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eBay is considering replacing how it displays a seller's feedback on the listing page, it revealed through a survey it conducted last weekend. That's just one of several major changes to eBay's feedback system that is under consideration, which EcommerceBytes has been reporting on this week.

eBay floated various ideas in the feedback survey, including two "concepts," the first of which was described in Wednesday's Newsflash. eBay described the second feedback "concept" as follows:

"eBay is considering changing the display of the seller's Feedback that is shown to buyers on the listing page. Instead of highlighting the "% Positive Feedback" on the listing page, eBay is considering emphasizing the overall seller performance score, which is calculated by taking into account the seller's performance on a collection of seller performance metrics.

"Currently, most sellers on eBay have similar Feedback ratings (for example, over 98% positive). In this new scoring system, sellers' scores would be more greatly spread apart, and it would not be expected that a seller achieve a perfect score."

eBay asked respondents for their opinion of the new concept compared to the existing display of Percent Positive Feedback on the listing page, asking sellers to select one of the following responses: Greatly prefer current concept; Somewhat prefer current concept; No preference; Somewhat prefer this new concept; Greatly prefer this new concept.

eBay also asked sellers how effective they expected the new concept would be at encouraging sellers to be honest and to provide excellent service to buyers. Sellers could choose one answer among the following responses: Current system is much more effective; Current system is somewhat more effective; No effect at all; This new concept is somewhat more effective; This new concept is much more effective.

eBay then asked respondents what effect they would expect the new concept to have on a buyer's willingness to leave negative Feedback in a transaction where they felt they had a bad experience, and allowed them to choose among the following responses: Much more likely in current system; Somewhat more likely in current system; No effect at all; Somewhat more likely with this new concept; Much more likely with this new concept.

Finally, eBay asked respondents, "Which best describes the impact you expect this new concept to have on your selling practices?"

• Motivate me to achieve a high score;
• Have no impact on my selling practices;
• Reduce my performance motivation.

And it gave respondents an opportunity to leave comments in an essay style question.

Sellers who have a perfect feedback score may not be happy about the "100% Positive feedback" phrase that currently appears next to their User ID being replaced with something that looks less perfect, and sellers may be uncertain about what their "performance score" might look like under the proposed change.

See part one, part two and part three of this series on eBay's survey to see what other changes eBay is considering making to its feedback system.

Comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.

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About the author:

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.

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