US eBay Top-rated seller programme – tracking requirement date extended

As we announced earlier in the year, the US eBay Top-rated seller programme is going through a number of changes which might affect you if you’re selling on eBay.com.

In addition to meeting the current criteria for eBay Top-rated Seller status, one of the new requirements introduced as part of these changes was for sellers to upload tracking information for >90% of their listings..

We are now extending the time for implementing the tracking upload requirement by one month. From 20 July, sellers aiming for eBay Top-rated seller status in the US will be required to upload tracking within their stated handling time on 90% or more of US transactions.

Other changes previously announced from 1 June mean that only those eBay Top-rated seller listings offering a 14-day or better returns policy with a money-back option and 1-day handling time will qualify for the greatest average boost in visibility for fixed priced listings in Best Match search. The timing for these requirements has not changed.

Currently, in order for eBay to recognise sellers’ returns policies, they need to be entered as a separate field in the listing flow. This field is, at present, only available on the .com site so in order for UK or IE sellers to meet this requirement, listings need to be made directly on the eBay.com site, which we appreciate is not a perfect solution. We’re working on a solution for EU sellers to specify returns policies in a structured way so that they can qualify for  the maximum search boost while still listing from .co.uk or .ie.

What you need to do to qualify for maximum visibility as an eBay Top-rated seller on eBay.com:

• Upload tracking information >90% of your sold items as of July 20.
• List directly onto the .com site to specify your returns policies from June 1.
• List with a 1 day handling time from June 1.

What you need to do to qualify for a boosted visibility as an eBay Top-rated seller on eBay.com:

• Upload tracking information >90% of your sold items as of July 20.
• Meet eTRS requirements

Both of the above groups will retain eBay Top-rated Seller badging.

Evaluation periods for tracking requirement:

• The July evaluation will look at transactions from 1 June to 30 June to determine if you meet the standard.
• The August evaluation will look at the period of 1 June to 31 July. The September evaluation will look at 1 June to 31 August.
• October onwards we will look back at the previous three months

Uploading tracking will be a requirement of the US eBay Top-rated Seller program. From 20 July, if a UK seller cannot meet the 90% tracking requirement their US eBay Top-rated seller status will be at risk. We’re aware of the challenge this presents for EU Sellers in relation to international selling. We’ll be in touch to inform you of any future developments to further clarify this situation.

You can find more information on US eBay Top-rated seller programme on:
eBay US Spring Update 2012: Top-rated Seller program
US Announcement of tracking requirement date extension

Regards,
The eBay Team