Global Seller Standards Program - 100 transactions need to be Top Seller - What is a transaction?

[stampingpaws]

So, what counts as a transaction?

This is of concern to me as at present I have 73 transactions in the past year and risk being downgraded to Above Average. But I have 126 feedback. This would seem to indicate that I have at least 126 sales.  But a sale is not a transaction!!

I am located in Australia, list on the Australian site and sell to stamp collectors all over the world. My performance level is determined by the Australian Global region.

A long phone call to support, being referred to a supervisor, having my account reviewed, an email received at end of working day. my reply and a follow up email from Support have resulted in the following determination.

First - There is the

Global seller standards program: Determines your status if you are selling in one of the markets outside of the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. You're evaluated based on all of your transactions which are sent worldwide, minus those that are sent to the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

So sales made in Australia to US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland do not count as transactions

Second - There are unsupported sites

In the second email from EBAY support they state: "To clarify, for New Zealand and Canada transaction, since both are unsupported sites all transaction from both countries are automatically added to the US Global transactions". 

So now Sales to New Zealand and Canada also do not count as transactions.

Result - In June 2019,   I made 6 sales, but only 1 counted as a transaction. The rest were to countries mentioned above that do not get included  in the necessary 100 transactions. Other months are similar.

Did you know that? What  sales to other countries do not count as transactions?

[chameleon54]

Not wishing to sound flippant, but why does it matter ? 

Ebay have all sorts of schemes and smiley stickers and they change on a regular basis. I have jumped through hoops on occasions to meet certain performance targets and it has made absolutely no difference at all to my visibility or sales.

If people want to buy your stuff, it is fairly priced and you have good feedback they will buy, regardless of whether you have a little logo on your listings or not.

You mention you need 100 international transactions, but you only have 73, so you are still a long way from meeting that criteria, even before all of the non eligable countries are taken into account. After the non eligable countries are included you are not in the race. 

Ebay is a complicated beast with all sorts of stuff in all sorts of nooks and crannies. If we mere mortals try to fathem it all and mould our business to every single little facet it would drive you mad. You could spend a lot of time on the phone, changing listings, changing terms etc. etc and the whole system could all be different next week.

Much better to just go with the flow and not sweat the small stuff.

[heihachi_73]

I have been "Above Standard" for a few months, being Top Rated/PowerSeller is nothing more than a badge (and being allowed access to the PowerSeller forum on here). I was Top Rated for ages but there was a huge decline in buyers actually leaving feedback/DSRs, which is what is required to keep Top Rated, thus here I am back on Above Standard.

Even if you get 1000 sales a month, if 950 of those people don't leave feedback and DSRs, eBay just sees the 50 DSRs and punishes you, the seller, because buyers are perfect little angels who could never do anything wrong (and that's before mentioning all the non-paying bidders, the SNAD scammers, the empty box returners, the freeBayers buying all the cheap untracked items than INR-ing the sellers to death, the late arrival defects (because the buyer clicked No to "Did the item arrive on time?" when the item was sent five minutes after they paid but it arrived 1 day later than eBay's estimate because the entire state of Victoria was closed for the stupid football that no-one with an IQ above 40 gives a toss about), the ones who tick 1-3 stars for everything yet leave happy green feedback etc.)

[stampingpaws]

UPDATE

Well, being Top Rated does matter to me.

And I decided to do something about being downgraded to Above Average just because a lot of my sales are to those countries mentioned above and don't count as "transactions".

A couuple of weeks ago, thanks to unlimited weekend listings I listed a number of stamps at 1c each with free postage for sale to Australia only. If these sold they would each count as a transaction. Most of them sold sending my transactions from 73 to 113.

I'm back to being Top Rated.  

[davewil1964]

CF0

[heihachi_73]

Unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky ones who was picked for the unlimited listings offer. I'll gladly take the ability to relist auctions 8 times without being charged a cent anyway, as apparently some sellers don't even get that, just the 40 per month with all automatic relists being taken off the freebies (or charging $1.65) just like GTC.