eBay is committed to provide a trusted marketplace and a world-class customer experience. eBay therefore requires that sellers place great importance on buyers' experience, guarantee on-time delivery, and work hard on product and service quality control to reduce the bad buyer experience rate (“BBE”).
What you need to know
Starting August 25th, 2025, the existing Service standard policy: Bad Buyer Experience rate has been updated and incorporates the erstwhile Shipping performance policy: Item Not Received rate, which is now retired. Under the new Service standard policy: Bad Buyer Experience, sellers will be evaluated on the number of transactions with BBE. The sellers whose BBE rate is higher than the peer market average may be subject to a range of actions, including, but not limited to:
- Administratively ending or removing listings,
- Holding the payment,
- Adjusting selling limits,
- Enforcing buying or selling restrictions, or
- Suspending or permanently blocking the relevant accounts.
Evaluation metrics
eBay will evaluate three BBE metrics defined below:
- Item Not Received (“INR”) rate: the percentage of transactions where a buyer reported that the item didn't arrive or was not available for collection.
- Significantly Not as Described (“SNAD”) rate: the percentage of transactions where a buyer returned an item and gave a return reason “Item Not as Described”, including (a) “Doesn’t work or defective” (b) “Doesn’t match description or photos” (c) “Wrong item sent” (d) “Missing parts or pieces” (e) “Arrived damaged” (f) “Doesn’t seem authentic” (g) “Doesn’t fit my vehicle”.
- Seller fault unfulfilled rate: the percentage of transactions where a seller cancelled a transaction because they no longer had the item, or the item was never shipped due to their act or omission, and the buyer's money was returned.
Each of the three metrics will be evaluated independently and compared to the peer market average in the evaluation window.
How are you being evaluated?
Evaluation Scope
Only sellers having their registered address in the following regions are being evaluated:
- HiPO
- India
- Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia
Evaluation Frequency
Wednesday on a weekly basis.
Evaluation window
- INR rate: All transactions with an estimated delivery date that falls within the 12 week period ending on the last Saturday before the last week of the evaluation date. By way of illustration, where the evaluation date is Wednesday, 9th July, we will review all transactions with an estimated delivery date falling within the period commencing Sunday, 6th April, and ending Saturday, 28th June.
- SNAD rate and Seller Fault Unfulfilled rate: All transactions with a transaction date that falls within the 12 week period ending on the last Saturday before the last week of the evaluation date. For example, where the evaluation date is Wednesday, 9th July, we will review all orders placed during the period commencing Sunday, 6th April, and ending Saturday, 28th June.
Evaluation consequence
- Compliant: Each of the three evaluation metrics are lower than the peer market average.
- Non-Compliant: Any one of the three evaluation metrics is higher than the peer market average, but eBay may not take action due to:
- Account being already restricted by other eBay policies, or
- Any mitigating reasons.
- Warning: Any one of the three evaluation metrics is higher than the peer market average and eBay will send a warning to sellers to improve the product, implement better customer service and improve buyers’ buying experience. If sellers don’t take the recommended action, eBay may take action against them.
- Action Taken: Any one of the three evaluation metrics is higher than the peer market average and eBay decides to take any of the actions as specified above.
[Note: There will be a risk level indicator to reflect your historical BBE performance and determine the action you will be subject to. Your risk level will be upgraded if you have been frequently non-compliant recently. A higher risk level indicates more severe restrictions may be applied on your account activities after a grace period which will be granted for you to improve performance if your risk level has been recently escalated.]
Evaluation result: Please visit your Seller Dashboard to find out more details.
Best practices
As a seller, shipping your items in a timely and reliable manner is crucial to provide buyers with a great shipping experience. Moreover, you should always strive to provide your buyers with items and service that match up to their expectations.
Most of the time when something goes wrong, it is due to delays, inaccuracies, or lack of visibility related to the delivery of an item or details or specifics of the item, or mismatched expectations.
You’re expected to follow these best practices:
- Specify shipping costs and handling time in the listing
- Ship items within your specified handling time
- Charge reasonable shipping and handling costs
- Use reliable shipping providers that offer shipment tracking
- Be accurate and detailed
- Use images that are clear and sharp
- List down all the product specifications clearly
- Include size and measurements to prevent any misunderstanding
- Add in the usage guidelines
- Be honest with the condition of your item — state all the flaws and imperfections like scratches, discoloration and dents (if any) for used items
- Manage inventory, keep items well stocked and end out of stock listings in time
- Be helpful, friendly, and professional throughout a transaction
FAQ
How can I check my performance?
You can visit your Seller Dashboard to check your account performance which will be refreshed every Wednesday.
What should I do if my account has been restricted due to performance issues? Will the actions be removed if my BBE performance improves in the next evaluation cycle?
eBay will still evaluate the BBE performance of your accounts as long as there are eligible transactions. The restriction will be removed automatically once your BBE performance is lower or on par with the market average in subsequent evaluation periods.