A Seller Lesson From Following my Heart

Going to Ritche street in Chennai where I grew up in India (see picture thanks to Ritchiestreet.info) was one of my fun childhood memories.

Ritchie street is a busy street full of similar shops selling electronic kits and parts and I used to go as a kid to buy Door Bell or Radio kits to assemble for fun. When I picked a shop and asked for my item, if the seller did not have it, he would get me (and my Mom) a cold drink, ask us to wait, rush to the next store and bring the item so we could buy it from him.

Even as a kid, what was striking for me was that the seller was fanatic to delight us as customers and retain us by going out of the way.

I seemed to have subliminally done the same as an eBay seller recently, so thought it was a lesson worth sharing here.

I decided to sell “Sign Language ABC with Elmo book by Linda Bove” as we loved the book and now that my daughter is grownup past Elmo to other characters, the timing seemed ripe.

I sold the book and shipped to the buyer. I got a message back from the buyer which started a trail of conversations.

The buyer did not get the book and got only the envelope with a note from the post office saying the packet got opened and the content was lost.

I was disappointed that my Elmo book never reached a child who would use it. Instead the buyer told me she was a grandmother of triplets who she baby sat and taught sign language. At eBay we keep reminding ourselves one of our Motto that “People are generally good” which flashed in my mind.

After some back and forth exchange I realized it was my bad not to add insurance to the shipping and I need to learn to use better tape for packing and the buyer is sincere.

I had the option to goto the eBay Seller Information Center and file for a dispute, and get my money back from eBay which gives me peace of mind. But I chose to follow my heart and instead found the same book on eBay from another seller and bought it and got it shipped it to my buyer.

First it feels good to follow my heart, second is an even better feeling to delight my customer unconditionally.

The first few weeks as an eBay seller is like the World of Warcraft

I began engaging on eBay as a seller recently and as any new seller my world view inside eBay seemed limited. I had to know how to use eBay as a seller, figure out how to price my listing, and make decisions on so many fields and then wait! Wait ……

Waiting was excruciating at first. I got no bids. I saw nobody put my item on their watch list. But I could see the views my item was getting. So people were seeing it but not wanting to buy it.

Then I changed my shipping to free and got some bids and then the sale. woohoo!

Thanks to World of Warcraft image source:fanpop.com

Slowly finding our way into the world of eBay is now beginning to feel like fun. I am discovering how to find comparable items whose listing is completed so I can price my item right, learn best practice to be a good citizen to get good feedback rating and learn something new each day.

It feels like I am inside a video game like the World of Warcraft or Second Life. I start alone in an island but as I plug along and get better feedback score, my view changes and I find potions that make me stronger, meet fellow islanders who are smarter and begin to learn to survive and be in the game.

The real fun in all this unlike a video game is that as I sell, I get to surf and buy cool things so the journey gets me real stuff not badges.

Every Day is Christmas on eBay

Each day I use eBay, I find items that interest me and add to the watch list. Or I bid. I find great treasures on eBay. The beauty of eBay is that I can buy instantly and not do an auction for many items.

Did you know eBay had such amazing collection of radio controlled toys? Toys R Us has their full store available as an eBay store and there are tons of other sellers bringing us goodiies from around the world.

I want to give a shoutout to the Top rated seller osuppliers with a feedback rating of 96000+ who delivered the solar power robot kit for me today (picture below)

Wait till I tell you when I get the Solar powered Cochroach that should come any day now!

My feedback went up from 13 to 14

My feedback score  has moved up from 13 to 14 which keeps me at an yellow star until I get to a feedback score of 50.

My feedback score is a measure of my reputation on eBay. I am fascinated at how my world inside eBay will expand more as I get better feedback score and I will be allowed more sells and faster access to my payment inside eBay. So it is good to remember that each of our view of eBay is unique and personalized and we have total control over it based on our feedback score and continued engagement on eBay.

You can lookup at the detailed feedback of your buyers and people who bid for your items on eBay.

How eBay’s Feedback Score Compares with Social Reputation Scores and Ranks

Coming from the world of social media where I have thousands of followers but never bothered to look at my Twitter grader or Kred scores, I have began to lookup friends and their scores and find it fascinating how eBay respects every single feedback to build the reputation and trust between us as buyers and sellers.

This reminds me of Facebook’s Edgerank which calculates how you are connected to another user using an algorithm as a function of your interaction with that friend in terms of frequency and how recent was your interaction. Facebook does not share the edgerank you have with any friend and uses it to decide whether to show your facebook feed to that friend or not. eBay keeps it open and transparent and has an algorithm measuring the recent feedback as a percentage and overall scores showing the credibility built as buyers and sellers with each feedback added by the buyer or seller based on their experience on eBay.

You can look at how buyers see your feedback here at the Seller dashboard.  Also when you are bidding for an item, eBay shows the feedback scores of the other bidders under Bid History when you click on number of bids next to the current bid, but  they hide the bidder’s eBay id to protect their privacy.

eBay offers tips on what to do and what not to do as best practice for sellers here . My favorite is that you can offer free shipping and include shipping in the price of the item and get an automatic 5 star for shipping. Yay!

Foolproofing mismanagement of Feedback scores

eBay limits me to sell only 10 items per month which can go upto 50 once my feedback score goes up to the next level. This ensures from manipulating the system by making lot of quick sales to get feedback score fast!  There is also a Detailed Seller Rating Requirement to weed out sellers who do not keep their integrity on eBay.

I am sure we will revisit eBay Feedback again as I learn more. Let me know your experience or best practice of what has worked for you.