**UPDATED** eBay reveals DSR and discount stats at PESA event

**UPDATE on the post below***

Usher who works in eBay's PR department posted a comment that I wanted to surface here on the main post:

Scot - on the 63/30 question:

63% of ALL PowerSellers got *at least* a 5% discount. 
30% of ALL PowerSellers got a 15% discount (double our expectations)

Let me know if you have other questions. New Orleans is great, hope London went as well as the reports I've heard. Safe travels.
-Usher

So by this math, it seems that 33% of sellers got the 5% discount and 30% got the 15% discount so a total of 63% got a discount and 37% did not get a discount.  Thanks for clarifying that.

Also, reader 'Eric' posted in the comments some interesting math about the 5 stars on S+H stat and how while that sounds great, but if you look at the math it still adds up to below a 4.5 depending on how the other non 5-stars come in.  Eric points out that we need hundredths on DSRs and I couldn't agree more - eBay definitely needs more transparency on DSRs and that's a great way to do it without de-anonymizing the system.

**and now for the original post**

I couldn't make it this year due to Catalyst UK, but we have several folks at the PESA event in New Orleans where Lorrie Norrington (head of eBay marketplaces) spoke today.  Evidently (according to the ChannelAdvisor attendees and Randy Smythe's twitters), Lorrie revealed some interesting stats:

• 72% of S+H DSRs are 5.0 (I believe this for S+H time, but not cost - that one has to be lower IMO)
• 63% of PS'ers got the 5% FVF discount
• 30% of PS'ers achieved the 15% discounts
  • This always confused me, does this mean that 93% of PS'ers got a discount or is it inclusive - in other words did 33% get the 5% and 30% get the 15% and thus 37% of powersellers did not get a discount?
• More fee changes (also messaged in the UK) are coming
• She also said that seller's are eBay's customers

Would love clarification on the 63%/30%/33%/37%/93% item if anyone has it.

Comments

[Fruity]

Your DSRwatch isn't working Scot. I already wrote to you too. How can someone with a DSR dashboard of 4.9 4.9 4.9 4.8 suddenly dropped from 15% to 5% with only 9 feedbacks and 7 of them all said they loved it everything was great and that they did leave 5 stars. I am ticked cuz I subscribe to mine on DSRwatch and where the hell would I of seen this coming? No where. If its not accurate or able to give sellers some reasonable gauge it shouldn't be made available. What crap

[Dave]

Wes, while I agree that eBay's actions are being driven by share price rather than seller happiness, I hope your Express Mail example was not a real-world one. A seller that charges $40 for international shipping of an inexpensive item like a t-shirt doesn't even deserve four stars, in my opinion.

We charge $10 (less to Canada), send the t-shirt via First Class Mail International, and eat the very rare PayPal dispute. But we also tell the customer when it ships, warn him it may take three weeks or more, and have a web site where they can check their tracking number and order status. When they e-mail us a question, we are unfailingly polite and usually answer within 8 hours. Yes, once in a while, a package takes 90 days to be delivered to Italy or disappears somewhere in Canada. That is why we charge $1.50 insurance (optional, but most customers take it). This money more than offsets the cost of customer claims and is a separate profit center for us.

While we do have a very nice international discount with UPS, our experience is that they are more likely to charge customs fees than the postal service is and also tack on brokerage charges. It is these fees -- which inexperienced buyers do not understand and think are "extra" shipping charges -- that confuse customers and are likely to result in a low rating. Again, this is a communications issue sellers need to address up front.

For the record, we're an apparel seller, a Channel Advisor customer, and a platinum seller with a 30-day rating of 4.9, 4.9, 4.8, 4.7., On some days, 40% or more of our eBay sales are international. Our ASP is in the mid $30 range, so our international shipping costs are a proportionately high percentage of the overall cost. Yet our experience demonstrates that with good customer service, frequent communications, and upfront disclosure of shipping costs, seller's can meet or exceed the 4.6 minimum, even with lots of international sales. If a seller cannot meet this standard, I would respectfully recommend that they re-examine their policies and practices as there is probably some room for improvement.

[Henrietta]

Walter said:
"While I applaud Aunt Mae selling Kountry Krafts by the boxfulls and keeping the eBay marketplace a diverse eco$ystem, her $12,000 minimum in annual sales is probably not replacing anyone's income in her household"

but it may well be what is keeping her alive by paying her prescription bills through the infamous doughnut hole, or keep enough heat in the house to survive the winter. How else can she do it?

Not that anybody at eBay cares but I can tell you it is getting a lot harder for her and those like her to earn a little to make ends meet when they are no longer physically able to go out and scrub floors or dig ditches.

Sneering at the "flea marketers" who make "noise" and who have the courage and the gump to learn new skills to try to support themselves in however small a way is a poor reflection on the PR flacks who make those remarks.
Far far better to say "Hit the road Aunt Mae" than to nickel and dime her to death by inches. Think about it.

[Wes]

I don't think ebay has given accurate info. They just want to look good. Also, international buyers will always think shipping is too high. Sellers have to charge higher amounts for international shipments with tracking to be protected by paypal. These amounts will seems way to high to international sellers. $40 bucks for express mail for a t shirt, just to get a tracking number to in order to be protected by paypal. With all the international buyers that are coming here to buy (since the dollar is low) I don't see how anyone can get about 4.6 on shipping charges dsr section unless that have a major discount on international shipments with one of the big carries. We all know that ebay only cares about their bottom line so that they can make the share holders happy. They are disguising their changes to make more money. Sellers will sell less which will result in more listings fees being collected by ebay on items that are not sold, they also pick up more money on the back end with the new hike in fees. The little that they say they are saving in listing fees in probably more than doubled in back end fees. These people at ebay are very smart. They do all this to make share holders happy and they say they are doing it to make the buyers experience better one, but I am no fool. Its clear to see ebay, the numbers weren't doing to well so they had to implement changes so that he bottom line would increase. Why can't they just keep it simple instead of causing a bunch of headaches for good sellers? Bring Meg Whitman back and lets go back to the ebay I remember in 2002. Everything was great then. As for now, it looks like ebay will be putting a lot of hard working honest sellers out of business.

[Tom]

Walter makes an interesting point. If eBay is going to pick my pocket, I want transparency and want to know how I compare @ the titanium level vs Aunt Beanie. Right now, its total BS. eBay is changing the BM algorithm almost hourly and I'm just speeding in the dark at the moment.

Does eBay want to make money or do I have compete with Aunt Mae that personally answering every email within 3.4s 24/7/365? I'm willing to bet I'm in the top 1/4 of Titanium PSers, but obviously not in the top 63% overall as my shipping DSR is 4.4-4.5 across my many accounts.

I am already doing my best to migrate my highly profitable business away from eBay, congrats eBay management.

[Anne]

Hey Walter!

I don't know who you are but if you ever start your own blog about ebay, I swear it will be the first one I open up
and read every morning! Great post, Hear Hear!

Anne

[BMX]

I would bet that this figure was calculated by a proprietary ebay algorithm which cannot be disclosed.

I would go further to say its the same algo that Bill Cobb used to figure the 6% FVF increase.

lol

[Usher Lieberman]

Scot - on the 63/30 question:

63% of ALL PowerSellers got *at least* a 5% discount.
30% of ALL PowerSellers got a 15% discount (double our expectations)

Let me know if you have other questions. New Orleans is great, hope London went as well as the reports I've heard. Safe travels.
-Usher

[Eric]

I actually think the statement that "72% of S+H DSRs are 5.0" is correct for the S&H cost DSR. If we assume the other scores are equally weighted, then the seller will get a 4.3 DSR on S&H cost. Below is my little weighting table.

S&H Cost DSR
5 72% 3.6
4 7% .28
3 7% .21
2 7% .14
1 7% .07
Total 4.30

However I would like to assume this won't happen. I think more people will give my eBay business a 4 or 3 DSR than a 1 or 2 DSR. Below is my more realistic distribution for S&H cost DSR.

S&H Cost DSR
5 72% 3.6
4 12% .48
3 8% .24
2 5% .1
1 3% .03
Total 4.45

Here I barely get to the average of 4.5 S&H cost DSR if you round up. This is why it is so important for eBay to give us the thousands place with individual DSRs so we can see how our DSRs are moving.

[Walter]

Ah, statistics. How we love to massage thee.

Those are truly useless numbers that were put through the PR filter.

(Where there's smoke, there's fire. But where there's smoke AND mirrors, you'll find a PR person.)

I doubt most entry level powersellers frequent the home of the eCommerce ramblings of Wingo and his peanut gallery members (of which I am one, so pipe down), so few should take offense (Or should I type in 'offence' since SW is on the island from which our ancestors fled? But I digress.) when I say that the standards to be a 'Powerseller' are pathetically low. While I applaud Aunt Mae selling Kountry Krafts by the boxfulls and keeping the eBay marketplace a diverse eco$ystem, her $12,000 minimum in annual sales is probably not replacing anyone's income in her household. I'm sure the profits from this 'hobby' help, but unlike most readers of this blog and others like it, those profits are not a primary source of income. (At least I hope not for Mae's sake.)

Here's how professional sellers need the stats:

% of powersellers who qualified for the discount by Tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium), and % discount. For example, did the 15% FVF discounts all go to Bronze Powersellers? That might be helpful to know...

Total $ GMV of ALL Powersellers by tier, and then the $ GMV in each tier that qualified for the each class of discount.

eBay giving a 15% FVF break to a seller who on average is selling (2) $500 laptops per month, and in return getting to jack up the FVF of their top $ GMV sellers by 75-100% in some cases in not a fair trade for sellers. (Not that any seller needed help figuring that equation.) That's exactly what I suspect is happening and the ommission of any real detail in those numbers supports my suspicions.

BTW Scot, did you take a caseload of jailbroken iPhones with you to the UK to sell to help offset the cost of going to the land of "your money is worthless here"? Or does an international fella like yourself have an account in the UK with some money stashed to help offset currency movements?