How Feedback Plays a Role in the Success of Your eBay Business

Subscribe to our "FREE" Internet Based Affiliate Marketing Articles and receive your "FREE" bonus ebook on Making Money Online Today!
Plus hundreds of Money Making Tips and Tricks delivered to your in box. A $297 value, yours FREE!

"Your privacy is guaranteed"

Please be sure to check your inbox and action the email entitled "Confirmation Required" to ensure that you receive your "FREEBIES" and my articles!

Residual Income

Custom Search

Internet Marketing

eBooks

Website Promotion

Website Development

Home

Article Directory

Home Business

How Feedback Plays a Role in the Success of Your eBay Business

Thursday, 28 August 2008 22:49

In the bricks and mortar retail world, reputation has a big impact on your business. Local customers will talk to one another about their experiences at different stores, sharing both recommendations and negative experiences. In the world of online shopping, it's not that simple.

eBay's solution to this problem is their feedback system. Buyers and sellers are asked to rate one another following each transaction, and the ratings are incorporated in each member's feedback score. This provides a way for buyers and sellers to gauge one another's reputations when considering doing business with each other.

How Does Feedback Work?

When an auction is complete, it is up to the seller and the winning bidder to arrange for payment and delivery of the product. They also have the opportunity to leave feedback for one another. This consists of giving a positive, negative, or neutral rating along with an explanation or comments.

Each unique positive rating increases a member's feedback score by one point. Each negative rating decreases the score by one point. Neutral ratings have no effect on the score.

Feedback is also presented as a percentage. This is calculated by dividing the number of positive ratings by the number of positive plus negative ratings. Neutral ratings have no impact on your feedback percentage.

How Does Feedback Affect Me?

The most obvious way that feedback affects eBay sellers is by providing a measure of their reputations. Most buyers would prefer to buy from a seller who has primarily positive feedback as opposed to a large amount of negative feedback. So it is important to make sure your customers have positive experiences with you, leading them to leave positive feedback about their buying experiences.

Your feedback score also affects the things you can do on eBay. For example, only sellers with a feedback rating of 10 or higher can provide "Buy It Now" as an option for their auctions or upgrade their listings in certain ways. A 98% feedback rating is also one of the requirements for PowerSeller status.

What If I Get Negative Feedback?

Most eBay members who have done much buying or selling have received negative feedback at some point. Sometimes it is deserved, other times it is not. It's important to remember that one negative feedback rating will not have a huge effect on your reputation, unless you have few or no positives to counteract it.

If you receive negative feedback that you feel is undeserved, you can add a reply to it explaining the situation. In most cases eBay will not remove feedback, but there are a few circumstances in which they will. These are explained in their feedback policy. Feedback ratings may also be removed if both parties mutually withdraw their ratings on a specific transaction.

A good overall feedback rating is important to your eBay business. Maintaining high standards of honesty in your listings and providing excellent customer service will ensure that your feedback score is favorable. And a positive feedback score will let buyers rest assured that their transactions will go smoothly if they choose to buy from you.
Published by Charles C. Boustany