eBay enable new DSR reporting capability

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eBay have released new API (Application Programming Interface) calls for feedback DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings). The new API calls are:

* createDSRSummaryByCategory: Creates a seller’s DSR summary report for sold items based on the categories they were listed in and a date range.

* createDSRSummaryByPeriod: Creates a seller’s DSR summary report for sold items based on a date range.

* createDSRSummaryByShippingDetail: Creates a seller’s DSR summary report for sold items based on shipping details for the items and a date range.

* createDSRSummaryByTransaction: Creates a seller’s DSR summary report for sold items specified with transaction information.

* getDSRSummary: Retrieves a DSR report which had previously been created for specific criteria, such as a list of transactions, period of time, listing category, or shipping details.

This probably doesn’t mean much to most people, and personally I haven’t a clue how one would make use of them. However there are developers out there that already have tools for monitoring DSRs such as Auctiontrax DSR Calculator and ChannelAdvisor’s DSRWatch. These tools were limited to the API functions eBay previously provided and I’m betting that the developers are already furiously coding new applications.

It also gives an indication of the reports that will become available when eBay launch the promised enhancements to the Seller Dashboard. The same summary reports should shortly become available on eBay itself.

67 Responses

  1. Very nice to know. But why does eBay create so many different APIs instead of having just one? Would it have been so difficult to make a trading API call to do these same things?

  2. “and I’m betting that the developers are already furiously coding new applications”

    I doubt it, because of the small print, unless the 10 requests/day is a typo? :

    eBay Feedback API requests to create DSR summary reports are limited to 10 requests per user per day.

  3. Taking a snapshot every 4 hours of each summary report offered would probably provide sufficient data for a seller. Also, by splitting up the different reports into different calls, we can create more granular reports based on what appears to be “Category” and “Shipping Detail” specifics (date range appears to be applicable to most of these calls).

  4. re #3 Yes Neil, but that would be no different than what a seller will see in the NEW seller dashboard – I think ?

    Also I notice the returns take upto 1 hour to be provided, and you will need an API user ID for each seller ID used

  5. I thought I’d try my hand at this but the documentation seems to be missing some important information. It says how to make a call and claims it is similar to the shopping API but I’m getting nothing in return.

  6. Ten requests per user per day 😯

    I hope they make it so an single web app can do the requests per user, but what a bummer if a competitor does some investigation on your account just before you decide to check your own DSRs 😀

  7. @ #5 & #7

    So, as I guessed it needs a token not an App ID (as in Shopping API) ?

    If that is the case and it is token specific, then this new API can really only be built into an app where other seller specific ebay functions exist on a non ebay interface, otherwise to build an app just for this is only replicating what a seller sees in the NEW dashboard – yes ?

  8. @ # 8

    Unless eBay decides to be nice to its developers and give everyone a crippled dashboard or take forever to roll it out I can’t imagine an app using only the FeedbackAPI being very useful. I can think of a few applications it would be useful for but that 10 reports per user per day would make it difficult.

    What I can’t figure out though is that I believe we still need to pass the App ID otherwise they have nothing to link the user token to. The documentation doesn’t mention the App ID at all though. When I try sending it like in the Trading API or Shopping API I only get failures. It doesn’t mention how to get the user token either but I’m guessing it is the same one from the Trading API.

  9. @ # 9

    I did a little debugging. Seems to be a 404 error so I don’t think my inputs are the issue. Might just be a problem with the launch of the new API.

  10. @ # 10

    Bad documentation. It was fixed and now my test is working. I should have my first report in an hour. Too bad I can’t show it to anyone.

  11. I wonder why they are wasting their time? There won’t be anyone left to enjoy all these new improvements.LOL! They need to just close up the whole site, and try starting out all over again. They’ve trashed everything.

  12. Wow. So I was able to finally prove that one of my buyers in December did, in fact, leave me 2’s on my DSRs pushing my low volume sales almost off eBay. The glowing positive feedback left contradicted the DSRs left. All my other DSRs were 5’s and one 4. Probably the closest I’ve ever been to be kicked off eBay.

  13. #13 Interesting.

    ebay.uk was supposed to have an updated dashboard this week with more detailed information available, sadly though, its not ready to roll out, and won’t be ready until the 2nd week in march, probably,,

    then it will be broke etc etc

  14. hmmm if you can work out which buyer left you which rating, whats the point of it being anonymous in the first place?

  15. @ # 17

    My opinion is that DSRs need to remain anonymous. It isn’t so much because sellers will retaliate against their buyers but because eBay uses the current DSR distributions to determine who stays and who goes. I guarantee that removing anonymity of DSRs would result in them inflating out of control similar to the current feedback system. And with that eBay would have to raise the bar to an even more ridiculous level.

    I seriously doubt the person that left me a 2 back in December would have done it if he had the knowledge that I’d know he did it. That’s why he left me a glowing positive feedback instead of negative (which is easily traceable).

    With a little creativity and the new system, it no longer difficult at all for lower volume sellers to pinpoint individual ratings. But the anonymity should still be sufficient to prevent anyone with any serious volume (probably most people here) from finding individual ratings.

    P.S.
    I have everything almost ready. I just need to actually display the reports and I’ll be done. That should give everyone a sneak peak of what you’ll get in a few weeks from eBay. Strangely that 10 call limit per user per day doesn’t seem to be in effect.

  16. I think DSRs save a negative or two
    the mean and nasty can have a means of being vengeful, without being obvious

  17. #20 I think you are right Norf.

    My last feedback is a positive
    “everything as described unfortunately no bath panel fixing kit, (disappointed)”

    bet he kicked my DSR score,, One rule for some though, Positive Feedback with bad DSR should surely be classed as a false positive…

    i’ll find out next month. 😆

  18. no point at all sue, other than vitriol
    plus the odd low DSR hurts a lot less than a negative that stares back at you for 12 months

  19. #19 How come you can build this app in days and it takes ebay weeks to build it and then they delay implementation for weeks?
    Am I missing something? 🙂

  20. #24 eBay have to build the API and they have to make sure the site change won’t break anything. The API work is done – but personally I’d rather they made 100% sure they don’t break something.

    Change control is a really horrible game to play for large applications, and eBay is one of the most complex in the world as they can’t afford any downtime

  21. @ # 24

    Pretty much what #25 said. I can write thousands of lines of code in a day but I’m not held accountable to anyone. Bugs on eBay can cost them in the millions but I don’t have such risks. On eBay’s side you may have hundreds of people that write code but then every line has to be analysed, debated, and approved by one or more people. It draws out the process but ensures better quality.

  22. Hi there! Laurel Kline from the eBay Developers Program here. I’m glad you’re all finding the new API so quickly! Let me see if I can answer some of those questions for you.

    You’re absolutely right that we posted the wrong endpoint at first, the correct one is:
    https://svcs.ebay.com/FeedbackService
    We’ve corrected it on the site now.

    This is a secure service, requiring a seller’s user token (not App ID) to create and retrieve their DSR summary reports. The authentication prevents sellers from retrieving DSR data for their competitors. This is the same token used to authenticate Trading API calls.

    The calls are rate limited at 10 calls per seller per day. So if you’re a developer and you have 2 sellers as customers, you can make 10 calls per seller, or 20 calls per day.

    The limit is in place to minimize the possibility that people will use the calls to “slice and dice” DSR scores to identify who gave you a specific score. It is a violation of eBay policy to do this.

    Our big goal here is to preserve buyer privacy, and prevent buyers from being hassled for giving low scores. If we see call patterns where it looks like a slice and dice is happening, we will automatically block it.

    So I’m conveniently going to pretend that I didn’t see some of the comments on this thread. Just be respectful, and don’t hassle your buyers.

    And yes, the new dashboard is coming soon, and it will be powered by this API.

  23. Done.

    I’ll see how much information eBay provides when they launch their new dashboard before I make any substantial improvements like supporting specific shipping services and displaying valid category ids (you’ll have to go to eBay to find them for now).

    DSR Report

  24. @ # 27

    Our big goal here is to preserve buyer privacy, and prevent buyers from being hassled for giving low scores. If we see call patterns where it looks like a slice and dice is happening, we will automatically block it.

    Any chance the error message given will be descriptive enough so my sellers know that is why they were blocked? I don’t want to field trouble shooting questions all day from people blocked for that reason while not knowing myself if there is a problem with my service.

  25. Well the DSRs are already revealing lots of useful data….

    For the P&P DSR:
    When selling laptop docking stations I get 3.8% 3*, 21.8% 4* and 74.4% 5*
    When selling TFT Computer monitors I get 8.7% 3*, 4.3% 4* and 87.0% 5*

    Why oh why did eBay hid this information from me for a year or more? There’s a 13% difference in the rate of gaining five stars on that one product line! That’s something I can work on, but only because now I can see where the issues are!

  26. Whirly it’s pretty poor – last month 246 feedback, 130 left DSRs.

    Makes you wonder what the other 116 would have left – maybe they’re the happy ones that just can’t be bothered with ticky this, ticky that and just want to buy, receive and bugger off satisfied?

  27. #40 “maybe they’re the happy ones that just can’t be bothered” Thats my guess, I wonder what eBay will say?

  28. It’s no surprise to be honest – always known that the number leaving DSRs were running at about 60% on my account – the 12 months rolling DSRs are way below the 12 months total feedback received.

  29. Interesting – I am at 80%. I wonder why mine is so much higher. I get between 800 and 1000 feedbacks per month.

  30. #43 It may be slightly influenced by multiple purchase orders or lack of – I’m willing to bet not many buyers will fill out 2, 3, 4, 5 or more sets of DSRs for one purchase and there’s no way to bulk leave for a multiple item order. However I can’t attribute 40% to that as I don’t have that many multiple item sales so there’s still a lot that just don’t bother.

  31. #46 about a month after it is launched, after they discover it doesnt work, breaks at least six other functions on the site and they spend 3 weeks blaming it on the users ISP.

    Same as usual really…lol

  32. It looks to me like the createDSRSummaryByShippingDetail call may be broken. I’ve noticed that I’m not getting the expected results. “Free” shipping returns nothing for me even though almost all my items were shipped free. Neither “Domestic” nor “International” seem to be working either. eBay does accept the call as I’m sending it and I don’t see anything wrong on my side.

    Anyone have a free way for me to contact the development team? I really don’t want to pay $75 an hour to have them check on it. They tend to not monitor their own forums (or at least it looks that way).

  33. @ebuyerfb Checking on the error message for you. I think it’s just the basic “you’ve reached your call limit” message, so you’ll want to put something in your UI giving them a heads up that there’s a daily limit.

    Also checking to see if there’s a known issue with that call. If there isn’t, you can post your request in the forums for some free assistance. We do monitor the forums, but like to give your fellow developers a chance to step in first.

  34. @ # 49

    I think that error message should be fine. I do some check for invalid data but for the most part I just spit out what eBay tells me and stick a copy in my logs.

    Thanks for looking into the other call as well.

  35. @Eddie, sure, you can send me your feature request and I can take it to our people for prioritization. My email is laurel.developerrelations (at) eBay (dot) com.

  36. @ebuyerfb, can you check one thing for me? Do you use 3rd party checkout or a tool that uses 3rd party checkout?

    If the buyer checked out using 3rd party checkout and the tool did not post back the checkout data, then eBay won’t be able to show you your DSR info for those transactions. If you post back with CompleteSale, eBay will have it.

    Is that your case?

  37. @ # 56

    As a seller I just use eBay’s default checkout. I did rerun my reports and the Free vs Paid DSRs are working correctly.

    It is the destination DSRs that don’t seem to work. I tried creating reports where the destination country was “US” (All but two of my shipments were domestic to the US), destination type was domestic, or destination type was international. None of those three reports had a single DSR to report. I’ve seen some of my users use combinations like Free and International but get 1 or no DSRs for each category (I don’t know if that’s correct or not but I doubt it). I don’t know what they do for checkout.

  38. Hi folks,

    I’m the Product Manager for this feature. Love the blog, and excited to see this much interest early on!

    @ #57 and @ebuyerfb :
    We’ll take a look at the issue you’re seeing with the “shipping destination type” call.

    Going forward, I’d suggest posting questions / feature requests on the eBay Developer Trading API Forum. I’ll be checking it regularly and this would be the most effective way for you to get your ideas and questions in front of the team.

  39. @ # 54

    Yeah, you can’t use the words “visionary” and “project echo” without that happening. I have my own ideas but they are currently possible within the API. So I know it isn’t that.

  40. We have over a hundred ratings both internationally and to Canada as well as domestically and cannot get any results.

    We have thousands of ratings for Priority Mail and cannot get any results.

    The Buyer Destination and Shipping details reports are not working.

    03/02/09 Dom vs Inter Nov-Jan Buyer location No results Take action

    03/02/09 Canada Nov-Jan Buyer location No results Take action

    03/02/09 Int vs Dom Dec Buyer location No results Take action

    03/02/09 FCMI Nov-Jan Shipping No results Take action

    03/02/09 Dom PM Nov-Jan Shipping No results Take action

    03/02/09 Dom PM FRB Nov-Jan Shipping No results Take action

    03/02/09 Dom FCM Nov-Jan Shipping No results Take action

    We have thousands of transactions so there is plenty of data, but we get no results on Shipping & Buyer Location reports. There has to be a “bug”.

    We would also like to see RAW numbers of DSR’s on the eBay reports and see them broken out by 1’s, 2’s, 3’s. 4’s & 5’s individually instead of just a bundled percentage. This is supposed to be “Detailed Seller Ratings”, not homogenized averages.

    Also trending and tracking data over time such as charting so trends can bee seen without having to run many reports in succession to see trends and results would be very helpful. We would like to track results over time as changes are made. It would also help a lot to be able to export the data, not just print it.

    The reporting we have seen thus far is nowhere near the level of detail we were expecting. We knew we would not be able to see individual transaction data or connect ratings to a specific transaction or buyer. However, the few reports we could get data on has it all washed out and prepackaged in a manner that really is not telling us much of anything useful. Nothing we can take action on to improve. And that is the whole point, right?

    The level of details on the DSRReport.com web site is far better than the eBay Seller Dashboard is providing. What we are seeing there is that despite what eBay has repeatedly told us, 1’s & 2’s are NOT an concern for good sellers. We see that 4’s are 20-30 times more prevalent and having a far greater impact on DSR’s than the tiny number of 1’s & 2’s. This is exactly what I told Brian Burke three and a half years ago when this came to Voices with concepts like “Accurate” vs “Very Accurate”, “Quickly” vs “Very Quickly” and “Reasonable” vs. “Very Reasonable”. Nobody wanted to listen to dozens of us years ago in Voices and now the data has proved out that for good sellers 1’s & 2’s are not the issue, it is the 4’s that are hurting us exactly as we said they would.

    Thank you,

    Doctor-Deals

  41. So I finally saw my official eBay generated reports (not sure how long they’ve been available).

    I see what Doctor Deals is talking about. Percentages for scores 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and 5. Add that to the already known DSR average on a bar graph. I also see that eBay has the same glitch I’m seeing with my site. Free vs Paid works but not Domestic vs International. Definitely an eBay glitch.

  42. Wow. I just got kicked off the eBay discussion boards because I mentioned that I had been working on the DSRReport website on the feedback forum. Apparently everyone thought I was trying to scam them so now I have an indefinite suspension. Anyone know who I should speak to to get that appealed without waiting 90 days?

  43. #62 I received a lifetime ban several years ago, made a fortune since and never looked back…

    Although I am guessing your posts have been slightly more constructive than mine used to be 😆 was it liveworld that booted you? they are on twitter @liveworld if it helps you, otherwise I guess a high ranking pink like the infamous Mr Ambrose

  44. Well it was my second violation. The first was legitimate, I guess. Someone asked a question and I gave them a link to one of my sites where they could do exactly that. That ran afoul of the advertising policy. Although when you read that policy it says posting a link to any for-profit or non-profit website run by you or anyone else (so pretty much every website in existence, except eBay).

    This was the final offending post:


    Over the weekend I created a site where you can get your
    free detailed DSR reports. You can specify
    criteria such as item numbers, time period, shipping
    costs, categories, etc. You even get to see how many buyers
    left you 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, and 5’s for each DSR category.

    I’d post a link here but that would be “advertising” and against board policy. I do recommend looking for it for though.

    Someone pointed out that my “ME” page had a link to the site and then about five people joined in with colorful language and accused me of being a phisher. A few hours later I was booted for violating “community values” and/or the “user agreement.” Based on my site logs it was someone out of Michigan (not eBay IP) so I’m guessing Live World.

    The sad part is some of them did get their DSR report but didn’t say anything in the thread.

    Not a huge loss but it did run analogous to the avalanche of negatives I always warn sellers about. Once one hits you with a negative anyone with any doubt will jump right in until you are kicked off eBay. A very scary situation I’ve narrowly averted in the past. Now those people will probably pat themselves on the back thinking they saved everyone from another Nigerian scammer.

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