This page describes our seller standards program. Another way in which we evaluate seller performance is by using service metrics.

Every month we take a look at how much you've sold recently, and how many of those sales resulted in a poor experience for the buyer, such as not receiving the item they ordered. We measure individual performance on areas within your control – fulfilling orders on time and resolving any buyer issues promptly. We also have some safeguards in place to protect sellers and ensure fair evaluation.

It's important to check your Seller Dashboard on a regular basis so you can see how your performance is tracking, and, if needed, take action before the next evaluation. Use the button below to see your current seller level, as well as what it would be if we evaluated you today.

View Seller Dashboard - opens in new window or tab

If your current or projected seller level has dropped to Below Standard, it's important to focus on minimizing cases closed without seller resolution and order cancellations as soon as possible – this will help to improve your performance on these metrics at the next evaluation. For more help, read our article on Monitoring and improving your seller performance.

What is the policy?

All sellers are required to maintain the following minimum performance standards for their listings on eBay.com within their evaluation period:

Cases closed without seller resolution: No more than 2 (or 0.3% of transactions)
Transaction defect rate: No more than 2% of transactions

We evaluate your performance on the 20th of each month based on your recent sales, and assign you one of the following seller levels:

Top Rated means you're exceeding our performance expectations, as well as having an established sales history and complying with other eBay policies
Above Standard means you're meeting our expectations
Below Standard means that your performance has fallen below our minimum standards and as a result, we may place limitations on your selling activity, including charging higher final value fees, until your performance improves

If you are Top Rated, this will be shown in your feedback profile. Otherwise, other eBay members can't see your seller level.

Different performance thresholds may apply on other eBay sites or if you're selling to international buyers. To understand how your performance is evaluated when selling internationally, please read our Global seller performance policy.

How we calculate your seller level

On the 20th of each month, we take a look at your recent transactions to work out your:

Cases closed without seller resolution
Transaction defect rate
Late shipment rate

To make sure we're getting a fair picture, we'll adjust how far we look back (the "evaluation period") depending on how much you've sold recently:

If you had more than 400 transactions in the past 3 months, we'll count all those transactions
If you had fewer than 400 transactions in the past 3 months, we'll count all your transactions from the last 12 months

To help understand how evaluations work, please see our calculation examples below.

Cases closed without seller resolution

What this means

When a buyer reports that an item hasn't arrived or requests a return, the seller is responsible for providing a resolution.

A case closed without seller resolution means that the seller didn't resolve the buyer's issue, eBay stepped in to review the case, and the seller was found responsible.

For full details of actions, time frames, requirements for sellers and how eBay decides the outcome of a case, please read our eBay Money Back Guarantee policy.

Minimum requirements

You're allowed 2 cases closed without seller resolution within an evaluation period, or 0.3% of your transactions – whichever is higher.

Transaction defect rate

What this means

We count a transaction defect when either of these things happen:

The seller cancels the order unexpectedly (e.g. because it was out of stock, or because they sold it to someone else)
The buyer reports an issue, but the seller doesn't resolve it (a case closed without seller resolution, as defined in the section above)

Minimum requirements

You're allowed up to 2% of transactions with defects within an evaluation period.

You'll only be evaluated as Below Standard if your transaction defects are associated with more than 4 different buyers.

Late shipment rate

What this means

We help set buyers' expectations by showing them an estimated delivery date for their order. To help ensure items arrive on time, sellers are responsible for shipping items within their stated handling time, using the delivery service selected by the buyer.

How we count a late shipment depends on whether you've uploaded tracking information from an integrated carrier.

With tracking, we'll count an item as late when:

The delivery scan is after the latest estimated delivery date AND
There is no carrier scan within your handling time.

If there is no tracking information available:

When the buyer leaves feedback, we'll ask them if the item arrived on time.
If the buyer confirms the item arrived after the estimated delivery date, it will be counted as late.

Minimum requirements

A high late shipment rate on its own won't cause your account to be evaluated as Below Standard, but a low rate is required for Top Rated status.

Calculation examples

Sales volume vs. transaction defects
These examples illustrate how we compare your rates of transactions with defects against our minimum requirements to determine your seller level.

See sales volume/transaction defect examples

Jon – occasional seller
Jon is an occasional seller, so we look back at all of his transactions over the last 12 months. He's had 3 cases closed without seller resolution, which is relatively high compared to how many times he's sold an item. Unfortunately, it means he's not meeting our minimum seller standards.
Evaluation period	12 months (100 transactions)
Cases closed without seller resolution	3 of 100 transactions (3%)	This is more than 2 cases, and more than 0.3% of transactions.
Transaction defect rate 0 transactions canceled for being out of stock 3 cases closed without seller resolution	3% (3 of 100 transactions)	This is more than 2% of transactions.
Late shipment rate	5% (5 of 100 transactions)	There are no minimum requirements for late shipment rate.
Seller level	Below Standard

Trudy – small business seller
Trudy runs a small business on eBay, so we only need to look back at the last 3 months to get a fair picture of performance. She's also had 3 cases closed without seller resolution and a few problems with stock which meant she had to cancel some orders. Despite these issues, when taken as a proportion of the total number of transactions, Trudy is meeting our minimum seller standards.
Evaluation period	3 months (1,000 transactions)
Cases closed without seller resolution	3 of 1,000 transactions (0.3%)	This is more than 2 cases, but it isn't more than 0.3% of transactions.
Transaction defect rate 4 transactions canceled for being out of stock 3 cases closed without seller resolution	0.7% (7 of 1,000 transactions)	This is less than 2% of transactions.
Late shipment rate	1.0% (10 of 1,000 transactions)	There are no minimum requirements for late shipment rate.
Seller level	Above Standard

Transaction defects vs. unique buyers
These examples illustrate how we also consider the number of unique buyers when calculating your seller level. This ensures you're protected from having your evaluation skewed by just one or two buyers.

See transaction defect/unique buyer examples

Fabric Revolutions – small business
Fabric Revolutions is a popular handcraft store on eBay with a lot of loyal customers. One day the manager found a damaged bolt of fabric but didn't get a chance to update their listing until the following day. In the meantime, two buyers had bought from the listing. One was the coordinator of a virtual sewing club, so they had placed multiple orders to be sent separately to each of their participants.
Evaluation period	3 months (1,000 transactions)
Cases closed without seller resolution	0	This is less than 2, and less than 0.3% of transactions.
Transaction defect rate 25 transactions canceled for being out of stock 0 cases closed without seller resolution	2.5% (25 of 1,000 transactions) Unique buyers: 2	Although this is more than 2% of transactions, it doesn't affect the seller rating because there are fewer than 4 buyers involved.
Late shipment rate	0.8% (8 of 1,000 transactions)	There are no minimum requirements for late shipment rate.
Seller level	Above Standard

Sam – small business
Sam sells bike parts on eBay. They realized that some of the parts in one batch of stock had been mislabeled, and had to cancel a number of sales. Unfortunately, this means Sam's defect rate has exceeded our minimum requirements. Their late shipment rate is also high, but this isn't what's causing them to be rated Below Standard.
Evaluation period	12 months (1,000 transactions)
Cases closed without seller resolution	0	This is less than 2, and less than 0.3% of transactions.
Transaction defect rate 25 transactions canceled for being out of stock 0 cases closed without seller resolution	2.5% (25 of 1,000 transactions) Unique buyers: 25	This is more than 2% of transactions, involving more than 4 different buyers.
Late shipment rate	3.0% (30 of 1,000 transactions)	There are no minimum requirements for late shipment rate.
Seller level	Below Standard

Requirements to become Top Rated

To become a Top Rated seller on eBay.com, you need to be an active seller who's performing well above our minimum standards, as well as having an established sales history and complying with other eBay policies.

We'll automatically upgrade you to Top Rated status on the 1st of the following month if you meet all of the criteria below at your seller performance evaluation.

Top Rated seller requirements
Seller performance evaluation	Cases closed without seller resolution: No more than 2 (or 0.3% of transactions) Transaction defect rate: No more than 0.5%, associated with no more than 3 different buyers Late shipment rate: No more than 5 (or 3% of transactions) Upload tracking: At least 95% of transaction have tracking uploaded within handling time and validated by carrier
Selling activity	Your eBay account has been active for at least 90 days You have at least 100 transactions and $1,000 in sales with US buyers over the past 12 months You're complying with eBay's Selling practices policy

eBay Top Rated Plus requirements and benefits

Once you've reached Top Rated status, you can qualify your listings for these exclusive Top Rated Plus benefits if you offer same- or 1-business-day handling time and 30-day or longer free returns:

The Top Rated Plus seal will be displayed prominently in search results and in the listing description
A 10% discount on your final value fees, which is calculated on the total amount of the sale, including shipping and tax
- The discount does not apply to the per order portion of the final value fee
- The discount does not apply to any additional final value fees applied to sales in categories where you're rated as Very High in your service metrics for 'item not as described' returns

Please note, the 10% final value fee discount is only available to sellers resident in the country in which they're Top Rated. For example, if you're selling through eBay.com, you must be resident in the US to qualify for this discount.

Free returns must be based on your item's location in order for your listings to qualify for Top Rated Plus:

If the item location is in the same country as the eBay site you listed on, you need to offer 30-day free domestic returns
If the item location isn't in the same country as the eBay site you listed on, you need to offer 30-day free international returns

In some product categories, we'll extend the discount benefit (but not the seal) even if you don't offer 30-day free returns.

See the full list of circumstances where the discount benefit applies

What happens if you are Below Standard

If your evaluation on the 20th of the month shows that you are not meeting our minimum standards, we may put limitations on your selling activity until your performance improves. To see what you can do to bring your level back to Above Standard, read our article on Monitoring and improving your seller performance.

Some limitations are applied straight away after the evaluation, while others take effect from the 1st of the following month. If your seller level improves at a future evaluation, the same time frames will apply for limitations to be removed.

Directly after the evaluation:

Your items may be placed lower in Best Match search results
Your selling limits may decrease
You'll be blocked from using Promoted Listings, and won't be able to create new campaigns or edit existing campaigns
Funds from your orders may be placed on hold until tracking information shows that the item is on its way to the buyer
You'll be unable to deduct an amount from the buyer's refund if an item is returned used or damaged

From the 1st day of the month following the evaluation:

You may be charged higher final value fees. For full details, please see one of our fee pages:
- Selling fees
- Store selling fees

If your account has been evaluated as Below Standard for more than 2 consecutive months:

We may downgrade your Store to the Basic level
We may place selling restrictions on your account and related accounts, or restrict you from registering a new account

In addition to the above, we may take action at any time if we have urgent concerns about your account; for example, if we've detected fraud or if your selling practices pose a threat to the buyer experience. The actions we take will be proportional to the nature of the issue we have identified and what is reasonably required to protect the interests of all eBay users and eBay as provider of the services.

Fair evaluation, seller protections and appeals

Our seller standards are in place to protect the interests of all users, and our evaluations are intended to look at your performance as a whole. We don't want your seller level to be skewed by just one unfortunate transaction or difficult buyer, and we want you to be able to focus on providing great service to trustworthy, reliable customers.

Fair evaluation

To evaluate your overall performance as accurately and fairly as possible:

We adjust the evaluation period according to how much you sell to make sure we're getting a fair sample (see How we calculate your seller level)
We only count transactions where the buyer has paid
There can only be one defect per transaction
For your transaction defect and late shipment rates, we take into account how many unique buyers are involved

Seller protections

We have safeguards in place to protect your ratings and help you in case you have a problem. For example:

If we determine that a buyer has violated our Abusive buyer policy, we'll automatically remove any associated defects
We remove defects and/or late shipments when things happen that are outside of your control, such as severe weather or carrier disruptions
We won't count a late shipment if an item arrives after the estimated date, but tracking shows you sent it on time

While these protections are available to all sellers, some of our other protections are dependent on meeting specific eligibility and/or seller performance criteria. Learn more about our seller protections.

Appeals

You can appeal a case closed without seller resolution within 30 days of eBay's decision on the case. For more information, please refer to the eBay Money Back Guarantee policy.

Transaction defects may be eligible for removal in certain circumstances. If the removal of a defect means that you are again meeting the minimum standards, your seller level will be adjusted at the next evaluation.

You can appeal a late shipment if you uploaded valid tracking information showing that the item arrived by the expected delivery date, or that there was a carrier scan within your stated handling time.

Learn more about appealing a defect or late shipment.

Tip
Visit Seller Help to resolve any incorrect defects or improper feedback.

Seller performance