Becoming an eBay Powerseller: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Fri, 09/07/2007 - 14:09 — EbayBlog

When someone mentions to you that he or she is an eBay Powerseller, what immediately comes to your mind? Do you look highly on such people thinking that they must be among the richest eBay sellers in the world?

eBay encourages people to sell by rewarding sellers with various Powerseller status. Each Powerseller level is based on monthly sales performance.

To qualify being a Powerseller is fairly easy. The lowest requirement is to achieve US $1000 or GBP 750 sales per month. The sales target means the total prices of items sold for that month, postage are not calculated as sales.

Of course, being an eBay Powerseller myself, I have to agree that there are great many benefits. Let’s look at the truth in whole though, for I also cannot deny that being an eBay Powerseller sucks at times.

Presenting to you today: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of being an eBay Powerseller.

THE GOOD
Buyers see you as among the most successful sellers in terms of product sales and customer satisfaction on eBay, which induces more buyers’ confidences. Buyers can almost always be sure that you are not scammer, waiting for them to bank in that US$200 and then disappear without saying "Goodbye!".

In addition, members of the PowerSeller program get a range of special benefits, like prioritized customer support, promotional offers, eBay promotional merchandise, advanced selling education, opportunities to participate in research, and other special rewards. That, which all means more selling tips for you.

Gold PowerSellers and above even have emergency telephone access to eBay staff.

You can boast that to all your friends and family members about this prestigious neat little icon beside your ID. When someone says it is difficult to sell on eBay nowadays, you tell them “Who says so?”

THE BAD
Recalling that each Powerseller status is based on a monthly sales target. If you are not careful, you’d be concentrating more on achieving the sales target, list more which may or may not lead to more sales. While it is alright to keep growing your sales, if you are not careful, you may just end up with more expenses than profit.

Sales growth also means expenses and costs growth. For example, listing fees, supplies, packing, promotional activities or perhaps hiring an employee or two. Too often, eBay Powersellers are focused on how to achieve the sales target, afraid the Powerseller status taken away and thus missed out on justifying the costs.

THE UGLY
The Powerseller eligibility is reviewed every month and your status will stay with you as long as you continue to qualify the list of criteria by eBay. As Powerseller is deemed as someone high ranked on eBay, it is important that you carry on to meet these requirements.

Undeniably, the good of everything comes with an ugly side. I am not saying that maintaining the standards is a terrible thing. Just that some Powersellers could feel that they are not totally their own boss.

Well, it is like working for your boss which tells you “Hey, as a Senior Sales Manager, please maintain your sales target of US$100,000 for this year and take the customers out for beers. Otherwise, your position will be demoted to Sales Executive.”

The result? Stress and feel being controlled, which was why you left the organization to set up your own business in the first place. Now, the feeling of someone putting tension on you and be in charge of you is here again. Worst part is, you get demoted or fired (banned) when the quality of your business drop too much.

Intermittently, it may not be due to your fault, you could have easily bumped into one of these wonderful buyers which left you some negatives resulting in the quality of your feedbacks drop.

AND…

This ugly part allows you to reflect what you are doing wrong, change or improve the quality of your sales and services. Keep up your goals again and you will be on your way getting back the Powerseller status. Isn’t that great?

This is also why many eBay sellers although qualify for the Powerseller program, prefer not to accept the status at all. This shows that the Powerseller status contribute to sales, but only on a very small percentage.

The most important thing your customers look for are still the quality of your services and value of your products. Set your own goals, maintain your level of quality and sales. LET YOU AND YOUR BUYERS DETERMINE that YOU are a Powerseller because of your business and not because of eBay.

[via jennyhow.com]

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