eBay has now launched its Premium Service badge and it’s live on eBayUK listings. So, this means goodbye to the Top Rated Seller badge! It’s a mark of trust that encourages buyers to view your items. The Premium Service badge still lets customers know that you’re a reputable, reliable and top quality seller, but the requirements are slightly different.
To qualify for the Premium service badge, first and foremost you will need to qualify as a Top Rated Seller.
· You must offer a minimum 14 day returns period which is mandatory as from Sept 2013
· Same day or 1 day dispatch
· A 24 express delivery option
· You must offer a free domestic delivery option (this does not have to be the first option offered)
New Premium Service landing page for buyers builds trust
eBay has even created a landing page for buyers which extols the virtues of the new eBay Premium Service. Viewers are reassured that the eBay Premium Service badge will help them to identify the sellers offering the best services. They can expect their item to be delivered in a timely fashion along with a clear returns window.
How to check for your Premium Service badge
Currently, you can check whether your Premium Service badge is showing by navigating to one of your listings and clicking on “View sellers other items”. You can then scroll down the page to see your shiny new badge. It should also appear on your seller dashboard display.
Teething problems
This all sounds superb doesn’t it? However, it’s come to light that a lot of sellers have noticed a glitch. You need to qualify as a Top Rated Seller to get the Premium Service badge, but some people have had problems with the dashboard display for their Top Rated listings.
The dashboard is supposed to show you how many of your current listings need to be amended before they meet the new Top Rated Seller requirements. The problem is that some sellers are being told that they need to amend their listings to qualify as Top Rated, but they are already meeting all of the criteria.
Possible reasons for the glitch
We’ve been wracking our brains and have come up with a few theories to explain why the listings are still showing that they need to be improved.
· The listings are correct, but the seller dashboard is not properly reporting the listings.
· The information on the seller dashboard is correct, but there’s a bug in the listings.
· The listings don’t qualify as Top Rated because they were listed on the old fee schedule, but they are correct. If this is the case, they will not be displayed as eligible because they still fall under the previous final value fees. Once they are relisted or renewed, they should be correct and display as meeting the Top Rated Seller requirements.
So, at the moment our advice is to double check your listings if you’re experiencing this problem. If your listings definitely qualify and it’s a bug at eBay’s end, you’ll need to hang tight and wait for it to be resolved.
However, if it’s an issue with the old fee schedule you could cancel and relist the item, or simply wait for your listings to end and renew. This will fix the problem.
Some sellers have also reported that although they can see the Premium Service badge on their listings in the search results, it’s missing when you land on the actual listings page. So, buyers click on the item they want and don’t see the badge when they view the details and description for the item.
Double check your listings
This is rather confusing! At this point it’s not clear whether this is a bug, or because of an oversight on the part of sellers. So, if this is happening to you, you’ll need to double check whether you are meeting all of the requirements in order to qualify for the Premium Service badge. Upon closer inspection, some sellers have noticed that they aren’t meeting the Top Rated Seller requirements. For example; they have omitted to provide a 24 hour express delivery option. This would automatically mean that they won’t qualify for the eBay Premium Service badge.
We’d be interested to hear whether you’ve noticed any teething problems with the new Premium Service and Top Rated Seller requirements. Are you displaying the badge on your listings?
Perhaps you’ve even decided that you want to save money by not offering the services necessary to meet the requirements?
We also want to hear whether you have seen sales increase now that the badges have gone live – providing that you haven’t experienced any hiccups!
