Have you looked at your Defect Rate on your eBay Seller Dashboard?

You may already be aware of eBay’s new seller performance standard. I can see few unhappy sellers commenting Tamebay. I don’t think complaining is the right way forward. I’m quite happy to see eBay taking more steps in order to provide better customer experience. We’ve seen Amazon taking good care of customers through stringent seller performance standard and I applaud eBay taking this step.  Customer care has been one important factor behind Amazon’s success and I believe eBay understood this and took it on board.

I have personally felt comforting buying from Amazon compared to eBay. The main reason behind this was a case had early this year when I returned “Mini Bluetooth Wireless Handheld Keyboard”  for a refund. It was Hassel free! This is stamped my thinking to buy from Amazon again and even if it is bit expensive I would as I am assured that Amazon will takes care of me if there needs to be. I have mentioned this to my friends about it as well. This is what Amazon calls “Fly wheel effect” which helped it GROW.

Now, I’d like to concentrate on defect rate on eBay as this is NEW to eBay sellers.  It is simply a bad shopping experience! eBay says it is calculated based on 7 possible factors listed below. You can  verify this from eBay’s Page http://sellerupdate.ebay.co.uk/spring2014/new-seller-standards

1. Detailed seller ratings of 1, 2 or 3 for item as described
2. Returns for item not as described
3. eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Buyer Protection cases for item not as described
4. Detailed seller rating of 1 for dispatch time
5. eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Buyer Protection cases for item not received
6. Negative / Neutral Feedback
7. Transactions cancelled by you due to stock out or item sold to another buyer

You can find out your defect rate in your new dashboard by clicking the link below and download a report

http://www.sps.ebay.co.uk/sd/sdrefresh

I’ve put together some slides for your see what exactly it looks like. Rest is on your hands! You can either choose to ignore it or take do something to improve your operation. I’d like to emphasise Jeff Bezos used every complaint seriously and tried to improve Amazon to its perfection.

Bear in mind that maximum 2% defect rate is allowed for you to stay as top rated seller.

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Here are few simple tips that I’d like to remind you to lower your defect rate.

1. Clearly describe your item with multiple views/angles of the same item
2. Check out your listing on mobile devices
3. Title – use as many descriptive words as possible
4. Use item specifics; people use them to refine search, and wrong ones may lead to a defect
5. Update your inventory regularly
6. Send parcel with Tracking