So you’re a Top Rated eBay seller. You’ve ticked all the boxes, you provide great customer service and you’ve got your pricing perfected. But then you find out you have to pay a surcharge. Wait, what?
We have been getting feedback that eBay is including a surcharge on top of Final Value fees for sales when after-sales feedback has been poor, such as “Very High” item not as described ratings, even for Top Rated Sellers! The penalty fees apply to all items in the same category. As of September last year, if you have very high occurrences of poor buyer experiences, you will be notified via email and may be subject to extended estimated delivery times and additional fees.
As eBay announced in its 2018 Spring Seller Update, it will provide retailers with additional visibility into the status of buyers’ after-sale requests. This will help you identify any listings that aren’t meeting buyer expectations.
eBay will provide competitive insights with service metrics and peer benchmarks that will help you assess your performance. You can find the insights in a new section in Seller Hub called Service Metrics.
The metrics will show you:
- How often you receive return requests for “items not as described.”
- How often you receive buyer requests for “items not received.”
- Peer benchmarks—comparisons to sellers of similar items.
- Insights into why buyers are making after-sale requests, and tips to reduce requests.
Keeping these metrics in check means that you will reduce after-sale buyer requests (which can be time-consuming, costly to service, and often result in refunded sales) as well as penalties from the marketplace.
We strongly advise you to add these elements to your health checks so that you don’t receive a surcharge from eBay. Make sure that you are meeting eBay’s minimum seller requirements and checking your seller dashboard regularly.
For more on Best Practice, check out our eBook 7 Best Practices for Selling on Marketplaces and as always, contact us if you have any questions about service metrics or eBay penalties.
