Amazon.com is making changes to its seller feedback system. However, it is holding back on one change due to concerns expressed by sellers.

Amazon.com had previously displayed the seller's average lifetime rating under "Seller Rating." Amazon planned to change the feedback to show the last 365 days only. Amazon.com's announcement said it believed this would give buyers a better understanding of the current performance of sellers.

"Sellers who focus on providing a great buyer experience will benefit from this new level of detail," the announcement read. "It will allow buyers to see any recent trends of good or bad performance for individual sellers." Buyers would still be able to see the lifetime feedback rating and a full feedback count on the Member Profile page.

Due to seller concern about the visibility of lifetime ratings, however, Amazon is postponing the feedback display changes. The company said in its announcement that it would "evaluate alternative approaches to display recent seller performance as well as maintain visibility of lifetime ratings." Amazon.com did not respond to inquiries made Thursday.

Amazon.com made other changes to feedback as well.

• A seller's feedback calculation will only include ratings for sales transactions, not purchases. Ratings earned as a buyer will not be included in the rating display on the Offer Listing Pages or the Member Profile. Comments and ratings from other sellers will still be visible, but ratings will be excluded from the overall calculation.
• Amazon Payments orders that are declined (e.g., for credit card decline) will no longer be eligible for feedback. Neither buyers nor sellers will be able to rate the transaction. This is not retroactive.

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