"Your seller performance status is at risk in the global program." How stupid!

[tiramisu41]

So I happened to look at my Seller Dashboard today, and there was a little red "1" next to the notifications field.  I click on it and it says:  "Your seller performance status is at risk in the global program."

Huh?   I look at all the metrics under "Region: Global" and I am at 100% on all of them.   However, I only have had 98 international sales in the last year, and that apparently is what is triggering this "warning"

 as to have TRS status you must have at least 100 sales in the past 12 months.   

I do get some international sales here and there tho much less than I used to which has declined as international shipping rates have gone up.  I offer to ship internationally and use GSP, though I will ship direct to a buyer at his/her request if they are in a DELCON country and I can track the shipment door-to-door.  Have had no complaints or issues with any of my international buyers, but they are a very small percentage of my sales and most likely always will be given the kinds of things I sell which primarily appeal/are of interest to US buyers.

Far more of my "foreign" sales go through a freight forwarder than through GSP or direct. When a buyer uses a freight forwarder, are those sales counted as "global" even though they are sent to a US address?   I wonder.

I guess my point/question is that I fail to see what it is eBay thinks I'm supposed to do to "correct" this problem?  Go out and beat up non-USA buyers and make them buy my stuff?  

Secondly, why is there a quantity requirement (100 per year) on each "sub-set" of eBay buyers in order to maintain Top Rated Seller status?  (Region: USA, Region: USA, Region Ireland and UK, etc)?  So that eBay can make more money off sellers because if they're like me, they may not meet "minimum standards" for a particular regional buyer sub-set, thus won't be entitled to any discounts when doing business with buyers from that region even though they exceed minimum standards for other regions  e.g. "Region: USA"?

Or, was this "notification" I received just the eBay "glitch du jour?" 

[duchess-at-speakeasy]

When you fall beneath 100 annual sales, you lose TRS status. Simple as that. So your notification referred to that that status ONLY.

~~C~~

[pjcdn2005]

I think that it is based on the country the buyer is registered in so even if you ship to a forwarder in the US, if the buyer is registered in one of the global regions, they would count as a global buyer. Right now you have a TRS banner on your listings on .ca so I imagine that ebay is letting you know that could be gone. That probably doesn't matter to you but it may matter to someone else so it isn't a bad thing that they let you know.

"Secondly, why is there a quantity requirement (100 per year) on each "sub-set" of eBay buyers in order to maintain Top Rated Seller status?  (Region: USA, Region: USA, Region Ireland and UK, etc)?  So that eBay can make more money off sellers because if they're like me, they may not meet "minimum standards" for a particular regional buyer sub-set, thus won't be entitled to any discounts when doing business with buyers from that region even though they exceed minimum standards for other regions  e.g. "Region: USA"?"

 If you meet the TRS standards in your own region you get the discount regardless of where the buyer is located so losing global TRS shouldn't affect how much money ebay is paying out. 

[tiramisu41]

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@duchess-at-speakeasywrote:
When you fall beneath 100 annual sales, you lose TRS status. Simple as that. So your notification referred to that that status ONLY.

~~C~~

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No, it's not as simple as that.

Can you tell me why if I have 372 sales within the US that are categorized under "Region: USA" that eBay is showing I only have 98 sales under "Region: Global?"   If that's the case, "Global" apparently doesn't mean "global" at all.   If it truly did, then the total number of transactions should be 470 (372 + 98).  (US plus non-US).

So either, eBay is having another "senior moment" or the term "Region: Global" means "non-US" or "sales to countries other than the one in which the seller is located" -- NOT the number of sales trasnactions regardless of buyer location -- i.e. "Global."

To complicate things even further, there are two other sub-sets also shown on my Dashboard ("Region: Germany, Austria, Switzerland" and "Region: UK, Ireland" that show there were one and two sales in each region respectively.

So that means, I had 101 transactions that were outside the USA in the past year which should qualify me for TRS status for sales in non-USA regions as well as in the US.

But noooo.....     Because of the way eBay is dividing "the globe" into regions and requiring sellers meet TRS minimums *for each sub-set* that isn't possible or likely unless you sell at a considerably higher volume level which means, even if your total sales meet TRS standards, you won't receive TRS discounts for any regional sub-set unless you have 100 of more sales in the past year *in each of those as well.*

Why is that fair?   Why aren't TRS "perks" based on the number of sales you have *period* regardless of what region in which the buyer resides?

[jpcustomsonline]

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@tiramisu41wrote:

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@duchess-at-speakeasywrote:
When you fall beneath 100 annual sales, you lose TRS status. Simple as that. So your notification referred to that that status ONLY.

~~C~~

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No, it's not as simple as that.

Can you tell me why if I have 372 sales within the US that are categorized under "Region: USA" that eBay is showing I only have 98 sales under "Region: Global?"   If that's the case, "Global" apparently doesn't mean "global" at all.   If it truly did, then the total number of transactions should be 470 (372 + 98).  (US plus non-US).

So either, eBay is having another "senior moment" or the term "Region: Global" means "non-US" or "sales to countries other than the one in which the seller is located" -- NOT the number of sales trasnactions regardless of buyer location -- i.e. "Global."

To complicate things even further, there are two other sub-sets also shown on my Dashboard ("Region: Germany, Austria, Switzerland" and "Region: UK, Ireland" that show there were one and two sales in each region respectively.

So that means, I had 101 transactions that were outside the USA in the past year which should qualify me for TRS status for sales in non-USA regions as well as in the US.

But noooo.....     Because of the way eBay is dividing "the globe" into regions and requiring sellers meet TRS minimums *for each sub-set* that isn't possible or likely unless you sell at a considerably higher volume level which means, even if your total sales meet TRS standards, you won't receive TRS discounts for any regional sub-set unless you have 100 of more sales in the past year *in each of those as well.*

Why is that fair?   Why aren't TRS "perks" based on the number of sales you have *period* regardless of what region in which the buyer resides?

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You really need to look up what global region actually is. Because, no, it's NOT the whole globe. It's every country that isn't in any of the other regions.  What do you care if you're not TRS in global?

[tiramisu41]

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@pjcdn2005wrote:

I think that it is based on the country the buyer is registered in so even if you ship to a forwarder in the US, if the buyer is registered in one of the global regions, they would count as a global buyer. Right now you have a TRS banner on your listings on .ca so I imagine that ebay is letting you know that could be gone. That probably doesn't matter to you but it may matter to someone else so it isn't a bad thing that they let you know.

Correct @pjcdn2005.  The warning refers to "If we evaluated you on April 20, 2018 (next rating period) you would fall below minimum TRS standards in terms of having 100 sales or more in this region.   And while I agree that's  nice to know, what exactly does eBay think a seller can do about it when the kind of items you sell don't have "global appeal"?   Furthermore, I far exceed the 100 sale/yr minimum on my account in the aggregate, so what difference should it make what regions these sales come from -- and then require you to meet these standards in each regional sub-set?  Just doesn't make any sense to me.

"Secondly, why is there a quantity requirement (100 per year) on each "sub-set" of eBay buyers in order to maintain Top Rated Seller status?  (Region: USA, Region: USA, Region Ireland and UK, etc)?  So that eBay can make more money off sellers because if they're like me, they may not meet "minimum standards" for a particular regional buyer sub-set, thus won't be entitled to any discounts when doing business with buyers from that region even though they exceed minimum standards for other regions  e.g. "Region: USA"?"

 If you meet the TRS standards in your own region you get the discount regardless of where the buyer is located so losing global TRS shouldn't affect how much money ebay is paying out. 

Is that true?  I couldn't find anything anywhere that affirmed this is the case.   If it is true, then why send a "notification" telling you your  "Region: Global" sub-set is in danger of losing TRS status when according to what you write, it won't matter anyway?

Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to understand.

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[tiramisu41]

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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You really need to look up what global region actually is. Because, no, it's NOT the whole globe. It's every country that isn't in any of the other regions.  What do you care if you're not TRS in global?

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And where can one find such information?  I've looked, and come up with zip, nada, zilch.  @jpcustomsonline, can you provide a link?

Conceptually, I don't really give two hoots about whether I am TRS in "Region: Global" since I sell primarily to the US, but apparently eBay thinks I should be concerned. 

 However, *I am* concerned if it means I won't get TRS discounts for any non-US sales I make when my account in the aggregate far exceeds the minimum requirements.   Doesn't seem right or fair to be penalized "regionally" when overall you are meeting/exceeding TRS standards.  If I'm going to "punished" in this way, I might as well discontinue selling outside of the USA.

[jpcustomsonline]

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@tiramisu41wrote:

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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You really need to look up what global region actually is. Because, no, it's NOT the whole globe. It's every country that isn't in any of the other regions.  What do you care if you're not TRS in global?

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And where can one find such information?  I've looked, and come up with zip, nada, zilch.  @jpcustomsonline, can you provide a link?

Conceptually, I don't really give two hoots about whether I am TRS in "Region: Global" since I sell primarily to the US, but apparently eBay thinks I should be concerned. 

 However, *I am* concerned if it means I won't get TRS discounts for any non-US sales I make when my account in the aggregate far exceeds the minimum requirements.   Doesn't seem right or fair to be penalized "regionally" when overall you are meeting/exceeding TRS standards.  If I'm going to "punished" in this way, I might as well discontinue selling outside of the USA.

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Pretty sure you can't be a top rated seller and get the top rated discounts for outside of US regional sales anyways.

And the global info is right in TOS.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/global-seller-performance-policy?id=4351

[tiramisu41]

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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Pretty sure you can't be a top rated seller and get the top rated discounts for outside of US regional sales anyways.

And the global info is right in TOS.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/global-seller-performance-policy?id=4351

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Thanks for the link @jpcustomsonline.  I found at least a half-dozen other pages, but not this one which of course has the info I was trying to find.  Still think the word "Global" is a poor choice when it doesn't mean that at all, but that's eBay.

Interesting you think even if you're a TRS seller in the USA, you can't/won't get TRS discounts when selling to other regions anyway.  Again, if that's the case, why notify sellers they're in danger of losing their TRS status if there's "nothing at stake?"

[jpcustomsonline]

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@tiramisu41wrote:

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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Pretty sure you can't be a top rated seller and get the top rated discounts for outside of US regional sales anyways.

And the global info is right in TOS.
https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/global-seller-performance-policy?id=4351

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Thanks for the link @jpcustomsonline.  I found at least a half-dozen other pages, but not this one which of course has the info I was trying to find.  Still think the word "Global" is a poor choice when it doesn't mean that at all, but that's eBay.

Interesting you think even if you're a TRS seller in the USA, you can't/won't get TRS discounts when selling to other regions anyway.  Again, if that's the case, why notify sellers they're in danger of losing their TRS status if there's "nothing at stake?"

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cause they are ebay. You still get better placement being a TRS. So, hey. There are benifits to it.

[tiramisu41]

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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@tiramisu41wrote: 

Interesting you think even if you're a TRS seller in the USA, you can't/won't get TRS discounts when selling to other regions anyway.  Again, if that's the case, why notify sellers they're in danger of losing their TRS status if there's "nothing at stake?"

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cause they are ebay. You still get better placement being a TRS. So, hey. There are benifits to it.

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I'm not so sure about that @jpcustomsonline.   In digging through the page link you provided, I ran across this  (boldface mine):

"We have four regional performance standard programs, with slightly different minimum performance thresholds, and your performance is measured against the standards of the region into which you sell an item. The four programs are:

• Global: This covers Australia and any other market outside of the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
• US: This covers the US market.
• UK: This covers the UK and Ireland
• German: This covers Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

So if you sell to a domestic US customer, you’ll need to meet the standards of our US program. If you sell to an Australian buyer, you'll have to meet the standards of our Global program, but if you sell to a buyer in the UK, you’ll need to meet the UK standards."

So it appears that even if you are a TRS seller in one region, you don't get TRS benefits when you sell to any other region unless you meet the requirements for that region as well.   

IOW, even if you are a TRS seller in one region, your TRS discounts are null and void if you sell to another region where you don't meet *that region's* TRS requirements.    

Which translates to:   By dividing the world up into regional sub-sets, and requiring sellers to meet TRS standards for each of those regions in order receive TRS benefits, eBay increases the odds they will keep more money in their pocket because fewer sellers will meet all or several of the regional sub-set TRS requirements AKA not qualify for TRS discounts.

Which begs the question -- What motivation is there for TRS sellers to sell outside their "home region" since unless they are able to attract a large enough customer base to meet minimum TRS requirements in each of those other regions, the seller will "pay full price" for the privilege?

Stupid.  If a seller achieves TRS status, that fact should be recognized and those benefits forthcoming, no matter where they sell.

[jpcustomsonline]

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@tiramisu41wrote:

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@jpcustomsonlinewrote:

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@tiramisu41wrote: 

Interesting you think even if you're a TRS seller in the USA, you can't/won't get TRS discounts when selling to other regions anyway.  Again, if that's the case, why notify sellers they're in danger of losing their TRS status if there's "nothing at stake?"

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cause they are ebay. You still get better placement being a TRS. So, hey. There are benifits to it.

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I'm not so sure about that @jpcustomsonline.   In digging through the page link you provided, I ran across this  (boldface mine):

"We have four regional performance standard programs, with slightly different minimum performance thresholds, and your performance is measured against the standards of the region into which you sell an item. The four programs are:

• Global: This covers Australia and any other market outside of the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
• US: This covers the US market.
• UK: This covers the UK and Ireland
• German: This covers Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

So if you sell to a domestic US customer, you’ll need to meet the standards of our US program. If you sell to an Australian buyer, you'll have to meet the standards of our Global program, but if you sell to a buyer in the UK, you’ll need to meet the UK standards."

So it appears that even if you are a TRS seller in one region, you don't get TRS benefits when you sell to any other region unless you meet the requirements for that region as well.   

IOW, even if you are a TRS seller in one region, your TRS discounts are null and void if you sell to another region where you don't meet *that region's* TRS requirements.    

Which translates to:   By dividing the world up into regional sub-sets, and requiring sellers to meet TRS standards for each of those regions in order receive TRS benefits, eBay increases the odds they will keep more money in their pocket because fewer sellers will meet all or several of the regional sub-set TRS requirements AKA not qualify for TRS discounts.

Which begs the question -- What motivation is there for TRS sellers to sell outside their "home region" since unless they are able to attract a large enough customer base to meet minimum TRS requirements in each of those other regions, the seller will "pay full price" for the privilege?

Stupid.  If a seller achieves TRS status, that fact should be recognized and those benefits forthcoming, no matter where they sell.

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that's all correct. BUT, even if you do become TRS, I don't think you get discounts outside your home region. But you do get better visibility.

[points13]

Got to wonder how ebay is tallying these numbers. I show 80 transactions USA last 12 months which seems correct. Then I look at global and it shows 32. I would have to do some research but I can guarantee I could count my international sales on one hand.

I thought at one time years back my global number included the USA totals and was always a little higher. I wonder if at sometime in the last year a change was made and they are not being counted anymore and the 32 count will fall to single digits were it shoud be as the months pass. 

[watchingbands]

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@points13wrote:

Got to wonder how ebay is tallying these numbers. I show 80 transactions USA last 12 months which seems correct. Then I look at global and it shows 32. I would have to do some research but I can guarantee I could count my international sales on one hand.

I thought at one time years back my global number included the USA totals and was always a little higher. I wonder if at sometime in the last year a change was made and they are not being counted anymore and the 32 count will fall to single digits were it shoud be as the months pass. 

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Up until about august, they WERE counting some other places for global. They stopped. Everything after that, only counts those other countries not included in the other regions. Oh and they also count the defects from all those countries, before august, but only let you fix your status based on the NEW metrics...

[lovtaco0]

This is a change that was announced in the 2017 Summer Seller Update. The date this went into effect is February 20, 2018.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2017summer/international-performance-standards.h...

Sales prior to August 1, 2017 counted for all regions for TRS status. Sales August 1, 2017 and later are specific to the region. You can be TRS in the US and Above Standard in other regions.

The dates sales started counting regionally and the date the change to TRS status went into effect are why a lot of sellers have been seeing changes only recently, over the past month. If you sold in higher volume last year then you will keep your TRS status longer until those sales drop off each month.

Your TRS+ discount will apply for listings that meet the requirement in regions where you have a TRS status. In regions where you are Above Standard you will not receive the TRS+ discount.