A tool that allowed online sellers to display feedback generated on eBay, Amazon, Etsy in one place is shutting down this weekend. We wrote about eRated.co’s widget two years ago, and in January it received a round of funding ($1.7 million) to “accelerate delivery of its online profiling solution for online marketplace users, establishing a unified, holistic user profile comprised of validated web data from hundreds of siloed repositories.”
eRated was unique in that it allowed an eBay seller to display feedback and ratings from other marketplaces inside their eBay listings.
eRated Cofounder Dan Benjamin told EcommerceBytes this week that the company has been working closely with a couple of very large marketplaces on building a unique Business Intelligence solution that will give them insights on their new and existing sellers across all marketplaces they are working in. “With our BI solution we are essentially automating and improving most work done today by the account manager and lead acquisition teams in those marketplaces.”
He said the new direction had proven very fruitful and said, “it made no economic sense to keep the “previous and original” direction eRated had.”
An eRated customer forwarded a letter they received informing them of the shutdown:
Dear Customers,
Thank you for your business to date and for being loyal fans of the product.
We regret to inform you that eRated will no longer be offering the reputation widget and app solution. We have changed the company’s direction and in order to pursue the next part of our business more successfully we must cease supporting the current solution.
By the end of the week, we will shut down the eRated API and your eRated widget will stop showing.
We are sorry for any inconvenience this might put upon you and welcome you to send us an email with any questions you might have to: Support@erated.co
Thank you again for your business and hopefully we will offer this solution again sometime in the future.
Benjamin said there were no alternatives that do exactly what eRated does, though he said sellers might be interested in Yotpo’s solution for collecting reviews and showcasing them on sites like WordPress, BigCommerce, and Shopify.
He said all of the information that eRated had aggregated came from users’ marketplaces profiles, “so no fear for data loss.”
He also thanked customers for using eRated. “It’s been a great experience for us and a fantastic jumpstart to eRated’s BI solution for marketplaces. Hopefully we did good by all of you and we wish you the best of luck.”
