eBay announced Wednesday it would start rolling out its new feedback system in the US, Canada, Germany and other countries the week of April 30, 2007. In early March, it introduced Feedback 2.0 to eight pilot markets (Australia, Belgium, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom). The company said results of the new rating system have been positive, with a high adoption rate by buyers and no negative impact on bidding and listing activity. However, it did not release specific metrics.

eBay is changing its rating system at a time when it says it is focused on improving the buying experience. Buyers will be able to leave sellers detailed ratings in addition to the overall positive, negative or neutral rating they can leave today. In addition, a transaction's item title and selling price will display beneath each Feedback comment on the Feedback Profile page for 90 days "to give buyers more information while they are evaluating the reputation of a seller."

According to an AuctionBytes survey conducted in February - before the new feedback system rolled out - sixty-one percent of respondents gave it a negative rating, 9 percent gave it a neutral rating, 20 percent said they didn't know, and only 10 percent gave it a positive rating. The respondents were primarily US-based sellers.

With Feedback 2.0, buyers can use a one- to five-star scale to rate sellers on the accuracy of item description, communication, delivery time, and postage and packaging charges. AuctionBytes survey respondents were asked to indicate whether they thought the ability of buyers to rate sellers on each of the criteria was a positive, negative or neutral change.

• "Accuracy of item description" and "communication" got more than 50 percent positive ratings.
• "Postage and packaging charges" was rated negative by 48 percent of respondents.
• "Delivery time" was rated negative by 58 percent of respondents.

With the postal rates changing significantly next month, US sellers may be even more concerned over buyer's ability to rate them specifically on postage and packaging charges and delivery time.

Many survey respondents felt the ability of buyers to leave sellers more detailed ratings should be reciprocal. When asked if they thought eBay should allow sellers to leave similarly detailed feedback for buyers, eighty-four percent said yes, 11 percent said no, and 5 percent didn't know.

Full survey results can be seen here: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/pages/survey_02202007.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200704251057402.html