Next month, April 2010, eBay are making some policy changes that will help thousands of the smaller sellers increase their business and offer many others the incentive to step up their game plan. A few things are changing but the biggest and most exciting is the change in the criteria needed to become an eBay PowerSeller. The changes are: Items listed as GTC, (Good Till Cancelled) that haven't sold in 16 months will automatically end as from April. If this affects you I suggest that you have a good look at what it is you're selling or how you're trying to sell your items as 16 months without a sale shows that something is going drastically wrong. All business sellers on eBay will have to display their business details on every sales page. This isn't difficult to do as you can set a default that will automatically insert the information for you. To do so log into your eBay account and click My eBay > Account > Site Preferences > Business seller preferences > Show Business Seller Information on the view Item page. You can check and edit your details at the same time. Here is the BIG change coming to eBay next month; PowerSeller eligibility requirements are being reduced. Currently, to become a PowerSeller, you have to either sell goods to the value of 750 a month for 3 consecutive months, or you have to sell at least 100 items a month for 3 consecutive months and then maintain that amount of sales volume every month. As of next month the minimum requirements are being reduced to just 100 items a year or 2000 in sales. There is some criteria that you need to meet to become eligible for the PowerSeller programme. You must be registered as a business. Your Feedback must be at least 98% positive. You must have been an active eBay member for at least 90 days. Your DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) must be 4.6 or greater in all 4 areas: Item as described Communication Dispatch time P&P charges You must also meet the new Minimum performance standard. As you know your DSR is scored from 1 to 5, with 5 being best. If people score you 1 or 2 then you are falling below standard. The maximum allowance is: Item as described Max: 1% or 3 Communication Max: 2% or 3 Dispatch time Max: 2% or 3 P&P charges Max: 2% or 3 Policy breaches: You must not have any minor policy breaches for the previous 90 days and no serious policy breaches for the previous 180 days. Serious policy breaches are things like Feedback Manipulation, Shill Bidding and Counterfeit goods, which will also get your account suspended. Why not take a couple of minutes to see if you're going to meet the new standards? Log into your eBay account and click My eBay > Account > Seller Dashboard. You'll then see a summary of your account with your DSR and any low ratings will be clearly visible. In the seller standing box you'll see a link: See what it takes to become Above standard on your next evaluation. Click the link and you'll be taken to your seller performance page where you can see whether you meet the criteria required. You're looking for everything to be ticked, on down the right of your screen. If you see that you are not meeting the new criteria, it will highlight the areas of your business that you should concentrate on. If you do meet the new criteria then look out for an email from the PowerSeller team in May. Q, Why is being a PowerSeller such a big step for the smaller business? The first thing you will notice when you become a PowerSeller is the PowerSeller icon that is automatically placed on all of your sales pages. This tells everyone that you are ranked as a successful seller, in terms of sales and customer satisfaction, which installs a level of trust in your potential customers and helps generate further sales. Other benefits include: A discount on your Final Value Fee's of between 5 and 15%, depending on volume of sales. Prioritised customer support from the PowerSeller team. Educational tools for advanced selling. Various promotions and offers from eBay. Promotional Merchandise. And lots more.... Once you're a PowerSeller you may also qualify to become a Top Rated Seller, which has even more benefits and larger discounts; up to 30% on your Final Value Fee's. Log into your eBay account and see what it will take for you to qualify to become a PowerSeller. My eBay > Account > Seller Dashboard. You could be pleasantly surprised. Very best of luck to you, Barry Wells
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