How to Become a Top Rated Seller on eBay: Requirements and Tips for Success for 2024

Selling on eBay is a competitive business with shoppers on the hunt not only for sellers with the best prices but also for those offering the best pre- and post-sale service. eBay makes it easy for buyers to know what kind of service they can expect from sellers with its seller rating system and rewards sellers who adhere to their seller standards with perks designed to increase their listings' visibility and boost their sales. 

In this guide, we'll go over what it means to become an eBay Top Rated seller, discuss eBay Top Rated seller benefits, understand how to maintain Top Rated status in the long term, and learn what factors eBay takes into account when determining a seller's status. Keep reading to learn how you can attain – and maintain – eBay Top Rated seller status for your eBay selling account so you can sell more and reap the benefits and perks of eBay Top-Rated seller status.

‍

Understanding the Top Rated Seller Status on eBay

As mentioned above, Top Rated seller status on eBay is one of the possible seller rankings determined by eBay for sellers on the platform. It's a status awarded to sellers who meet eBay's standards of selling in many regards, including shipping and handling times, customer service, and business policies. 

But what does being a Top Rated eBay seller mean, what are the benefits of being a Top Rated seller on eBay, and what do you need to do to attain Top Rated seller status? Below, we'll answer all of these questions and help you better understand why you should aspire to become a Top Rated seller on eBay.

What is a Top Rated Seller?

An eBay Top Rated seller is a seller who provides a consistently high level of service to customers on the eBay platform based on several parameters determined by eBay. The status is a reflection of your eBay selling account's health and is determined based on an assessment of your seller metrics conducted on the 20th of each month. 

Sellers who receive a Top Rated status based on this monthly evaluation will be Top Rated eBay sellers and will retain that status until the next evaluation the following month.

Benefits of Being a Top Rated Seller

eBay Top Rated seller benefits are significant and include everything from better seller protections to increased visibility for product listings. 

In terms of seller protections, Top Rated eBay sellers get enhanced protection in cases where a buyer falsely claims an item is not as described and cases where a buyer returns a damaged or used item provided they meet certain criteria:

• Based in the United States or Canada
• None of their service metrics are ranked "Very High"
• The item in question was listed on eBay.com
• The listing offered 30-day returns

Enhanced listing visibility is less clear-cut, but it becomes very obvious when you look at search results, product categories, and the eBay home page. After promoted listings, the listings you're most likely to encounter are those from Top Rated eBay sellers. 

Finally, Top Rated sellers also get a "Top Rated Seller" seal on qualifying listings which encourages buyers to shop with confidence and goes a long way towards driving sales.

Requirements to Become a Top Rated Seller

This assessment looks at your service metrics in the 30-day period prior to the assessment and compares your rate of cases for "item not received" and rate of return requests opened for "item not as described" against those same rates among your seller peers. It then assigns a rating – Low, Average, High, or Very High – to your service metrics. 

We recommend reading eBay Service Metrics policy to better understand how service metrics are calculated. Sellers who receive a "Low" or "Average" rating will qualify for Top Rated seller status (with some exceptions made for sellers who score lower in some cases) provided that they also meet the following requirements:

• Their eBay selling account has been active for at least 90 days
• They have at least $1000 in sales and 100 transactions with US buyers in the preceding 12-month period
• Their order defect rate is lower than 0.5% with no more than 3 defects from unique buyers
• They have no more than 2 cases closed without seller resolution which amount to a rate of no more than 0.3%
• Their late shipment rate is no higher than 3% with a maximum of five late shipments
• No less than 95% of their transactions to US buyers are shipped on time with tracking validated by the carrier

‍

How to Become a Top Rated Seller

Becoming a Top Rated seller on eBay is not something that can be easily achieved without a significant amount of foresight and planning. It requires a multifaceted approach with an emphasis on excellent customer service, super-fast shipping, generous return policies, and informative, highly-optimized listings. 

In this section, we'll draw on our many years of eBay selling experience and give you the best way to meet the requirements for becoming a Top Rated seller on eBay. We'll go over 

• what it means to provide excellent customer service, 
• discuss the best ways to maintain a low rate of returns and cancellations, 
• understand what detailed seller ratings (DSRs) mean and learn how they factor into your seller metrics, 
• explore strategies for ensuring that you meet the minimum sales volume to qualify for Top Rated seller status, 
• and review methods for quick and efficient resolution of customer cases.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

With customer experience being the overarching theme of the Top Rated seller program, it's no surprise that excellent customer service is a major factor in attaining Top Rated seller status. 

Your customer service will be measured by eBay and factored into your eligibility for Top Rated status in accordance with the Service Metrics policy and you'll be assigned a ranking in each metric based on a comparison to your seller peers. This method is known as seller benchmarking and is designed to mitigate the effects of things like weather events, peak sales seasons, and other factors outside of your control on your ratings. 

eBay conducts its evaluation of your seller account once a month and takes into account transactions from the preceding 3-month period when evaluating you on various metrics. You'll be able to monitor your performance and see your projected seller rating for the next evaluation in your Seller Dashboard (https://www.ebay.com/sh/ovw).

Maintain a Low Rate of Returns and Cancellations

One of the metrics examined by eBay when evaluating your account's eligibility for Top Rated seller status is the rate at which returns are opened by buyers with the reason "item not as described." Note that this is the number of returns opened with that reason given by the buyer, regardless of whether or not it's true. 

While you can't prevent buyers from opening frivolous return requests for invalid reasons, you can take some proactive steps to prevent good-faith buyers from opening return requests when the item they receive does not meet their expectations.

The best way to do this is to ensure that your listings are descriptive and clear, and that you include high-quality product images. You want your listings to accurately and honestly represent what your buyers can expect to receive, and making any false claims or leaving details out is a recipe for "item not as described" returns and poor seller metrics. 

Inevitably, however, there will always be buyers who choose to abuse the returns system in order to get free returns. We recommend learning how to block these buyers on eBay and saving yourself further hassle in the future.

Aim for High Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs)

Detailed seller ratings are a series of rankings assigned by the buyer to various aspects of a transaction and they're used by eBay as a factor when determining your eligibility for Top Rated seller status. DSRs measure:

• Accurate Item Description – was the item accurately described in the listing?
• Shipping Cost – does the buyer feel that the shipping cost was fair and reasonable?
• Shipping Speed – did the item ship out and arrive promptly?
• Communication – did the seller effectively communicate with the buyer?

The rating for each metric is given on a five-star scale, and an average score of each rating for the preceding 12-month period will be visible to potential buyers.

DSRs are important for many reasons and aiming for high DSRs is a good way to increase your chances of qualifying for Top Rated seller status on eBay. Do this by ensuring that 

• your listings are honest, detailed, and include clear and high-quality images of your items, 
• you offer fairly-priced and fast shipping, 
• you consistently meet your handling and shipping times,
• make a habit of communicating with your buyers to get ahead of any possible issues
• and respond to their pre- and post-sale questions in a timely manner. 

This might seem a bit overwhelming, but it can be much easier to do when you use 3Dsellers' suite of eBay selling tools to manage and grow your business. You'll be able to bulk edit and optimize your listings to create quality listings for all your items and easily manage your buyer messages with a smart all-in-one Helpdesk for eBay solution for better communication so you can consistently get better DSR scores and increase your chances of attaining Top Rated seller status.

Meet the Minimum Sales and Transactions Criteria

eBay's Top Rated seller requirements include not only seller performance metrics but have a minimum order component. Namely, sellers can only qualify for Top Rated seller status if they've had at least 100 transactions and $1000 in sales in the past 12 months. 

For sellers just starting out, growing their eBay business to meet these minimum requirements may be difficult, but knowing what to sell on eBay and how to promote your listings with eBay Ads can go a long way towards helping you increase your sales volume enough to become eligible for Top Rated seller status.

Efficiently Handle and Resolve Customer Support Cases

One of the worst things a seller can do on eBay is to let a buyer case close without seller resolution. eBay understands that cases sometimes happen but expects its sellers to work with their buyers to find a suitable resolution to the problem. 

A seller failing to communicate with the buyer through the case and reach a satisfactory resolution means that eBay has to step in to mediate and more often than not the resolution will not be in the seller's favor. Lost sale aside, the resulting defect is a blow to your account health and directly detrimental to your chances of reaching Top Rated seller ranking. In fact, if you have more than 2 cases closed without seller resolution, you're ineligible for Top Rated status for three months.

‍

5 Tips to Get Top Rated Seller Ranking on eBay

Aside from the cut and dry requirements for how to become a Top Rated seller on eBay, there are some general good selling practices that you can follow for a better selling experience on eBay in general and an increased chance of getting Top Rated on eBay in particular. 

Ultimately, Top Rated status is given to sellers who demonstrate good sales and excellent service and are generally regarded by eBay as good sellers to have on the platform. Below, we'll review five insider selling tips to help you propel your eBay selling account forward and give you the sales volume and DSRs you need to become a Top Rated seller on eBay.

1. Optimize Your Listings for SEO

Optimizing your eBay listings for SEO is the best way to get your listings in front of buyers organically and without spending a cent on advertising. Optimized listings get more visibility and more visibility almost always results in increased sales volume. 

A well-optimized listing is optimized on multiple levels – with a keyword-optimized title and item description, high-quality product images, complete product data and product identifiers, and more. 

Optimizing your eBay listings may seem daunting, but it's super simple when you use 3Dsellers to manage your eBay listings. You'll be able to make bulk edits to your existing listings and ensure that future listings are optimized with complete item data, titles, and descriptions.

2. Utilize Promoted Listings to Increase Visibility

Getting traction and attaining the necessary sales volume to qualify for Top Rated seller status can be very difficult, especially in more competitive niches, which is why many eBay sellers choose to give their listings a boost with paid advertising. 

Paid advertising helps your listings get better visibility and can be very useful if you're finding it difficult to meet the minimum sales and/or transaction volume required to qualify for Top Rated status organically. Promoting your eBay listings is relatively simple with eBay's Promoted Listings programs and is useful for helping newer listings gain traction, especially those multi-quantity listings with sales histories you want to maintain.

3. Offer Competitive Prices and Discounts

While a majority of buyers on eBay will opt to purchase from a Top Rated seller over a standard seller, some buyers will prioritize price over shopping experience. These are the type of buyers you can count on to get you to Top Rated seller status because they're willing to take a chance on smaller sellers. 

Attract these buyers by offering highly competitive prices and frequent discounts and watch your sales volumes grow.

4. Offer Fast and Free Shipping

Fast shipping is a must for online shoppers today, with many shoppers opting to pay a little more for an item if they can have it delivered sooner. Sellers who offer fast shipping options simply sell more, and eBay actively incentivizes sellers to ship faster with better seller protections and eligibility for eBay Top Rated Plus status for sellers who offer same-day or one-day shipping.

5. Utilize Customer Service Tools

Top Rated seller status is essentially a measure of the quality of the customer experience you provide, with customer service being a main factor in your overall service quality. 

The importance of providing excellent customer service in all respects cannot be overstated – you'll need to promptly respond to opened cases, reply quickly and effectively to buyer queries, pre-empt any delivery issues with a message to your buyers explaining the possibility of a delivery delay, and more. 

Doing all this without the help of customer service tools is almost impossible, which is why many Top Rated sellers opt to use third-party tools like 3Dsellers helpdesk for eBay to provide 5-star service to their customers. When you use 3Dsellers' helpdesk, you'll be able to automate replies and messages, use smart AI features to provide higher quality and more efficient service, minimize response times with the help of SLA timers, and more.

How to Maintain Top Rated Seller Status

Once you've put in the work to get Top Rated seller status on eBay, you'll need to work just as hard to maintain your standing. eBay does have a grace period for Top Rated sellers who fall below the standard for Top Rated status on one or two evaluations, but for the most part, maintaining your Top Rated seller status on eBay will require constant monitoring, consistent hard work, and regular improvement of your selling methods. 

Below, we'll discuss just how you can stay on top of your account health, how to keep up to date with eBay policy changes that can affect your seller status, and how to continuously improve your feedback score through better customer service.

Regularly Check Your Seller Standards Dashboard

A key part of maintaining your Top Rated seller status on eBay is ensuring that you're on the right track between evaluations. Your seller status is evaluated once a month based on transactions from the preceding 3-month period, which means that you'll need to maintain a solid streak of positive transactions in order to maintain your Top Rated standing. 

eBay makes it easy to monitor your current, past, and projected status through your seller standards dashboard. The seller standards dashboard displays your current seller ranking, your previous ranking, and what ranking you'd receive if your account was evaluated today. You'll also be able to see your defects broken down into types of defects and see a monthly breakdown of your defect rates over time.

Keep Up with eBay's Updates and Changes

eBay changes policies semi-frequently and it's important to stay on top of these policy changes to ensure that you're on the right track for maintaining your Top Rated seller status. 

eBay will update you via several channels with messages and notifications, so all you'll need to do is to not miss any of these crucial updates. You'll get several notifications well in advance, so you'll be able to plan ahead of time with changes to your selling practices.

Continuously Improve Your Customer Service and Ratings

As an online seller, you always want to strive for better service and better customer feedback ratings. Negative feedback and transactions that don't go to plan are inevitable, but the important thing is to always work on improving. 

In terms of seller status, the aim is to lessen the impact of the bad transactions and negative feedbacks by striving for a higher volume of positive transactions. The best way to do this is by listening to your buyers in the feedback they provide, whether it be recurring issues with certain items, problems with certain carriers, packing methods that result in damaged items, or shipping locations that are more trouble than they're worth to ship to. 

Ultimately, the only way to know where your problems are is to be attentive to your buyers and listen to their feedback. Regularly evaluate recurring problems and implement solutions to avoid them in the future so you can avoid unnecessary defects that hurt your account health in the future.

‍

FAQs About Becoming a Top Rated Seller on eBay

Understanding how to become a Top Rated seller on eBay can be a lot to take in, which is why we've put together a few commonly asked questions eBay sellers have about getting Top Rated status. 

Browse through the frequently asked questions below and see if they answer any of your lingering questions about how to get Top Rated seller status on eBay.

How long does it take to become a Top Rated Seller on eBay?

You can become a Top Rated seller in 90 days or approximately three months from the day you launch your eBay Store. The minimum eBay account age is 90 days to qualify for Top Rated seller status, and in that time frame, you'd also need to have $1000 in sales and 100 transactions from US buyers to qualify. Additionally, you'd need to maintain a sufficiently low order defect rate to qualify for Top Rated status.

Can I lose my Top Rated Seller status?

Your Top Rated seller status is subject to reevaluation and removal on the 20th of each month. On this date, you'll be evaluated based on your order defect rate and benchmarked against your seller peers to determine your eBay account's standing. 

In some cases, eBay may afford you a grace period if your seller metrics dip below what is required to maintain your Top Rated status and allow you to keep your Top Rated standing for up to two months from the low evaluation.

How can I improve my DSRs on eBay?

DSRs are given by buyers for each transaction and assign a rating out of five stars to the accuracy of the listing's item description, shipping cost, shipping speed, and seller communication. The best way to improve your DSRs is to focus on improving those aspects for each transaction. 

Ensure that your listings are honest, descriptive, and accurate; offer competitive shipping costs and fast shipping options (we recommend using eBay Labels to fulfill your orders); communicate with your buyers ahead of any potential issues and respond to their messages promptly.

What is the difference between Top Rated and Power Seller on eBay?

Power Seller is a now-defunct seller status which has been replaced by Top Rated and Top Rated Plus seller statuses. As such, it's no longer possible to become a Power Seller on eBay.