Seller performance standards

	Standards overview Transaction defect rate requirements Cases closed without seller resolution Fair performance evaluation What happens if your seller level is Below Standard?

 

 

Standards overview

eBay expects sellers to consistently provide service that results in a high level of buyer satisfaction. This includes setting and meeting buyer expectations by providing excellent customer service from beginning to end.

You can see how you're performing both domestically and across various international markets in your seller standards dashboard. Specifically, you can view how well you're meeting buyer expectations with buyers from the United States, United Kingdom, German, and global markets. Learn more about our global seller performance standards.

As a seller, you're expected to:

• Promptly resolve customer issues.

• Ship items on time, within your specified handling time

• Manage inventory and keep items well stocked

• Charge reasonable shipping and handling costs.

• Specify shipping costs and handling time in the listing.

• Follow through on your return policy.

• Respond to buyers' questions promptly.

• Be helpful, friendly, and professional throughout a transaction.

• Make sure the item is delivered to the buyer as described in the listing.

For more information on meeting buyers' expectations, see our selling practices policy.

Keep in mind, too, that if you don't meet buyers' expectations, it can lead to:

• Not meeting the late shipment rate requirements

• Exceeding minimum requirements for defect rate

• A bad experience for you and the buyer

• Low detailed seller ratings

• Negative or neutral Feedback from a buyer

• A buyer requesting a return or reporting that an item was not received

• A buyer asking us to step in and help with a transaction issue

 

Transaction defect rate requirements

The transaction defect rate is the percentage of your transactions that have one or more of the following defects:

• eBay Money Back Guarantee and PayPal Purchase Protection cases closed without seller resolution

• Seller-initiated transaction cancellation

To meet our minimum standard, you can only have up to 2% of transactions with one or more defects over the most recent evaluation period. To qualify as a Top Rated Seller, you can only have up to 0.5% of transactions with one or more defects over the most recent evaluation period. Only your transactions with US buyers count toward your seller performance rating on eBay.com.

The defect rate won't affect your seller performance status until you have transactions with defects with at least 5 different buyers, or at least 4 different buyers to impact Top Rated status, within your evaluation period.

You can have a maximum of 0.3% of eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Purchase Protection closed cases without seller resolution over the most recent evaluation period. That means the buyer reported they didn't receive an item, asked to return an item, or opened a PayPal Purchase Protection case, you weren't able to resolve it, the buyer asked us to step in and help, and we found you responsible.

Sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past 3 months are evaluated based on the past 3 months and sellers with fewer than 400 transactions are evaluated based on the past 12 months.

Buyers won't see your defect rate. Keep in mind that buyers still see your Feedback rating and all 4 detailed seller ratings.

You'll be recognized for on-time shipping if tracking shows your item was either shipped within the stated handling time or delivered by the estimated delivery date. If there's no tracking available, we'll check with your buyer. If your buyer confirms the item was delivered on time—you'll be recognized for on-time shipping.

Shipments will be considered late only when:

• Tracking shows item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no confirmation from the buyer of on-time delivery, or

• Buyer confirms item was delivered after the estimated delivery date and there's no acceptance scan within your handling time or there's no delivery confirmation by the estimated delivery date

If you would like to see a summary of the new standards, please see the fall seller update.

Cases closed without seller resolution

For the eBay Money Back Guarantee, when a buyer initially starts a return because the item didn't match the listing description or reports that they didn't receive an item, the transaction issue is called a 'request'. If the buyer and seller can't resolve the problem, and the buyer or seller asks us to step in and help with the transaction, the request then becomes a 'case.' For PayPal Purchase Protection, the transaction issue is a 'case' throughout the process.

The number of cases closed without resolution is an important indicator of how well a seller may be meeting buyer expectations on eBay, and is a measure of overall seller performance.

A case closed without seller resolution is any case the seller is unable to resolve with the buyer prior to the buyer asking us to step in and help with a request, or escalating a case to PayPal for review, and eBay or PayPal determines the seller is responsible.

Here are the minimum case requirements all sellers are expected to meet. The percentage requirement applies after the account has exceeded the maximum number of occurrences. 

Notes:

• Sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past 3 months are evaluated on their transactions with US buyers from the last 3 calendar months. For all other sellers, the rate is calculated from transactions with US buyers over the last 12 calendar months.

• Any case or return that is referred to eBay or PayPal for review and is found in your favor—or found to be no fault of the buyer or seller—won't count against your performance rating

• To become a Top Rated Seller, you must meet higher requirements than those above.

You can get more information on cases that impact seller performance.

Fair performance evaluation

To measure your overall performance accurately, we look at your performance as a whole. We also consider a buyer's pattern for opening requests and cases and leaving low detailed seller ratings—and protect you when necessary.

What happens if your seller level is Below Standard?

If you don't meet our minimum performance standards, we may put limits on your selling activity until your performance improves.

The consequences of falling Below Standard can include:

• Your items may be placed lower in search results

• We may limit or restrict you from selling on your account and related accounts, or from registering a new account

• Funds from your sales may be held

• You will be blocked from using the Promoted Listings tool, and will not be able to create new campaigns or edit existing campaigns

• We may downgrade your eBay Store to the Basic level if you've been Below Standard for more than 60 days

Usually, we will only apply permanent selling restrictions when your account has been evaluated as Below Standard for at least 2 consecutive months. However, we may take action at any time if we have urgent concerns about your account; for example, if we've detected fraud or if your selling practices pose a threat to the buyer experience. The actions we take will be proportional to the nature of the issue we have identified and what is reasonably required to protect the interests of all eBay users and eBay as provider of the services.

If your account isn't meeting our minimum performance standards, you should:

• Resolve all issues on the account before buying or selling with other accounts

• Review your listings to make sure that you're describing your items accurately. Use pictures and include specifics in your listing so your buyers know exactly what to expect

• Make sure that you respond promptly to requests from buyers

Learn more about using multiple accounts. For guidelines on meeting buyers' expectations, see our selling practices policy.