The majority of eBay sellers surveyed believe the new Top Rated Seller (TRS) program does not meet its stated goals. And while 52% of respondents said they were qualified to be an eBay Top Rated Seller, only 34% said their listings displayed the Top Rated Seller badge.

AuctionBytes asked eBay sellers about the new program and other changes that began rolling out site-wide in late September. The survey was open from October 8 - 19 and garnered almost 1,000 respondents.

The survey asked readers if the new Top Rated Seller program, which was designed to recognize and reward sellers who provide great buyer experiences, accomplishes that goal; 57% said it failed to meet those goals, 27% said there was no difference from the way it was before the program launched, and 16% said it succeeded in meeting those goals.

AuctionBytes launched the survey on October 8 as sellers were still assessing the effect of the changes that had rolled out in the weeks prior. When asked how the recent launch of the TRS program affected their sales, 38% said they were unable to estimate the effect. Another 22% said their sales had not changed, 33% said their sales had decreased, and 7% said their sales had increased.

Respondents were also asked if they were aware of efforts eBay was making to educate shoppers about the new Top Rated Seller program. 38% said they were familiar with such efforts, while 62% said they were not.

As part of its introduction of a new TRS program, eBay created a filter to let shoppers view search results exclusively from TRS sellers. Respondents were asked how helpful they thought the search filter was to shoppers; 14% said they thought it was good for shoppers, 30% said they thought it was neutral for shoppers, and 56% said they thought the search filter was bad for shoppers.

Respondents were then asked what affect the TRS search filter had on them; 18% thought the search filter was good for them; 23% thought the filter was neutral for them; and 59% thought the search filter was bad for them.

Results Filtered by Top Rated Sellers
When looking at survey results exclusively from those sellers who reported their listings as displaying the TRS badge, there were some differences in responses. A larger percentage of them believed the TRS program succeeded in accomplishing eBay's stated goal of recognizing and rewarding sellers who provide great buyer experiences (33% versus 16%).

And whereas 56% of all respondents said they thought the TRS search filter was bad for shoppers, only 28% of TRS sellers said the TRS search filter was bad for shoppers. In addition (and not surprisingly), only 12% of TRS sellers said the TRS search filter was bad for them as opposed to 59% of all respondents.

Part 2 of the survey results focused on recent changes to search will be published later this week. Part 3 of the survey results include answers to the questions, "Do you have plans to expand the channels on which you sell online in the next 12 months?" and "All things being equal, how do you think your sales will perform on eBay in November and December compared to the same two months last year?"

Comment on the AuctionBytes Blog