The last posting date has passed, and all good eBay sellers ought to be sitting down with a glass of sherry and a mince pie. But don’t relax too much – there’s an eBay fee change on the cards!
Remember back in July when the Top-Rated Seller program was announced? Part of that announcement was that the currently-existing PowerSeller discounts would be phased out, to end in January – and yes, to be replaced with a new and still more confusing discount system.
As of January, there will be three classes of seller on eBay UK: TRS, the new Above-Standard PowerSeller, and ordinary mortals. Here are the FVF discounts they will receive:
| PS level | Top-Rated | Above-Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze/Silver | 20% | 5% |
| Gold/Platinum | 25% | 10% |
| Titanium | 30% | 15% |
Sellers who do not qualify as either TRS or ASPS will no longer receive any discounts on their FVFs.
So if you haven’t made it to the heady heights of TRS – or you are, like so many sellers, dipping in and out of that program on a monthly basis depending on whether you’ve had a couple of grumpy buyers or not – will you qualify as an ASPS? You’ll need:
- All DSRs to average 4.6 or higher
- Item as described DSRs: no higher than 1% (or 3 total if that’s higher) 1 and 2 scores
- All other DSRs: no higher than 2% (or 3 total if that’s higher) 1 and 2 scores
(As with TRS, DSRs scores are looked at over 3 months if you’ve completed more than 400 transactions in that period, and over 12 months if you haven’t.)
ASPSs are not boosted in search, nor can they use Featured First. They don’t even have a spiffy badge like Top-Rated Sellers, so as far as buyers are concerned, they look just the same as ordinary sellers. The FVF discount is the only advantage.
Even at Christmas, it would be wrong of me to start a rumour that Below-Standard PowerSellers are getting a badge all of their own, so I won’t…
23 Responses