eBay is launching a new defect report in July, it told sellers in an email this week. And for the first time, sellers will be able to view which defects eBay has removed.
A year ago eBay first introduced the concept of defect rates in its Spring Seller Update. “Starting with the August 20 monthly seller evaluation, a new measure, the transaction defect rate (“defect rate”), will replace the current four individual detailed seller rating requirements in evaluating seller performance,” it told sellers in March of 2014.
The performance measurement is crucial to sellers as it dictates the exposure eBay provides their listings and impacts their revenue. To meet eBay’s minimum standard, sellers can have up to a maximum 5% of transactions with one or more transaction defects over the most recent evaluation period. A maximum 2% will allow a seller to qualify as an eBay Top Rated Seller.
“Defects” include detailed seller rating of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described; detailed seller rating of 1 for shipping time; negative or neutral feedback; a return initiated for a reason that indicates the item was not as described; an eBay Money Back Guarantee (previously known as eBay Buyer Protection) or PayPal Purchase Protection case opened for an item not received or an item not as described; or a seller-cancelled transactions.
In Tuesday’s email, eBay explained sellers would soon be able to review and download enhanced transaction defect reports from the seller dashboard.
Sellers will be able to do the following:
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- Access data daily that’s synced with your seller dashboard;
- View which defects have been removed by eBay – through automated protections and via transactions where you’ve asked eBay to step in and help;
- Get a clearer picture of areas that may need your attention, by sorting transaction defects by program (US or other region), evaluation period, and defect type;
- Download reports every month and save them to your seller dashboard – making it easy to maintain a handy record of past transaction periods.
An eBay seller who received the notification on Tuesday told EcommerceBytes, “eBay has been sending emails to sellers claiming they have protected their accounts, and sellers have been calling eBay out over inaccurate/false/misleading information those emails provide. Now, it looks like eBay is going to add some transparency to the defect process by allowing sellers to view defects eBay has claimed they removed.”
While it appears to be positive news, sellers may be wondering why it took eBay a year to provide them with insight into the way it rates their performance, which impacts their sales on the site.
