eBay have announced a workshop on “” hosted by Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor. It will be held on the US Workshop boards on Tuesday 26th February 9pm – 10pm. As sellers will be advantaged and disadvantaged based on their DSR ratings they are becoming increasingly important and improving your ratings has to be the number one aim for most sellers.
Last Wednesday Scot held a seminar aimed at “Understanding eBay’s Changes” and much of it focused on improving your P&P DSR (which is generally the lowest scoring for most sellers). The content of Scot’s last seminar was invaluable and I would encourage all sellers to set aside an hour to attend this online workshop, or to after the event.
26 Responses
In the storm of “I can’t leave my buyers a negative”, I think the growing importance of DSRs has been entirely misunderstood and underestimated. It could potentially be a much bigger issue and risk for sellers.
Scot’s thoughts and material should surely be ‘required reading’?
Put it this way Dan, I sure as hell don’t want “This seller has low ratings for despatch time” emblazoned across the top of my auction in bright red 🙁
Anyone that isn’t paying attention to their DSRs and doing their best to improve them needs to start doing so now!
We had a call from “seller on ramp” yesterday, and they told us that having a DSR lower than 4.6 will affect your placing in the search listing. I thought that the number was lower, I don’t know where I got it from, but I thought the “penalising” score had to be lower than 3.9 or 4.3!!!! Well she told us that a score of 4.6 or lower will get penalised in search placings.
@Jade, there was a thread yesterday on the UK PS forum where it was mentioned (by a “pink”) that the current level of 3.9 for affecting search placements would be looked at and probably raised in the near future.
Well they’ve already decided then, because the ebay bod we spoke to yesterday said categorically that it WAS 4.6
I’ve heard nothing substantive other than that it’s likely the 3.9 disadvantage in search is likely to be edged up slightly in the furture. It’s possible the 4.6 has been muddled up with the level for achieving seller discounts.
The one thing that’s certain is sellers need to aim high for both discounts and search so I’ll be reading the workshop with interest
Paranoia is breaking out.
DSRs hold no fear for us,
if we dont reach the required level thats the fault of ebays criteria , not our customer service or business acumen
plus I can do bugger all to improve mine other than ship free ,sell free, and offer cash back,
we are in the lap of the gods and subject to the whim of buyers
😆
Struth, for once i actually agree with North. 🙂
Having read the “Top Tips for Improving Your Shipping Detailed Seller Ratings Scores” workshop on ebay.com yesterday. https://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000509099&start=0
It’s clear that many sellers are doing everything possible yet still have low ratings, I didn’t see any miracle cures forthcoming from the pinks apart from reducing P&P below cost or free.
I don’t actually care if it’s 4.6 because we exceed that in every DSR rating, and it could be that she got mixed up with the level for power seller discounts, or it could be that she slipped up and divulged something that has been discussed or agreed already. It’s the 3rd time we have spoken to her and she is very knowledgeable and very helpful. Like I say I couldn’t give a rats backside, because as north says we already do everything we can to ensure good customer service and have ratings which reflect that.
Word of caution Jade, currently on your historical DSRs you exceed 4.6 on every rating… but can you be sure you exceed them over the last 30 days as that’s what really counts 😯
Hope you do, almost as much as I hope I do! 😛
Richard re your miracle cures from Pinks… I tend to agree that them that make the rules aren’t always as well versed as to how they pan out in reality as sellers. However in this case it’s not a Pink but Scot who’s supplying the content. I’ve already picked up one great tip from him from his last seminar – “Communicate!! Suggest in communications that you’re aiming for five stars and ask for it! eg in despatch emails”
You know that had never occured to me – if you don’t ask you don’t get. Asking might still not get you five stars all the time, but it might get you five stars some of the time which makes it worth a punt 🙂
whats next then Prostitution?
I am not pleading for anything
I am doing this for money not to make friends,
of course you need to do the right and sensible thing though its fast becoming ridiculous
and as for communicate
I have yet to come across a buyer who takes one scrap of notice of any communication unless there has been a problem ,
then not a sylable goes unnoticed and your every word is twisted and used against you
and by asking for 5 stars your letting the enemy know your weak spot 😆
if you don’t ask you don’t get.
True, but it could also annoy the crap out of some too, if an item’s been delayed through no fault of mine. Maybe I’m a bit of fashioned or maybe it doesn’t sound right in this country, dunno. I’m not that convinced most buyers actually read that much anyway concerning an eBay purchase. whether is be on a listing, email or dispatch note.
At the end of the day we’re all at the mercy of whatever carrier we use no matter how quick you send an item.
You’re spot on that most of those making the rules haven’t got a clue about the real world. Some of the terminology used by eBay could be better. Time after time I have in my feedback praise for how quick an items arrives, in itself that’s good news. But, I’ve never seen anyone mention the word “despatch time” always delivery time. Apart from physically sending everything out next working day at the latest the rest is out of my control. The DSR rating is for “Dispatch time” not as most buyers would seem to be marking it for as delivery time.
Some days I get fed up of fighting this monster called eBay, life use to be so easy. 😆
Some days I get fed up of fighting this monster called eBay, life use to be so easy. 😆
flipping heck, Richard, you must have lived a very sheltered life then… my life was a lot harder pre-eBay!
Response in the Workshop by one of the Pinks as follows
“You ask an interesting question about buyers who leave a “4†to indicate reasonable shipping. The DSR scores are helpful as a relative measure of how a seller is doing compared to other sellers in their category, and having some spread in the scores is helpful. Today 50% of sellers are averaging a 4.6 on their shipping cost or greater. Sellers with a 4.0 DSR or lower on their shipping cost represent the bottom 1% of sellers. Our original feedback system became less helpful because there was very little spread in the ratings… most sellers received between a 98% positive and 100% positive.”
My shipping DSR is 4.8, therefore if it dips it should still be high in relative terms, so I am not too concerned.
Re the comment re original feedback system, most Ebay sellers are very good, there has always been 1% that are not. The use of DSRs to try and weed these out seems almost Ratneresque in that the 50%+ of good sellers on 4 to 4.6 are now feeling threatened, disenchanted and looking for alternative venues. Surely there must have been an easier way to sort out the 1% of bad sellers.
Another response in the Workshop worthy of comment
“On average, listings that sell with Free Shipping earn a 4.8 shipping cost DSR score, which is well above average. We’re looking into why that isn’t even higher. There may be legitimate reasons for a buyer to give a poor score for a free shipping listing (item arrives postage due, etc.). That said, we’ll also be doing more in the Feedback flow to make it easy for buyers remind themselves about the amount of shipping they paid.â€
The 4.8 is probably derived from most buyers giving a 5, but a small minority giving a 4, resulting in the 4.8 average. It’s the assumption that a 4 = a poor score, the buyer would assume that giving 4 out of 5 stars for a service was good, definetly not poor.
What is frustrating about the differences between the 4=good guidance for buyers, and 4.5=bad guidance for sellers, is that ALL the discussion about this (and therefore the realisation that there is a discrepancy) that I have seen is by sellers.
Are there similar forums to this aimed squarely at buyers, that are also pointing out that by leaving a “good” 4 they may be treating a favourite seller harshly ?
Buyers dont read forums
Josordoni, My bad wording. 🙂
Should have read. Some days I get fed up of fighting this monster, eBay life use to be so easy.
😈 still how on earth would such as tamebay, auctionbytes scott wingo et al survive if it were easy and ebay did as they were told
Should have read. Some days I get fed up of fighting this monster, eBay life use to be so easy.
Oh now that makes more sense…. 😛
but I don’t know…. if I didn’t read the forums I would be none the wiser and probably more the happier…. 😳
and no Dave, that’s the point, I don’t think buyers do read any forums… so it is just the ones in the know preaching to the converted isn’t it?
aha theres a gem of wisdom
“but I don’t know…. if I didn’t read the forums I would be none the wiser and probably more the happier…. ”
I know at least 3 or 4 full time sellers on ebay that cruise happily along, there not stressed out or worried about DSRs negatives postage etc or any of the other subjects
they surcharge paypal ,accept cash, are powersellers though they could be prime ministers and they would not notice,
a pink is a snooker ball to them