eBay awards best German sellers with Top-Service label

 

eBay Germany has introduced a new badge to its domestic sellers. From now on, commercial German vendors on the marketplace will be able to display a little blue badge with a star on it, next to a label that reads: eBay Top-Service. But who can earn such a badge, and what do you need to do to get it?

 

 

eBay Top-Service badge explained

Although the marketplace announced the launch of the new badge in February 2024, the little blue symbol first appeared on product pages in October of the same year. The purpose of eBay Top-Service is to help the best-performing sellers gain more visibility and raise trust among potential consumers.

 

 

Screenshot of a random product listing on ebay.de displaying the eBay Top-Service badge below the payment options

 

 

The badge is displayed on several occasions and “locations”, including the product listing, search results, the shopping cart and at checkout.

 

 

Screenshot of random search results on ebay.de displaying the Top-Service badge under three of the four results

 

 

Screenshot of ebay.de displaying a shopping cart containing a random product with the eBay Top-Service badge

 

 

The presence of the Top-Service badge is aimed to reassure shoppers that they’re about to experience excellent service from a trustworthy seller on the marketplace, like timely shipping. In this regard, the Top-Service badge is similar to Amazon Prime, with one small difference: eBay provides the badge free of charge to its vendors.

 

The badge replaces two previous eBay services for sellers, eBay Guarantee and eBay Plus. These badges used to serve as authentication mechanisms to verify sellers’ trustworthiness and level of service. Now, these two will be joined under the umbrella of eBay Top-Service.

 

Please note that the customer side of eBay Plus, the premium membership service that allows shoppers to collect points and enjoy special deals, is unaffected by this change and will continue to operate.

 

 

Screenshot of ebay.de/ebayplus, displaying the homepage of eBay’s premium membership programme for customers

 

 

How to get the eBay Top-Service badge

Good news for sellers: you don’t have to apply for the badge with eBay. In fact, if you fulfil certain criteria, the badge will automatically appear on your product listings and the other mentioned locations.

 

According to the marketplace, Top-Service sellers are those who:

 

• Are professional sellers on eBay
• Have top customer ratings and/or an above average service status
• Fulfil the marketplace’s shipping terms
• Are based in Germany
• Offer fixed price option on product listings
• Ship for free within Germany
• Offer tracking on shipments worth 10 euros or more
• Provide one-day processing and a maximum of three-day shipping deadlines
• Offer free returns within 30 days
• Provide a return address in Germany.

 

As mentioned before, the programme offers similar advantages to sellers as eBay’s biggest rival, Amazon does through Prime. Top-Service sellers, like Prime sellers, enjoy higher visibility, a boost to sales and increased customer trust.

 

However, contrary to Prime sellers, Top-Service vendors don’t have to pay a fee to eBay for using the badge, nor have to do anything to earn the right to display it on their listings.

 

eBay’s new badge is also beneficial for consumers. As an aggregate of various high quality service benchmarks, the Top-Service badge signals to customers that it’s safe to place their trust in the vendor.

 

 

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However, as the criteria are evaluated automatically, there’s an inherent danger in the system. What happens if a dishonest seller fulfils all the criteria to earn the Top-Service badge?

 

Since the marketplace awards the badge automatically, it’s entirely possible that a fraudulent seller meets the criteria (e.g. by providing false information and fake reviews) and gets a Top-Service badge.

 

Find out all about fake reviews!

 

Without human verification checks integrated into the system, fake sellers can infiltrate the programme and display Top-Service badges on their product listings. Lulled into a false sense of security, customers could be much more willing to purchase from these fraudulent sellers, exposing themselves to serious harm.

 

Such an event would be devastating for consumers whose health and sensitive data could be endangered, and for brands whose IP rights the fraudsters infringe upon.

 

| Badges awarded in error can seriously harm consumers

 

Luckily, there’s a way to protect your brand’s IP rights and still make the most of eBay’s Top-Service badges.

 

 

Online brand protection against fraudulent sellers on eBay

Fully automated processes can be vulnerable to malevolent attacks, because no human element is required to check the authenticity of claims. Similarly, a process based on exclusively human resources would be unable to conduct all checks due to their sheer volume.

 

This is why we at globaleyez combine the best of both worlds and offer powerful software monitoring with an intuitive human touch. All of our services are powered by our state-of-the-art software tools and directed by dedicated human experts.

 

Take our marketplace monitoring service, for instance. We cover over 150 marketplaces worldwide, eBay included, to detect potentially IP infringing listings. Not only does our powerhouse software traxster find suspicious listings, but thanks to its versatile filters, we’re quickly able to discard authorised vendors and zero in on infringing ones.

 

Not all fraudsters are created equally. One that sells a few handmade infringing products from their grandma’s garage usually causes much less harm than one with an entire fake factory at their disposal. This is why our sales tracking service is essential to determine the volume of sales an infringing seller conducts over eBay (or any other platform).

 

Thanks to this information, we can set up the most efficient course of action. First, we go after the sellers that cause the most harm, and we work our way down the list to the hobby infringers who may not even know that they’re breaking the law by crocheting pet clothing with your brand’s logo.

 

 

AI-generated illustration of a dog wearing a knitted hat

 

 

Once our action plan is complete, it’s time to enforce your rights and demand the removal of the infringing product listings from eBay, or any other marketplace worldwide.

 

 

Conclusion

eBay Top-Service is a useful badge that can help brands and sellers gain visibility and consumer trust on eBay. Since the programme is very new, we don’t yet know how it actually affects sales numbers.

 

However, one thing is unfortunately sure: as is the case with almost anything online, fraudsters can see the Top-Service label as an opportunity to infringe on your brand’s IP rights and defraud customers.

 

Don’t let fraudulent sellers steal your revenue! Contact us and let’s set up an effective online brand protection strategy together.