Top Rated Seller badge now in search results

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trsinsearchAs announced tonight the Top Rated Seller (TRS) badge is now appearing on all listings from top sellers in search results on eBay UK and Ireland. Previously it had only been shown to a percentage of buyers in tests.

For the first time it’s possible to easily see how many items there are on the first page of search results from TRS, and it should be reassuring to those who don’t have the badge that TRS don’t dominate most searches. For the half dozen search terms I’ve checked I’ve yet to see an item from a TRS in the first position, although undoubtedly it will happen.

It will be interesting to see how much it affects sales, if at all. If you are a TRS and sales go up, or if you’re not a TRS and see a drop in sales let us know, although it’s likely to be some time before sellers can tell with a level of certainty how the TRS badge (or lack of it) is affecting them. With industrial action affecting the postal service and the weekend approaching there are too many other factors which could influence sales in the immediate future but immediate impressions will nonetheless be interesting to hear.

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Posted at: Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Filed Under eBay, eBay.co.uk
 


30 Responses on "Top Rated Seller badge now in search results"

  1. 1
    Gary Overton says:
    October 30, 2009 at 4:42 am

    Here in the mother country(US):>) it has been appearing all along and I can’t tell it has helped my sales any. Sales are actually down a little

  2. 2
    Jimbo says:
    October 30, 2009 at 8:55 am

    That’s not going to go down well on the power seller board.

    This was mentioned when TSR was first announced. At that time it struck me that this would be the biggest advantage of having the badge.

  3. 3
    Bunchy says:
    October 30, 2009 at 10:03 am

    It’s a bad time for anyone to judge the effectiveness of this newly displayed badge. Sales have dropped a lot due to percieved problems with delivery due to being slap bang in the middle of a postage strike :|

  4. 4
    whirly says:
    October 30, 2009 at 10:08 am

    Just to put a different spin on things.

    We have had our best trading month on eBay in 3+ years and we do not qualify for TRS.

  5. 5
    Mark says:
    October 30, 2009 at 11:51 am

    I think TRS will help in swamped categories.

    Chinese Porcelain for instance, is littered with fakes on the site.

    But with one click of a button most of the guilty sellers are removed from search.

    I do not think we even begin to understand yet, how powerful TRS is going to be in directing sales.

    The heavier the concentration of sellers in a category, the more beneficial the TRS will be in my view.

    It will also be beneficial in any area where fakes abound.

    Like it or loathe it, I believe it fundamentally changes the way Ebay will be used.

    I would just urge Ebay to be a little more careful when setting the “constraints” so that we do not have another season of dolphins caught in the net.

    Mark

  6. 6
    board_surfer says:
    October 30, 2009 at 2:12 pm

    it still looks to me like it is saying the item is a top seller

  7. 7
    Lisa says:
    October 30, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Lisa Mad!!! :twisted:

    New business, 100% feedback, however 1000′s behind anyone else… What chance have I got

  8. 8
    Richard says:
    October 30, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    I look at it kind of like a bait and switch — I was under the impression that it would be replacing powerseller such that if you sold say $7,000 per year you would be ok as a top seller. But nope — you need powerseller to get top seller.

    So all that has changed is the smaller sellers(and someone selling $10k per year isnt all THAT small in my eyes) can’t be raised in search anymore for giving good service and holding that 4.7 across the board and are instead penalized by not having the top seller badge while the larger sellers have it.

    I see this as reducing the level of service that smaller sellers give their customers because it hardly matters anymore whether or not you have 4.7 — just that you dont get enough 2s to be suspended.

  9. 9
    Emily says:
    October 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    I don’t qualify and so far – sales have plummeted over last 24 hours. Can’t say for sure if it is down to lack of a badge or postal strikes!

  10. 10
    Mark, very annoyed says:
    October 31, 2009 at 2:06 am

    Thank you eBay!

    I run two large Powerseller shops. One, for a respected bricks-n-mortar retailer in a competitive (if niche) marketplace. In 5 years of living, breathing, teaching, consulting and enthusing about the merits of trading on eBay, not to mention the thousands and thousands of pounds my two shops have paid in fees (this year alone, over £50-60k), I’ve never felt irked, let down, by eBay as I do today. The following surly diatribe is without prejudice, and my own, humble (!), grumpy, opinion only.

    Dear eBay: I fear your one-size-fits-all Top Seller policy, your quaint Top Seller badges in search — (of and adjacent to which, I have already spotted two sellers who are very likely peddling cheap, inferior refurbished items with little or no warranty!) — and the adjustment of attendant discounts in 2010 – is seriously flawed in its rigid, across-the-board, criteria.

    It shows (perhaps unintentional, and again, in my opinion) a cool disdain to certain, otherwise reputable, hard-working, popular sellers. Such sellers who, due to the nature of their category (in my case, high-ticket, bulky, items) where, if something goes wrong, and despite best efforts to placate/ assuage/ refund customer, may result in a 1 or 2 mark), will likely always render us just shy of reaching the heady, exigent status of your hallowed ONE SIZE FITS ALL Top Seller status.

    Yes, we – and other sellers I’ve spoken with this week – are feeling royally cheesed off. I can count at least three Powersellers who are seriously contemplating taking their trade off eBay. And frankly, I don’t blame them.

    So, in short, why disadvantage otherwise reputable, good, merit-worthy sellers retailing high-quality, brand new items – consistently achieving on average 4.8 DSRs and the attendant discounts? Is this not good enough?

    Please, eBay, explain this one-size-fits-all policy? You’ve agreed to look at the 12-month evaluation for low-volume sellers, and you listened to complaints about price increased affecting Sales Score, so could you not evaluate your own Top Seller weighting, so it’s sensibly, and sensitively, calibrated across categories, sympathetic to the very different seller experience a DVD retailer has, as against – for example – a seller shipping outdoor garden equipment?

    Those who feel similarly please continue to speak up and let your eBay account manager, if not the HQ in Richmond, know your thoughts. They are listening. I think.

    -M

    • 10.1
      Pietro says:
      November 2, 2009 at 4:55 pm

      I’m not so sure they are listening,we have 99.9% positive feedback, most of the comments look like they could have been written by us they are so good.We don’t qualify. An exceptional ‘interim’ account manager went to some lengths to explain our situation ( dolphins/nets etc) to the ‘business unit’ responsible for applying the TRS programme,they made him do a couple of ‘outreach’ calls to see why buyers had left low DSR’s whilst still leaving positives, that was it, he advised me that there would be no significant changes.I think that being judged on a tiny percentage of exceptions , retrospectively,in a relatively high number of transactions is ridiculous. We been established for 7 years, have loads of loyal repeat customers, pay eBay 30 K per annum, yet erstwhile competitors with 300 FB are TRS. We sell used/collectible items which can be problematic by nature, but we, like almost everybody else, give a great service , we treat buyers like we would like to be treated ourselves. In our sector, with the DSR/TSR bar being set so high, we shall carry on giving great service and quality, content ourselves with feedback % and comments, and ignore TRS for the lame duck it surely is, its up to eBay how long they want to be in denial.Our customers will still find us, as most of our TRS direct competitors can’t compete on range and quality. However, we feel that let down by eBay, we are going to reduce our dependence on it, in our own time and at our convenience because we know we can. I feel angry and saddened about the great sellers for whom that is not an option. eBay are actually destroying good honest business’s,causing unemployment and severe hardship.
      eBay tries to make something of their promotion of charities as though it takes some social responsibility, what tosh, they are actually generating more clients for some of the charities.I wish the papers could get hold of eBays effect on business failures and unemployment, they should be accountable?
      The sooner some other company , with enough resources decides to enter the onlne auction market and give eBay a run for its money the better, it would not be difficult to make a better job of it.
      I also wish eBay stockholders had a handle on what is going on, by the time they might find out, the damage to the aformentioned seller victims will have been done.Its disgraceful and I hope eBay reap the whirlwind, but then we don’t know there masterplan so maybe the rout is just what they wanted?

  11. 11
    Jimbo says:
    October 31, 2009 at 9:22 am

    I’m not seeing the badge in IE8 (with clean cookies) but see it in Mozilla. Are others seeing it in IE8?

    • 11.1
      whirly says:
      October 31, 2009 at 9:56 am

      I’m not seeing it yet.

    • 11.2
      Chris Dawson says:
      October 31, 2009 at 10:49 am

      I’m seeing it in IE 8, Firefox and Chrome

      • 11.2.1
        Jimbo says:
        October 31, 2009 at 10:51 pm

        Chris is the P&P cost showing? Seems to have gone walkabout for me, which is rather annoying (as there is no longer the “Free” showing next to my listings).

        • 11.2.1.1
          Chris Dawson says:
          November 1, 2009 at 12:06 am

          Still showing for me in Firefox, Chrome and IE

        • 11.2.1.2
          Andy says:
          November 2, 2009 at 8:51 pm

          P&P charges not showing in Chrome, Firefox or IE for me?

          Even if it doesn’t show in only a small percentage of browsers it’s a fail.

          Genius ebay. Just bloody genius! :evil:

          • 11.2.1.2.1
            Richard says:
            November 2, 2009 at 9:05 pm

            There’s a few threads/posts about P&P not showing on the boards. I don’t think it’s down to browser choice but your eBay preferences. From what I can gather i think P&P showing is no long a default setting, if you don’t have it as an option it wont show automatically. eBay fiddling while Rome burns again….. or maybe P&P costs will be irrelivent site wide soon?

          • 11.2.1.2.2
            Jimbo says:
            November 2, 2009 at 9:31 pm

            My speculation on the subject is that It was changed to fit the TRS badge in (along with a right hand banner) without making things look to cramped & when the decision was made consequences were not considered. A major gaff.

  12. 12
    Andy says:
    October 31, 2009 at 8:55 am

    Perhaps someone from ebay could explain why Dyson with 99.9% feedback are not a TRS but Argos with 99.5 are?

    I’m guessing the Dyson people haven’t worked out they don’t have it yet. :lol: How long till it magically appears? A sweepstakes anyone?