A Message from Sharat Digumarti – A Look at Detailed Seller Ratings Data &

[sapana@ebay.com]

On Sharat's behalf:


Hi everyone – this is Sharat Digumarti from the Marketplace Health team. It has been about six months since we began introducing Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs), and I felt it was time to provide a brief update to let you know more about the progress and results we are seeing with DSR data.

DSR adoption rates

We are delighted that buyers are leaving detailed seller ratings over 72% of the time. In some countries, such as Australia, daily adoption rates are above 80%. In addition, the overall rate of Feedback being left remains at 70%. This is a positive result, because it shows that the introduction of DSRs has not had any negative impact on buyers’ willingness to leave Feedback.

A look at marketplace DSR scores

With over six months of data, the DSR scores for eBay.in are showing some healthy early patterns. A median score reflects the score that a seller in the middle would get, if sellers were ranked by their buyers from best to worst. The score for eBay India is 4.5 each for Item As Described and Communication. For shipping time, the score is 4.4 while for shipping & handling charges it is 4.3. To see the detailed table, please refer to the announcement boards.

Using DSRs

Detailed Seller Ratings are a measurement of buyer satisfaction, and they give sellers a tool they can use to evaluate how they are performing. When an individual set of DSRs (visible to sellers by mousing over the stars in their profile) is compared with the chart above, sellers can get a sense of how well they are performing compared to the marketplace as a whole. Sellers with scores lower than the median can take advantage of this data – which is provided by buyers across the marketplace -- to reevaluate and adjust their business practices.

As we look to ensure that buyers have great experiences on eBay, we will be leveraging this DSR data in several ways in 2008: to help us evaluate seller performance, to determine PowerSeller eligibility and the benefits associated with the PowerSeller Program, and to influence priority in search results.

Other Feedback news – Removing Item Title from Buyer Profile page

We have received feedback from our buyers that the inclusion of the item title on the 'Feedback as a Buyer' page seems like an invasion of privacy, even though this information is readily available through advanced search. We surveyed buyers and over a half of them were concerned or extremely concerned with the visibility of this information on the 'Feedback as a Buyer' page. So, effective today, we will be removing the item title from this page.

You will be hearing more about the use of DSRs in the future, so please stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Sharat Digumarti

Marketplace Health Team

[cameras_n_such]

Hello Sharatji,

The DSR look very good.

But it would be worthwhile considering what king of gmv the top 10% and the top 25% DSR sellers are generating.

It these two are not co related than it would present a very skewed picture.

A begginer seller doing just 1 product per day may have excellent DSRs as he is trying to build up his business. An established business seller will have to look at his profits at some point of time and will concentrate more on growing his business rather than DSRs.

From my personal experience I know that buyer ratings for "item as described" reflects buyer liking of the product rather than accuracy of description.

In each of my listings I mention complete specifications still I get low DSRs in item as described. This is max a seller can do - list complete specs.

I will let you on to another secret. I copy most of my descriptions from ebay.com, ebay.co.uk or ebay.com.au sellers. When I check their item as described DSRs, I see them to be at a high of 4.8 and mine are a low 4.3. Can you say what could be the reason? Buyer behavior across sites is not the same.

Devesh




Devesh

[cameras_n_such]

Just a continuation of my last post.

I just went through the listing of one seller who is amoung the top sellers based on number of listings.

His total description for a movie cd / dvd is is one line :

Cast : - ABC, XYZ.

Frankly I would call this "Item Not Described" but have a look at his DSRs, they are at an high of 4.8.

So how rational are these DSRs.

Item as described just reflect buyers liking of the received product and nothing else.

I would suggest you direct some research to seeing on what do buyers base their Item as Described DSRs.


About the 4th DSR - Shipping Charges, this is what my friend has to say on another forum:

4) Shipping charges : Does a buyer come to know after recieving an item that he was charged high shipping ? he always knew it when buying the item or even before paying the shipping charges ... where's the suspense in that that
a buyer needs to vote on a criteria which was always there in the original listing

So a seller will be penalised for being what he is, a seller.

------

[amitava123gems]

Yes Devesh,
You are absolutely right about that.
Thanx,
Truly,
Amitava

[nakoda_creation]

Hi,

I am too agree with Mr.devesh .

DSR is not reflecting true Pictures of our sales.
---------------
With Regards,
Mahavir Computers Pvt Ltd

[nakoda_creation]

Hi,

I am too agree with Mr.devesh .

DSR is not reflecting true Pictures of our sales.
---------------
With Regards,
Mahavir Computers Pvt Ltd

[cochinmall]

Another new announcement and another statements of NO'S AND YES'S.Well,i exactly dont know where ebay is heading to.Seems like as to the dollar rate is going down,ebay.in is trying to be more of ebay.com without analysis of current market potential.

As the rest have posted out their views,i too have the same stand.Especially with the shipping rate.Every buyer would know that the shipping rate would be higher than the normal shipping rate for courier items like airmails. But they are not aware of the fact that dispatch of electronic items is very risky as i deal with a lot of electronic devices.An insurance is also provided along with the item and obviously the shipping rate would increase.I dont think giving the status of DSR's for shipping rate is justified.Kindly think on that too.

Regards
Rahul
cochinmall

[amitava123gems]

Dear,
I work like a dog to give what the buyer wants.Why then the right arm of the stars are greying up?
Thanx,
Truly,
Amitava

[adit999]

Hello everyone,
My opinion about DSR's are that there is a huge unawareness issue about the shipping costs that sellers might occur. Buyers are never going to think in terms of a sellers point of view.
Take for example I ship a lot of things free from my listings and yet the buyer always gives me a 4 star rating. May I ask eBay why this is happening?? I already know the answer.... it is probably because the buyer thinks that the cost is included in the listing profit or probably he does not care .... what the heck I will give this guy 4 stars 🙂

Probably eBay needs to make buyers aware of shipping costs incurred by sellers like packing material + fuel costs for going & coming etc etc. There are times when I charge 50/- to ship in most items but a buyer in Mumbai would feel that the shipping charge I have paid is only 40/- so he think I have overcharged him. He does not understand simply that the costs involved for sellers are sometimes more than meets the eye. Shipping to Shimla would probably be more than 50 for me but I absorb the charges. It is simply an average cost we might put here. How can a seller know beforehand that the buyer is from which part of the country??

I think it is purely a case of unawareness in terms of buyers thinking. I guess my fellow sellers & powersellers would agree with me ??

Warmest regards,
Adit999.

[adit999]

In continuation from my earlier post..... "this is India" a lot of online buyers are first timers and uneducated in terms of online buying. I bet 60-65% people who are newbies to the online scene DO NOT read the sellers listing descriptions.
I get so many messages asking me something which is posted on the first line in my description.... which in my opinion is ridiculous.

There are many times when someone buys from me and he thinks it is something else.
For eg. buyer buys a iPod battery from me thinking it is a iPod at a cheap price. Does not read the description or the listing headers seeing actual pictures I have posted taken from my digicam and blindly buys it and then feels unhappy I might have conned him. Then after explaining and refunding his money the buyer is satisfied and the irony of this all .... he does not have the courtesy to leave a feedback. Which is again a very very important and lengthy issue.

Eg. 2: I recently got a call from a buyer complaining that he has received only 1 item from me and demanding where the second item is...... keeps me wondering and even feeling guilty I had made a mistake. Then I realize that he must have bought something from another seller & thinking he is dealing with eBay only !!! 🙂
And believe me I am talking about educated CEO's/COO's making these kind of mistakes and some of them actually admit to it that it was a foolish mistake altogether 🙂

On a average I have pretty good DSR's which is ok for me but I seriously feel that it is too early for DSR's to be adopted in India at least.

warmest regards,
Adit999.