The Making of a PowerSeller
PowerSellers are eBay sellers that have maintained high sales volume for a nominal period of time while managing to also maintain reasonable customer service (measured by eBay via the seller’s feedback). The program is by-invitation-only and in general the requirements that sellers must meet before being invited are:- Average $1,000 or 100 items of monthly sales volume,
- maintained for at least three consecutive months,
- with feedback 98 percent positive or better,
- with eBay account in good standing.
An alternate way of being invited to become a PowerSeller is available to seasonal sellers who find it more difficult to maintain continuous volume:
- Average $12,000 or 1,200 items of yearly sales volume,
- with feedback 98 percent positive or better,
- with eBay account in good standing.
Requirements increase through a number of PowerSeller levels, beginning with “Bronze,” “Silver,” and “Gold” and running all the way through “Titanium.” A more complete list of the requirements for becoming a PowerSeller can be found on eBay but as a general set of guidelines these give some indication of the volume and quality of seller required.
The Reasons for PowerSelling
So why does anyone want to become a PowerSeller, apart from the obvious marketing benefit of having such a phrase and logo prominently featured in eBay auctions? For several reasons.- Marketing and promotion. First of course there is a definite marketing benefit to being able to show the PowerSeller logo in one’s auctions. Buyers who see the PowerSeller logo know that the seller in question has managed to complete a large number of transactions over time while maintaining at minimum a generally satisfactory relationship with his or her customers. This can help PowerSellers to draw a naturally higher price for their items in the bidding process.
- Special relationship to eBay. There’s also the fact that PowerSellers are a priority inside eBay. PowerSellers are served by a separate customer service team that is both more deeply staffed and more directly accessible than the customer service team that respond to regular eBay members’ issues. PowerSellers also have priority at all other eBay departments, including those that handle billing/accounting issues and those that handle reports of rules violations. PowerSellers can thus ensure a much more immediate response from eBay when concerns arise.
- Networking and tools. Finally, PowerSellers enjoy separate, private community and discussion areas on eBay and access to marketing and selling tools, information, and resources that are unavailable to regular eBay members.
Together these advantages tend to ensure that PowerSellers tend to become more successful over time, and indeed, that’s the goal. Though the special benefits enjoyed by PowerSellers have at times been controversial amongst other eBay members who may feel that such inequality weakens or runs counter to a sense of fairness that otherwise seems central to eBay’s ideals, it is in eBay’s best interest to support its PowerSeller community. Not only do eBay’s PowerSellers drive a vast chunk of eBay’s revenue stream, but PowerSellers are also reliable in a way—due to the nature of the program and its requirements, eBay gains through PowerSellers a community of heavy hitting traders that endeavor to maintain good customer service—essential if eBay is to thrive.
Are There Benefits for Buyers?
As it turns out, the nature of the PowerSeller program also creates benefits for buyers as well, though they are for the most part indirect.- Quality assurance. Though there are of course exceptions, buyers can use the PowerSeller logo as a general indication that the seller in question has managed to successfully deliver a large volume of goods to a large number of customers over a long period of time, satisfying the vast majority of them. Because sellers must maintain some minimum level of quality assurance to remain a PowerSeller, in other words, they are unlikely to be purely criminal or purely negligent in any way.
- Regular stock or shopping opportunities. The nature of eBay often makes repeat buying difficult. At brick-and-mortar stores where stock and prices are both regular, customers can “frequent” an establishment with clear expectations about what it carries and at what price. On eBay, stock tends to be unpredictable, prices doubly so. The PowerSellers program rewards sellers that have a consistent business plan and consistent volume, which generally means consistent sources, pricing, and stock. For buyers, this means that the most visible eBay sellers are also often the most predictable, making it easier the second time around to find the items you want at the price you want from a seller you trust.
- Better prices. Because high supply and high competition both drive prices downward, eBay’s facilitation of a community of high-volume sellers that often compete against one another helps to ensure that prices remain low in many of eBay’s product segments and categories, keeping available both ample supply of and broad choice for consumers.
