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News 2008
- November 18, 2008
- DSRs: Making Them Work for You
- Tips for nonprofits dealing with eBay's 5-star rating system, Part I of II
By Brad and Debra Schepp
Based on an article originally published in Auctiva’s Education Center
. - The changes eBay recently introduced to its feedback system could first appear daunting for sellers who use the eBay Giving Works program to generate revenue for their nonprofit organizations. eBay Giving Works has provided a unique opportunity for members of eBay’s seller community to support their favorite cause, and those sellers should make it a priority to understand how the changes could affect this fundraising channel. Nonprofit eBay sellers will have to carefully safeguard their Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs), because letting those slip can result in steeper listing fees that will directly reduce the amount of money they can earn for their favorite charities.
- Let's look at this year's biggest changes to that feedback system. The first—the fact that sellers may no longer leave their buyers negative or neutral feedback—may not be particularly challenging for eBay Giving Works participants. The other big change to the system—the use of (DSRs) data to influence search results—can significantly alter the status of any eBay seller, including one who participates with eBay Giving Works.
- As you know, after a transaction buyers may anonymously rate sellers on four different criteria: How accurately the seller described the item, communication, shipping speed, and shipping and handling charges. The rating system goes from one to five stars. As a seller, your goal is to get as close to a perfect five as possible, on each of these criteria. And if you aspire to be a PowerSeller, the bar's higher than ever. Sellers have long focused on the importance of high feedback ratings, but now there are new incentives to keep ratings as high as possible. eBay is not only collecting and showing this data, it's also using it to determine where a seller's items appear in a buyer's search results.
- The higher your rating, the higher your product placement will be in Best Match search results. Since Best Match is the new default sort setting, this is very important!
- The first criterion—how accurately the seller described the item—could present a special challenge to sellers who are accepting donations for resale on eBay. Many times these in-kind donations come to a seller with little or no background information. “Because these items have been donated to the nonprofit,” explains Robert Musser, President, Auction Inn Corporation, “we don’t have the opportunity to speak with the donor before the sale.” Auction Inn is a company that helps raise money for nonprofit organizations as a Direct Seller, specifically, The Boys & Girls Club of Lancaster County. They also operate a job training program to help young people gain experience and become more marketable employees. Robert explained that the challenge becomes even more significant when the item has to “work”. “We have to go further in testing the item,” he told us. “We maintain a list of equipment here beyond the standard outlet plugs, such as batteries, an analog telephone line, a computer monitor, VCR, DVD player, and a toolbox.”
- To further protect yourself when selling in-kind donations, you’ll also want to use disclaimers clearly stating what you do and do not know about the functionality of an item. “We have a standard list of disclaimers that work hand-in-hand with our condition grading,” said Robert. “We are very specific about what we have tested and the results of the testing.” Robert further explains that his company is sure to “be clear that we cannot warrant the item’s functionality beyond that.” For example, in selling a vintage camera, his group can note the operation of the shutter and film advance, but not the quality of the pictures taken with the camera. That specificity helps to protect his business in the event a customer is not satisfied with the purchase.
- Now that we’ve laid out how the new Detailed Seller Ratings work, our next installation of “DSRs: Making Them Work for You” will tell you how to help your buyers understand the way their feedback will impact your business.
- Brad and Debra Schepp write about eBay Giving Works in a number of their books, including eBay PowerSeller Secrets: Insider Tips from eBay’s Most Successful Sellers and eBay Million Dollar Ideas: Innovative Ways to Make Your eBay Sales Soar, both from McGraw-Hill. They are also regular contributors to Auctiva’s Education Center . You can find more information about their work at www.bradanddeb.com .