eBay Announces Top-Rated Seller Status

Buyers will be able to more easily identify sellers that consistently deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction in the eBay marketplace

San Jose, Calif.- In time for the upcoming holiday shopping season, eBay sellers who deliver the highest level of customer service, as rated by buyers, will be promoted for the first time ever with a special eBay Top-Rated Seller badge, receive deep discounts of 20 per cent on their final value fees and be elevated in search, the company announced today. eBay Top-Rated Sellers earn their status based on how their own buyers rank the quality of a sale through eBay’s detailed seller ratings feedback system.

“For buyers, the new eBay Top-Rated Seller status makes it easy to find the highest quality sellers on eBay based on the feedback of other buyers,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. “For sellers, the Top-Rated Seller status recognizes and rewards their commitment to consistently delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction.”

eBay said it expects to immediately qualify 150,000 eBay Top-Rated Sellers in the U.S. when the program goes live in October 2009, and will launch at the same time in the United Kingdom and Germany. These highest-rated sellers will display an eBay Top-Rated Seller badge on the “view item page” that displays their listing. Going forward, any seller with as few as 100 transactions a year and $3,000 annual in sales volume can qualify based on buyer feedback. The eBay Top-Rated Seller status is based on further refinements to eBay’s feedback system, which allows buyers to score sellers on a number of factors that determine the overall quality of the transaction.

With today’s announcement, eBay is also making it easier and more efficient for sellers to run their business on eBay by rolling out further enhancements: a Search Visibility tool to provide more transparency on placement in search results, a streamlined resolution process for unpaid item claims, new bulk editing tools, and an update to its highly regarded Seller Dashboard.