eBay Seller Feedback Morphing Into Product Reviews Leaving Users Confused & Frustrated
UPDATE 4-23-24
Product Manager Jessica Vayo confirmed on this week's eBay for Business podcast that eBay is testing product reviews at part of the feedback experience and that the feature will be expanded in the coming months.
Currently we are testing the ability to leave a product review inside of the normal seller feedback intake form. So that means for items eligible for product review, buyers will be able to give the item a star rating for the first time and item feedback along with the existing seller feedback already...
...This is a step in the direction we want to help more buyers discover eBay sellers online. We've had past research show that item specific feedback is something potential buyers are really looking for to make a purchase decision and we just haven't really highlighted that as much on eBay.
What's more, item reviews and item star ratings are super important to search engines like Google. So if you Google an item, the sites that show the item star rating and item review are the results that are prioritized in search results these days...by encouraging more star ratings for items on eBay, we hope this will help in turn help our eBay sellers get discovered by more potential buyers in the future.
Vayo indicated as a first step, eBay is focusing on testing this feature with common mass produced consumer goods like iPhones, but in the future, the goal is to be able to allow item star ratings for more items across eBay as well.
When eBay started allowing buyers to include pictures with feedback, sellers feared it was a step toward turning seller feedback into product reviews - and those fears are turning out to be right.
eBay community members are discussing a new change to the feedback form that requires the buyer to enter comments about the product before submitting, saying the process is frustrating because they may not have had time to use the product yet but want to give a positive rating to the seller for prompt shipping or great customer service.
eBay has added a new "rate the product" feature to seller feedback. Unfortunately, it seems to be mandatory. I have no issue with rating the seller, but do not appreciate being forced to rate the product. Heck, I may not have even used the product yet. This will just lead to artificially inflated and, consequently, useless product ratings. Any workarounds? If not, I will just stop leaving feedback...
...The item is a book which I have yet to read. Hard to provide a rating for that.
Other buyers expressed similar confusion and frustration when presented with the new feedback form that only request a rating for item, not for the seller.
Hi ~ I wanted to leave a positive review for a seller, but am unable unless I give a product review as well. I don't want to review the product. Did this just change recently? I used to be able to make remarks about the fast shipping, good communication, etc. I can still leave that kind of review for buyers, so why not sellers?
Another seller suggested to simply ignore the fact that eBay is asking about the product and leave the same kind of comment about the seller you normally would have with the old form, while also pointing out that it used to be explicitly against eBay policy to use seller feedback to post a review of the product instead of feedback about your experience with the seller.
eBay changed the wording on the feedback form recently, encouraging product reviews.
You do not, however, have to enter a product review in that box. You are welcome to provide feedback about the seller and the transaction, ignoring the prompt to discuss what you think of the item you purchased.
I've been saying for a while now that eBay was leaning into using FB for product reviews, when in the past it was against policy to use FB for product reviews.
eBay has been making several major changes to feedback over the last few months including displaying feedback replies in more places across the platform and changing the default sort order to "most relevant" instead of "most recent.
Sellers reacted to previous news about buyers being able to upload images with feedback by voicing concerns about possible abuse and extortion, but also worried that it could signal eBay was moving more toward using feedback for product reviews as well.
Liz Morton
When eBay introduced a "verified purchase" badge for feedback, it became even more clear that their future intent would likely be to blur the lines between feedback ratings for sellers and reviews about the actual product purchased.
It's understandable why users were perplexed. Feedback on eBay has for almost 30 years now been presented as comments/ratings exchanged between buyers and sellers about their experiences with each other, not a product review - so it would stand to reason most feedback would by nature be for a verified purchase.
eBay's explanation for why they added the verified badge just reinforced the idea that feedback would eventually be used for product reviews and that this would be an important "trust factor" to let other users know the review was left by someone who had actually purchased the product in question versus competing marketplaces like Amazon which allow anyone to leave product reviews.
We’ve added this text to remove any doubt that the person leaving the feedback was involved in the transaction. Unlike eBay, other sites allow anyone to leave feedback or ratings, not just those involved in a transaction.
We understand that experienced buyers and sellers on eBay may view the additional text as unnecessary. However, before implementing this change, surveys with eBay users showed that half of them didn’t know that feedback can only be left by those involved in a purchase. This text removes any doubt.
However, by conflating the two, eBay has conveniently left out that competing marketplaces like Amazon still separate product reviews and seller feedback, with buyers able to leave one or both as they see fit and both being displayed in different areas of the site so it's clear when comments are being made about a product or about their experience with a specific seller.
eBay had an open job position posted back in February seeking a Lead Product Manager, Feedback & Trust to reimagine feedback on eBay with a specific request for someone with experience building tools for small businesses.
I think it's fair to say that suddenly changing the core nature of how feedback has worked on the site for almost three decades is not in the best interest of small business sellers, big business sellers, or buyers.
If eBay is going to be testing changes like this, the very least they could do for users on all sides of the transaction would be to provide transparency and clear explanations about what has changed and how users should think about/use the feedback function going forward to avoid confusion.
What do you think about eBay morphing seller feedback into product reviews? Let us know in the comments below!
