Whatever your personal feelings about eBay’s new feedback policy, it’s unlikely that it will be changed anytime in the near future. This leaves us, as sellers, with two options - one negative and one positive.

We can join the many sellers who will spend the next month or more on blogs, forums, and other groups whining, complaining, tearing down eBay, and accomplishing very little. Or, we can take a positive approach and proactively go about reducing the impact the new policy will have on our business to as little as possible.

Here are twelve proactive tips to help you reduce the impact on your business as much as possible.

1. Improve Your Item Descriptions - Describe all items accurately and completely. Include enough pictures to so a buyer knows exactly what they are bidding on. If an item has any flaws make sure you include accurate descriptions of what they are and where they are located. Provide detailed photos of all falls.

2. Don’t Inflate Shipping Costs - If you are currently inflating shipping costs to cover things such as packing material, gas to drive to the post office, etc., get rid of them. Treat these incidental costs as part of doing business and only charge the buyer what it will actually take to mail his item to him.

3. Provide Actual Shipping Costs When Possible - When possible include the actual figure a buyer will pay for shipping within your auction description. If that’s not possible, provide a shipping calculator within your description and state that bidders can use it to determine shipping costs to their location.

4. Always Offer Combined Shipping With Multiple Purchases - Keep what it costs the buyer of multiple items to the minimum and you will keep him happy.

5. Keep Buyers Aware Of The Status Of Their Purchase - You should communicate every step of the order process to the buyer in a timely manner.

• Send winning bidder notices including all information a buyer needs to complete the transaction immediately after the auction ends.
• Have a separate winning bidder notice for buyers with little or no feedback offering to walk them through the purchase process if need be.
• Send combined shipping invoices when appropriate
• Unless you are shipping an item the same day payment is received, send a ‘Payment Received’ email the same day payment is received to include the date their item will be shipped.
• Send a shipping confirmation email. When appropriate be sure to include insurance and/or delivery confirmation numbers. Be sure to thank them for their purchase, say you hope they enjoy it, ask that they contact you if they are in any way unhappy with their purchase, and request they leave positive feedback upon receipt of their purchase.

None of this needs to take a lot of time if you set up email templates for each email.

6. Ship At Least 5 Days A Week - Monday Through Friday - Saturday doesn’t hurt either. Either take the time to go to the post office or make use of carrier pick-up, but don’t hold packages just because it might be inconvenient for you to insure they are sent.

7. Ship Everything Either The Day Payment Is Received Or The Following Day - Many people tell you to hold items paid for with a personal check until the check clears. I don’t agree. Pack it up and ship it when payment is received. In 9 years of selling high priced goods on eBay, I’ve had one bad check. Although I was out a small amount of money, the positives of shipping immediately more than made up for the loss.

8. Pack All Purchases Professionally And Securely - Pack every item you ship in a fashion that will insure they arrive safely at their destination. Double box all breakable or fragile items. Eventually you will have something arrive at it’s destination in damaged condition, but these instances will be almost non-existent if you make sure everything is packed securely.

9. Be Proactive About Solving Any Problems That Arise - If an item does arrive damaged or a customer is unhappy with a purchase, solve the problem quickly and generously. Offer a full refund or a replacement. When refunding include all postage and incidental costs the buyer accrued in the transaction. Don’t be afraid to ‘take the blame’ even if it isn’t yours.

10. Never Become Argumentative With A Customer - Conduct all correspondence with customers in a polite business-like manner no matter how demanding or wrong they may be.

11. Choose To Only Deal With Pleasant Customers - Some niches just seem to be full of customers who are jerks. If you find yourself in one of these niches, get out of it and start selling something else.

12. Deal With Negative Feedback Professionally - Eventually, if you sell on eBay long enough, someone is going to leave you a negative feedback. Whether it’s deserved or not, deal with it in a professional manner. Send the customer a full refund immediately. Then begin negotiations with them in hope of agreeing to mutual feedback removal.

Photograph by Ade Oshineye.

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