Your reputation defines your whole presence on eBay—a seller without a reputation is all but invisible. Thus, its value is any future sale you will ever make.
Envision your own experiences if you have ever purchased anything from eBay. Chances are, you have. The scenario whereby one buys from a seller with low feedback makes one uneasy and uncertain. On the opposite end, buying from a PowerSeller who has thousands of reviews makes you feel as secure and straightforward as purchasing from a trusted store.
Bad Reputation Will Cost You Sales
Bad rep is going to have its most crushing effects on your sales. If you get poor feedback, you will know it. That poor rating is going to be there right on the front of your user page, directly in the line of sight for all those potential buyers. Who is willing to deal with a seller whose reviews include such words like “took a month to deliver” or “poor communication and sent a damaged item”? The answer is almost no one.
You may have to sell a bunch of low-priced items just to push the negatives down the page after getting some negative feedback. It has taken me, in the past, days or even weeks of selling cheap items to get enough positives to be trusted again by buyers.
Even worse is consistently getting negative feedback—once your positive feedback rating falls below 90%, you are basically invisible.
The answer is not to open a new account
Apart from the fact that multiple accounts go against eBay’s policies, opening a new account has a lot of disadvantages. You will need to start from square one.
You’ll also lose access to a number of eBay features and your previous customers won’t be able to find you. Your auctions will probably end at lower prices because you won’t have any feedback. Making a new account is like moving to a new town to get away from a few nasty rumors—hey, you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
A Good Reputation Will Boost Your Sales
Well, if it’s a PowerSeller guaranteeing it, then I tend to trust that seller. Even if they’re selling something kind of unusual, if they guarantee it’s as described, I believe ’em. They wouldn’t risk their reputation. That’s what happens with a good reputation: the buyers know just how much you value it and the great lengths to which you’ll go to protect it.
I would far rather pay $20 for something if it comes from a person whom I have learned to trust, compared with $15 from some guy. That extra cost is well worth it, as far as the seller’s reliability, organization, and timely delivery go—it’s called peace of mind.
Selling on eBay is much easier when you have a good reputation, and there’s only one way to get that: through the consistent satisfaction of your customers. But how do you satisfy those customers who are notoriously hard to please? In the next email, we will consider whether the customer is always right on eBay.
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