eBay confirmed it’s making another change to Feedback, this time by requesting buyers rate the product for which they are leaving the seller feedback. As we noted on the EcommerceBytes Blog this morning, however, there are reports that buyers who’ve been exposed to the new feature this month (presumably as part of testing) found they were unable to leave seller feedback unless they rated the product they had purchased.
Three buyers sought help in eBay discussion board threads because the product rating was mandatory, with one saying if that continued to be the case, they would stop leaving feedback for sellers altogether.
eBay has been making changes to feedback for the past 6 months as it copies features found on Amazon:
- In November, eBay added the ability for buyers to upload photographs with their feedback. “Richer text and images in feedback may add credibility and drive sales by instilling additional confidence for interested buyers as they shop.”
- In January, eBay added a “Verified Purchase” designation on feedback, explaining, “We’ve added this text to remove any doubt that the person leaving the feedback was involved in the transaction. Unlike eBay, other sites allow anyone to leave feedback or ratings, not just those involved in a transaction.”
- During the holiday shopping season, eBay updated the default sort “to highlight the most relevant feedback for your potential buyers” (sellers said the change made it impossible to find recent feedback and said it made it appear they had not left any feedback for buyers). eBay explained, “With these updates, your potential buyers will see your most engaged buyers’ feedback and be more confident about their purchasing decisions.”
Jessica Vayo, Product Manager for the eBay Feedback Team, confirmed the change during Tuesday’s episode of the eBay for Business podcast but made no mention that buyers would be forced to rate the seller’s product when leaving them feedback. “Currently we are testing the ability to leave a product review inside of the normal seller feedback intake form,” she said. “So that means that for items eligible for product review, buyers will be able to give the item a star rating for the first time and item feedback along with the existing seller feedback already.”
In explaining what made product reviews different than feedback, Vayo said, “On eBay, some items that are sold by multiple sellers have a product review page on eBay which collects reviews for that item across all sellers who sell it. These are items like an iPhone or a Dyson vacuum. They’re often things that are mass manufactured or have a barcode. And in product reviews buyers also have the ability to leave a star rating for the item as well. So that is why we are bringing it into our feedback form.”
Vayo said one of the reasons behind eBay’s focus on “product reviews” is because they help eBay listings get exposure on search engines:
“We’ve had past research show that item specific feedback is something potential buyers are really looking for to make a purchase decision. And we just haven’t really highlighted that as much on eBay.
“What’s more, item reviews and item star ratings are super important to search engines like Google. So if you Google an item, the sites that show the item star rating and item review are the results that are prioritized in search results these days. You’ll see like those pop up absolutely at the top.”
The hosts of the podcast advised listeners to check the eBay Seller Announcement Board on Wednesday (April 24) for an announcement about the new feature.
Buyers and sellers might be more receptive to the feature if it isn’t mandatory to leave feedback. See what readers are saying and leave your own comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
MORE stupid ideas, hard enough to get feedback, gonna be worse. Is April ebay’s glitch and stupid programs month
I suppose this works for a commodity product. Not so much for unique collectibles, where rating the product will just lead to confusion.
Now if eBay really wanted to do something magical, they’d allow sellers to rate buyers who cancel orders, don’t pay, etc.