaction rate: the percentage of negative and neutral feedback they've received and the percentage of Item Not Received complaints filed against them. Sellers who have buyer dissatisfaction rates greater than 5 percent within a 90-day window are now subject to temporary 14-day restrictions in the form of selling sanctions or reduced listing volume, according to the post by Justus.
Sellers with dissatisfaction rates that are 10 percent or greater are now subject to indefinite restrictions until they improve their buyer dissatisfaction rates to less than 5 percent, he writes, and in both cases, sellers are given instructions on how to resolve disputes and take actions to regain privileges.
In other news, this week eBay opened up Gallery Plus listing to sellers who host their own pictures. Gallery Plus lets you view larger images on "mouse-over" in search results, and was previously only available for images hosted with eBay. Now sellers can simply provide the URL to their hosted picture during the listing process to use the Gallery Plus feature.
The auction giant also announced a "Refer-A-Friend" program in which they will give members $5 for every friend they refer that sells on eBay, as long as the seller has not previously listed an item on the auction site. You can receive the $5 fee for up to a maximum of 10 referrals, and as an added bonus, your referred friends will get the listing and Gallery fees for their first three listings credited to their Seller Accounts. To qualify for the Refer a Friend program, you need to be a registered eBay.com user, be a registered seller yourself and also have a Feedback score of at least 10.
Following the recent Mattel toys recall issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, eBay is asking sellers to check product serial numbers and not to list any items that are part of this recall. Sellers are asked to immediately end any of their listings in which the item for sale is on the recall list. The recall includes some very popular toy items made by Mattel, such as Batman, Barbie and Tanner, Doggie Day Care and Polly Pocket products. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Web site offers complete lists of serial numbers of Mattel toys that are being recalled. Many of these toys contain magnets that are a choking hazard, while others contain lead levels that exceed federal standards.
Seller Tools and Services Roundup
SilkSystem Solutions, a member of the eBay Developers Program, launched a new eBay application for the popular iPhone. The application offers an eBay shopping assistant that lets iPhone users find items, bid, view their eBay Watch List and also check auction status right from their iPhone. The iPhoneMyeBay.com is a free program that uses the interface of the iPhone. To use it, simply browse to www.iphonemyebay.com on your iPhone.
A new mash-up on the loose this week is Looqy for eBay and Amazon. You can use Looqy to search eBay listings then browse results on a single page. Shoppers can even add their own notes to individual listings for later reference, and compare results with those from other stores. Looqy also lets you place calls to the seller.
Lastly, Infopia enhanced its merchant support team with the launch of a new e-commerce Success Center, powered by salesforce.com. The expanded support enables Infopia merchants to collaborate with industry experts as well as receive consultation on new marketplaces, shopping comparison feeds and technical issues as well as tips for maximizing online selling capabilities.
Learn the Lingo: What is an eBay Compatible Application?
The ECommerce Guide Glossary offers online sellers an easy way to search for definitions for hundreds e-commerce terms and acronyms, including many that are specific to eBay and PayPal. This week we take a look at what eBay Compatible Application means.
For sellers using eBay auctions and stores as their listing venues, it is not uncommon to discover a third-party application that can offer you features not found in eBay's own selling and listing interface. Often, these applications can allow you to access eBay services through devices and Web sites that are not developed by eBay itself.
When choosing a third-party eBay application or hosted service, you can verify that the application works with the eBay platform by checking for eBay certified logos. The eBay Compatible Application logo is used for third-party applications that were developed by a member of the eBay Developers Program. These applications have passed eBay's Compatible Application Check process and will work directly with the eBay Platform. Other eBay terms you may encounter while reading about third-party applications is the Certified eBay Solutions Provider, in which developers are required to meet an even higher standard of compatibility to be approved.
Selling & Shopping Trends
Bazaarblog and Vizu Research published a study that indicates that both UK and US shoppers have more trust and respect for sites that offer product reviews. According to the study results, an overwhelming eight out of 10 shoppers respect brands more when user-generated reviews are available on the Web site. Forty-four percent of US shoppers from this study indicated that ratings and reviews were the most useful e-commerce site features, followed by product comparisons.
Only on eBay...
This week attention is on one of the most recognized gowns in the world — one of Princess Diana's dresses, designed by Catherine Walker. This dress and matching stole was originally worn to the Cannes film festival in 1987 and also to the opening of Miss Saigon in 1989.
For the ladies looking for a good fit, the approximate measurements are: bust, 36; waist, 29; center back length from top of dress to hem, 50 inches. WE TV is auctioning off the famous Princess Diana dress in support of America's Promise Alliance, a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and youth. All proceeds from the auction sale will go the charity. The starting bid is $125,000.
Vangie Beal is a seasoned eBay seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and managing editor of Webopedia.
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