Are you new to the eBay marketplace and unsure of how to interpret a potential trading partners' feedback ratings?  Are you afraid of committing to a purchase and be burned?  These are all real issues that a potential buyer has to come to terms with when making their first purchases online.  Even seasoned buyers and sellers can come into problems from time to time.  This guide is tailored towards the buyer on ebay who may be confused as to how to determine the value to place on a sellers' feedback and how to interpret it.

Feedback is a system used to help buyers and sellers understand the level of service and professionalism they can expect when dealing with one particular trader.  One of the basic mistakes that new buyers and veterans alike make is speeding through the research process when considering a particular seller and their feedback.  This guide is being written in hopes that our ebay community will benefit from added trust and proper interpretation of feedback with just a few simple factors in mind.

As a buyer, you have a few things to consider before committing to buy from a seller.  You need to consider the overall feedback score, any discrepancies in satisfaction, the four categories of service, feedback relevance, and total feedback received.

The overall feedback score refers to the total number of positive feedbacks rated as a percentage.  The best possible score of course is 100%.  This is easy to achieve as a casual seller because 1 positive transaction will yeild a 100% positive feedback rating.  If a seller has low volume (sells only a few items per month) then having one negative would drop their feedback rating considerably as compared to a seller who ships 100 items per month.  This is important to consider because there are some great sellers out there who may have one negative but because they only have 10 transactions that negative weighs their feedback rating to 90%.  Think of these percentages as you would odds in Las Vegas.  If you knew that there was a 90% chance of hitting a jackpot on a particular slot machine I am sure you would go for that one over all the others right?

Vice versa, if a seller has thousands of positive feedbacks, they will be able to have a significant number of negatives without much consequence to their overall feedback score.  For example, if a seller has 10,000 feedbacks and 50 of them are negative,  you will net a 95% positive feedback rating.

Discrepancies in satisfaction will really tell you what to watch out for with sellers.  Neutral feedbacks are often much more informative than negatives as typical comments from a negative feedback are either retaliation from other negative feedback or disgust from the buyer for any reason. The best rule of thumb is to read ALL feedback for a seller over the last few days.  Sometimes positive feedbacks will cite issues that were of concern and you may notice a pattern based on these feedbacks. If there is a stream of consistent statements commenting on a particular problem such as inadequate packaging or shipping time or even item description then you should exercise caution when dealing with this seller.  Ask questions regarding negative comments before the sale to clear up any concerns.

A recent tool added to the feedback profile for eBayers is the 5 star rating system to measure four key aspects of the transaction with each seller.  These are item as described, communication, shipping time, and shipping and handling charges.  Each one of these can receive up to a 5.0 star rating.  Each category will measure a sellers performance for that aspect of the sale and you can consider anything above 4.4 stars a satisfactory mark but of course the higher the better.  It is very hard to maintain a high rating as the percentages will affect these ratings more drastically.  Excellent sellers are really rewarded in this aspect because if they keep their buyers satisfied they will maintain higher star-ratings and help set themselves apart from their competition.

Feedback relevance is probably the most overlooked aspect of consideration yet could be the most important.  There are two main factors to consider when weighing the value of the feedback left for a seller.  One factor is how much of their feedback is from selling activity.  Many sellers offering merchandise are selling as a hobby and therefore have only very limited transactions as a seller.  The feedback rating does not discriminate against feedback left for someone based on buying or selling activity, therefore a person who buys many items on ebay and has a high feedback score will appear to be a reputable seller when in fact they may only have a few selling transactions.

The other component of feedback relevance is recent activity.  Consistent sellers will have feedback coming in regularly, at least once every other day.  Occasional sellers will have large gaps between sales and may only be looking for the quick buck.  This could be cause for concern because an occasional seller may not be as willing to keep you satisfied as a customer versus those sellers who are selling as a business.  eBay sellers who have their own business will have more consistent feedback comments and thus a more reliable reputation based on their feedback ratings.  Once a seller has established themselves as a reputable company on eBay they will have great incentive to guard their reputation as this is often a determining factor as to whether the buyer chooses them or their completion.

Finally, total feedbacks received will help you see if you are dealing with a part time seller or someone who is serious about their business and serious about keeping their customers happy.  More feedbacks is always a good sign but remember that recent feedbacks are the ones that are most important.  A seller who has 1000 feedbacks but has only sold 3 items in the last 12 months is not an active seller and this will definately relate to the quality of service they will offer you.  After all if you go from 100's of feedbacks to just a few each month there is no better indication that this seller is not as active as they once were.

We hope that this information helps you stay safe and sound while shopping on eBay.  If you have found this guide to be informative we hope you will support us by voting yes below on the helpfulness of this guide!

Kind Regards,

Caught You Looking Marketing Staff