2008 eBay Changes – Search Visibility

Having your eBay listings visible to potential buyers is a must for anyone who is trying to sell on eBay. After all, if the buyer can’t find your listing, how in the world do you expect them to make a purchase from you?

The eBay search results that we are familiar with show the items ending soonest first as the default setting. This is all about to change come March 2008. eBay’s Best Match search results will become the default sort method site-wide and will include the following:

• Increase exposure for sellers with Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) 4.6 and above and at least 95% customer satisfaction in the last 30 days.
• Decrease exposure for sellers with low customer satisfaction or Shipping & Handling DSRs.

As you can see, eBay listing search visibility is now going to be tied to customer satisfaction. Per eBay:

“Customer satisfaction is reflected in a combination of DSRs, Feedback and fewer complaints filed of an item being “significantly not as described” (SNAD) or “item not received” (INR).”

eBay seems to mean business when it comes to having satisfied buyers. Apparently the eBay buying experience has sunk to such a low that eBay is keeping those that sell on eBay on a short leash when it comes to customer satisfaction.

The last 30-day timeframe seems to be what eBay is really concentrating on to determine what kind of a seller you are. This can be good and this can be bad.

Let’s assume, for a minute, that you have a really bad month when it comes to DSRs for whatever reason. This will cause your last 30-day DSR ratings to tank and you will pay the consequences by loosing visibility in search, getting caught up in eBay Safer Payments, and anything else that eBay is going to link with your last 30-day DSR ratings.

However, since the ratings for the last 30-days are the ones that count, you should be able to easily pull yourself out of the hole you are in, assuming buyers can find the items you are selling and you are able to satisfy them so they give you high DSRs.

Clearly, the best strategy would be to never get one’s self into a “customer satisfaction hole” in the first place. That would be the “obvious” statement of the day!

So, eBay will be tying the visibility of your listings directly to the satisfaction of your customers. Or, rather, the satisfaction of your customers as relayed to eBay via the DSR ratings.

If you have buyers that just don’t understand the concept of DSRs and how important it is to rate sellers truthfully and accurately, the eBay seller is going to suffer. This could become a big mess, but we will assume that most eBay buyers are competent and honest enough to give accurate seller ratings.

Of course, with the new, enhanced Best Match rolling out site-wide next month, the item display/sort algorithm will still take into consideration the same things that it does today, including the item end time. eBay is just adding additional factors into the mix and you may, or may not, see your listing exposure change as a result of these new factors.

What does this all mean to those that sell on eBay? It means that you need to step up your customer service a notch and do everything within your power to make sure that you have happy customers. Obviously, there is only so much that is in your control, but you have to excel at what you have control over.

Selling on eBay is getting a bit more interesting with the new changes that are rolling out. Ultimately, the goal is to have a better buying experience, which should result in more customers for the eBay seller. Looks like it is time to put your nose to the grindstone and perfect your techniques on how to sell on eBay.

Image: pinkmoose

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