From the 1st of June to the 31st of July sellers that meet the new Top Rated Seller requirements of listings on eBay UK will get an additional for each eligible listing. To qualify your listing will need to offer:
- A minimum returns period of 14 calendar days
- 1-day or same-day dispatch
- An express delivery option offering delivery within 1 day
- A free domestic postage option
Your account will of course also need to qualify as a Top Rated Seller. For your account to be Top Rated, you’ll need to:
- Have an eBay account that’s been active for at least 90 days.
- Have a positive Feedback rating of at least 98%.
- Be a member of the PowerSeller programme.
- Follow eBay selling practices policy.
- Have at least 100 transactions and £2,000 in sales during the last 12 months with UK and IE buyers
- Have minimum average DSRs of 4.60
- Have a maximum number of 1- and 2-star DSRs below 0.5% or total of 2 or less
- Have a maximum number of closed cases without seller resolution below 0.3% total of 2 or less
eBay’s new Top Rated Seller requirements are not due to kick in until Autumn, so the earlier rather than later. That’s just good business anyway as we couldn’t advise anyone to leave amending listings until the last minute, in the mean time the extra discounts will be welcome.
19 Responses
Sort of thanks and goodbye pay off.
I’ll be exiting TRS programme, some compensation is that I should get extra sales ahead of those advertising free postage.
A very unfair rule on some as I sell from overseas.
On the up, sales booming despite atrocious losses to Germany, what a pitiful site that is.
Great to be on UK site but this latest move by Ebay is a vote loser.
Okay. Have I got this all wrong but….isn’t free postage normally ‘inclusive in the price postage’? I can’t see any other way round doing it and whenever I look at Ebay listings offering ‘free’ postage this is exactly what I see?
Do Ebay really think their buyers are that daft, you see an item and realise that it’s overall price is the same as someone charging for the item plus shipping. To customers who have no knowledge of selling on ebay and the fee structure (the real reason they want it included in the price) this practice must look really odd and could potentially be off putting (the last time I tried it I netted 0 sales on the ‘free postage listings’)
Surely the end result is that the overall price just looks higher, and then for international sales the price looks even higher still when you add on the shipping costs as you can’t have one BIN for UK sales and another BIN price for International sales?
It all seems a bit daft, if they want some of our postage costs why don’t they just man up and take some of that too rather than this convoluted charade?
Got a new BMX today, Ready for those 5.20 PM sprints to the post office when some guy does pay for next day delivery. Our royal mail collection is 4.45PM. So there s a 45 Minute window where it could happen.
So im gonna be here waiting with my BMX ready to go. Every day of my ebay selling life untill i die for this TRS stuff.
Ohhh yeAAAHH! !!
Daves ready to roll…..>>
(2 week latter…)
Dave skids up to his post office a 40 year on a BMX, but Dave dont care. Hes eBay through and through. If they say smell your pants, He rips em off and smells. He dont ask no questions. If or buts..
Alas
Post office Sign.
‘ We are closed for our daughters wedding…..’
Alas Dave will loose his TRS. Dave cries for 3 weeks. Becomes unmotivated. Finally looses TRS. Turns to drink and drugs, he feedback falls from 100% to 98%……..
Alas Dave is on a path to a better life without ebay.. his rebirth has only just began.
Basically they want to rid you of your TRS discounts by moving the goalposts to almost impossible requirements.
So in one foul swoop ebay have gained more fees by this move by most TRS sellers losing their discount and those who do offer “FREE” P+P they gain more fees because they get their FVF’s on the P+P.
My guess is that in a few years time it will be a requirement to offer this “FREE” P+P on all listings to sell on eBay and that will be the saturation point where ebay have exhausted all ideas to grab more $$$ other than obvious fee increases and it will be that saturation point where it will be the beginning of the end for most small sellers and the start of the decline of ebay.
So, get yourself ready, start your own site NOW and direct those customers to your site via the customers you get on eBay….I have and I now sell more per week off my site than off ebay and it is ME….M-E…who controll my business not some jumped up auction site, who not long ago was spouting off that it’s “just a venue”
IMHO
I actually bit the bullet and tried the ‘free postage’ requirement. I added the postage cost to the price, or otherwise absorbed it. It worked out okay, stuff that had been a non-seller for months finally got shifted. The problem comes when somebody wants to return for a refund and you have to issue the full purchase price and so are down a few quid because you offered free postage and had to pay it out your own pocket. So I will only be offering free postage for super lightweight items and hoping not to get a lot of returns which thankfully as of yet I don’t.
The bigger issue for me is the 1 day delivery. NOBODOY can guarantee next day delivery. Does not matter if you order Royal Mail next day or Royal Mail Next Day GUARANTEED (yes the cheeky so and sos do actually have 2 options for next day) they still can’t ever really guarantee it. And as the user said above, nobody will want to go out their way to post every day before 4.45pm. Just because you’re an ebay seller does not mean you sit on your azz all day waiting for orders (a common misconception a lot of my buyers seem to have).
No, this is not achievable for every TRSeller and is not a fair move. I believe Ebay have been looking to cut the number of TRSs for some time, especially after they lowered the requirements and had a rush of new qualifiers. The ‘elite’ trs badge is far too common on the site for their liking. But on the flip side, I don’t see how that wouldnt be a really good thing, it obviously proves the current trs system works to improve lots of sellers without these unnecessary changes.
When will same day dispatch time be an available option?
Hi my first point is one no-one has mentioned yet and it is to say that ebay have cleverly managed to avoid giving a discount on all collection only items in one foul swoop with this. Anything that’s collection only will not have a free domestic postage service obviously and will not qualify.
2ND Point
Since Royal mail have increased the prices,a lot of sellers have been including a postage cost rather than offering free. Using an economy service rather than premium, to save money on the fvf and also the cost of posting .This has been done to keep item prices down not to make more profit as sellers have been worried that the postage hike will ruin sales. This has resulted in eBay losing out on fees on the postage cost but also diluting the service to buyers .
eBay obviously feel that the buyers can afford and want to pay more for a better service,or they feel sellers can afford to pay the extra. If they are wrong then it will ultimately cost them
3rd point
There is no such thing as free postage. however you can combine multiple orders and send extra items free as the postage is covered on first item usually unless its very heavy or bulky
under new system buyers will lose this option and have to pay even more
and will be less likely to make large multiple orders