eBay has now added a new program that will give your eBay business even more traffic, sales, and income. Although being an eBay PowerSeller makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd, you now have to also become an eBay Top Seller. The only way to become an eBay Top Seller is to make sure and have a high DSR which stand for Detailed Seller Rating.
In This eBay Tip I’m going to give you some ways to improve your DSR so you can achieve the eBay Top Seller Program. Remember when you become a PowerSeller with a high DSR, you will will automatically see an increase in traffic which will equal more bids and lead to more sales.
Item Description:
When you list an item on eBay you need to make sure and have an accurate item description. Before you submit your item, take a look at it really carefully and see that you have not missed anything a buyer would notice. Taking pictures is always a great idea as you will be able to show the eBay viewer what the product looks like. As long as you give a good description of the product for sale, you should easily be able to get a five star for the product description. If your selling eBooks or digital products make sure and include an ebook cover or box that represents what you are selling.
Communication:
As an eBay seller, communication between you and the buyer is very important. Make sure and set your eBay business to automatically send out payment notification as well as shipping notification. You can do this inside your eBay store under the sellers managers pro > automation preferences. Also make sure and answer any question your buyer may have quickly or within forty eight hours. If it takes you longer than forty eight hours, make sure and start your reply message with “First off, I’m sorry for the delay in responding”. If something came up in your life, let them know so they can understand.
Shipping Time:
Make sure and always ship the product to the auction winner within a couple days. Never wait a week to ship and expect to have a happy eBay customer. Most eBay buyers are willing to wait two – three days for there product. After that they start to worry that they might of been scammed. If you can; provide them with a tracking number so they can know when there product will be there. This will also protect you as a seller in any paypal disputes.
Shipping And Handling Charges:
Years ago many sellers would have a low auction price with a high shipping charge. I don’t know about you but I used to hate getting charged a arm and foot for shipping. This is one of those detailed seller rating that I agree with as its really cut down on the amount of over priced shipping. Bottom line is never over charge for shipping as I know I don’t like and I’m sure you don’t either.
Alright that’s the end of my eBay tips. Now the last thing you might need to do is remind your customer to leave positive feedback and to fill out the DSR rating so you will get credit. With so many new eBay users buying things every day, they might not know about the changes and its up to you to show them how.
As long as you follow my eBay tips above you should become a top rated seller on eBay within a few months. Although eBay has added many changes to there already long list of policies, I still believe eBay is a great place to start a home business.
There is really no other website that will provide the amount of traffic for basically nothing.
To YOUR Success,
Edson Buchanan
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Edson, thanks for the run down on what all these mean, this is the clearest expalanation I have come across, in future I will just use your descriptions if anyone asks, why reinvent the wheel! great post.
Rob
Robert Corigan´s last [type] ..Why Start Your Own Business?
Twitter: sallyneill
June 13, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Hey Edson,
Takes me back to the good old ebay selling days reading your post!
The tips you shared are spot on, anyone following them should easily secure a top rated ebay seller status and have an ebay account bursting with positive feedback.
Sally
Sally´s last [type] ..David Walker, Sally’s First Skype Interview…
Hi Guys,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Yes the good old eBay is dead and now there is a new more how would you say – pain in the @$$ – eBay
But one it comes down to it I truly believe eBay is still a great place to start a home business.
Edson
Twitter: kats59
June 23, 2010 at 2:15 am
Edson:
Great post. Your post is full of content but is concise as well. I like that.
I have an eBay Learning Blog and am quickly getting up to speed with auction by studying and blogging. Still haven’t had enough guts to do my first listing, though.
Please consider allowing me to submit a post to your blog for your consideration. It would be an honor.
Thanks,
Kat
Kathy Williams´s last [type] ..If Stuck In The House, Try To Stay Busy
Hi Kathy,
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my personal blog. It would be an honor to have you create a post on my blog about eBay. Go ahead and create it and contact me via the contact button and I will take a look and submit to my blog.
Now I mainly sell digital products on eBay and after looking through your blog it looks like you may know a little more than I do when it comes to other things to sell on eBay.
I’m sure you will agree with me when I say that I still believe eBay is the best place to start an online business as its already has a huge customer based waiting to buy from a top seller.
Regards,
Edson Buchanan
Edison,
I know you are well intentioned and your information is well conceived. In a perfect world your suggestions would work fine. Unfortunately, you forget about newbie buyers who most time over react, and simple plain ignorance which exists at all level of society and is unavoidable.
In these scenarios only two DSR numbers exist 5 & 1. Five is great, where a one can mean disaster for an eBay seller. Three ones and you lose “top seller” status. Five and you’re off eBay for thirty days, no matter how many thousands of happy customers you have.
For example, I always without fail ship within 24 hours of payment. I have had two “1″ DSR ratings given to me by customers because the buyers chose UPS Ground and it took 6 days to get across the US from New York to to the West Coast. I got messages both times from each buyer; one said he thought he was rating UPS and not only me, he just didn’t understand the system. He thought it was like a “suggestion box for eBay” and didn’t understand the ratings and impact on sellers. He was 82.
The other said he was mad at me because I didn’t “force” UPS get it to him faster. He actually suggested on the phone that even though he only paid for UPS ground service that we should have called UPS everyday and “yell at them to make them get it to him in two days”. He actually thought that was something that was real, practical or even deserved. All this without informing us he wanted it in two days. We didn’t haer from him until after he received the package and left feedback … oddly positive. He explained he didn’t want us to leave him negative feedback in retaliation for his “fair assentment (sp) of our suckatude”, as if we could do that. The man was just … well … I’m sorry to say … ignorant. Nothing we could have done would have given him what he perceived as a righteous result. Even if we shipped his 100lb box “2nd day” for free on his $425 item. (Mind you that would have cost $650 actual shipping cost from NY to CA.)
As far as shipping costs, with “calculated shipping” a buyer can see what the costs are going to be BEFORE he clicks to buy or bid. By clicking buy or bid isn’t he already saying the shipping is acceptable to him? Why does he get to rate the seller again on this? Especially if the seller is charging the actual shipping costs. It has started a trend in buyers to begin to negotiating shipping charges after they agree to the costs upfront. By that thinking, why doesn’t eBay allow them to rate the Buy-It-Now price as well … after the fact.
Another problem is the anonymous nature of the DSR system. Some unscrupulous sellers have begun buying low priced item from competitors, just so they can knock down seller rating of competitors. eBay claims they cannot tell who leaves DSR’s so there is no way for an honest seller being predated by a dishonest one. Because of this the rating systems data integrity as an evaluation tool is severely unreliable.
Recent posting on Blogs and message boards have had many discussions by angry sellers. Some discussions revolve around the competitive nature and advantages of this tactic. And several have even discussed self-predation amongst large groups of sellers. Doing this to each other knowingly and in a concerted way for the sole purpose of degrading the DSR systemically and rendering its data ambiguous therefore forcing eBay to abandon the whole system. Entropy by revolutionary zealot consensus, in a way.
Just some thoughts from someone who has been on eBay since its inception.
John LeVasseur
President
Viking Vintage LLC
Very interesting insights Edson, I couldn’t agree more that shipping charge DSR’s are ridiculous. We employ a guaranteed 24 hour shipping policy as well as exact-cost shipping quotes but still get knocked on shipping DSRs.
Xavier M
President