This is Part 2 of a 4 part series. Make sure to read about all the other exciting changes eBay introduced this year!
Part 1: Item Descriptions
Part 3: Store Subscriptions
Part 4: Big Changes

Your opinion matters! You may have heard that statement more than once over the years and it remains true today – especially on eBay. Letting your voice be heard in the form of a review is a powerful selling tool.

How is eBay changing product reviews

eBay product reviews have been on the site for many years. I remember when it first rolled out and today there are almost 2 million product reviews posted on the site.
WOW! That’s huge, right?
Over the years I’ve learned that when eBay rolls out a new functionality, it’s best to jump on board and be a part of the ride.
Almost always, the functionality put in place plays a big part in the “chemistry of success” for the eBay company as well as its buyers and sellers.
Product reviews are great examples of this being true and, now, eBay is giving more prominence to reviews.
Prior to May 6, 2016, eBay sellers had the option to show or not show reviews. Now, not only will reviews appear automatically but the amount of reviews shown is increasing as well.

How Do Reviews Help Sellers

Are you ready for some mind blowing statistics?
73% of consumers will place their trust in a brand or product if the majority of their online reviews are positive – Entrepreneur.com
This means if you’re selling coffee makers and great reviews show up on your products, you already have the buyer’s trust and that makes them far more likely to purchase.
This is great, right?
But, what if there are hundreds of other eBay sellers hawking the same coffee makers?
Aha!
Here’s where reviews can really benefit you!
How? Because you’re going to do your best to make sure that the consumer is reading your reviews!
That’s right. You are going to become a review machine!

Why You Should Write Reviews

Remember I told you that way back in the day I jumped on the eBay Review Train?
Well, below is a screenshot I took in April 2016 of a review that I wrote in Sept 2006!

My review has been on eBay for over 10 years!
During that time, sellers who listed the Bunn A10 Pouromatic and chose to show reviews on that product helped drive traffic to my eBay store!
What?!
No, way!
Yes, way!
When leaving reviews, your eBay name will be seen and is ‘click-able’!

Can you hear the cha-chings?!!
Remember, up till now sellers could choose whether they wanted to show reviews. Some did, some didn’t. Even during the last 10 years when sellers could choose, a goodly amount of buyers found my eBay store via reviews that I wrote.

Now that reviews are always going to show up, all those reviews I’ve written over the years become even more prominent! This will drive even more traffic to my store! And, my brand becomes more visible as well!
More importantly, using the coffee maker as an example, if you write an awesome and useful review it is very likely that a buyer will choose to spend their money with you rather than with the merchant who did not provide the valuable insight.
Get it?
Not to take away business from anyone but let’s say that a consumer is searching for coffee makers and lands on Acme Coffee Makers eBay store. Then, the review you wrote appears below Acme’s listing. The consumer clicks through to see your review. If it’s a great review, and you happen to mention that you also sell coffee makers, they are very likely to click through to your store and buy from you instead of Acme!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love marketing? And eBay? 😉
***Special Note***
You have to write a review for your eBay user name to show up. You can’t just tick the stars and call it a day. If you do not write a review, your user name will not show up at all.

How to Write a Product Review

Let me walk you through an example. I bought a Yeti Blue Microphone on eBay and I am very happy with it.
I have two options, I can either return to the page I bought it from or I can do a search on eBay to find another one. Either way, when I view the same listing as the one I own, I can easily write a review about the product.

Notice (above) that someone gave it a five star already but never wrote a review. This is also an option (but, remember, your user name will not show up to consumers unless you write a review). I simply click on ‘Write a review’ and now I can give it a five star rating.
After ticking the stars, the ‘Tell us more’ option pops up.

After you give it a rating and answer a few yes/no questions, then you can write in your own words how you feel about the product. Once that is completed you will see a ‘thank you’ screen along with a list of other products that you’ve purchased on eBay.

Yes. I bought a mouse, a headset, a smoothie book, and a pillow on eBay. Now you know. 😉
***Very Important Special Note***
Even if you don’t sell these same products, I strongly encourage you to leave reviews on them. Leaving reviews helps establish your brand, it helps other sellers move more product, and establishes you as a ‘good neighbor’ in the eBay buying and selling community.

eBay Product Review Wrap Up

Everyone’s reviews must be approved and before they will appear on the site. You can also click on the blue word “profile” and it will take you to your profile page on eBay. While on that page, if you scroll to the bottom, you can now see all of the reviews you wrote are publicly displayed on this page.
Using my 10 year old Bunn Pouromatic review as an example again, reviews (like diamonds) are forever – unless you personally remove them which you can do from your profile page.

Also see how people can vote on your reviews to let others know how helpful it was to them. Notice above that 3 out of 6 people found mine to be helpful. Now anyone that searches eBay for this coffee maker will be able to read my review along with others. When they click on “7 Ratings” a pop-up box will appear (see below) to show how many people rated it and how many stars it received.

They could also click on the bottom button to “See all 6 reviews” to read each one as shown below.

When there are many reviews posted on a product, notice the “sort” drop-down box to the right. It will allow you to re-organize the reviews in any of the four orders:

• Most Relevant
• Most Recent
• Most Favorable
• Most Critical

Again, this type of system will allow the buyer to make a confident decision to either buy or not buy this product.
Next, notice to the right of each review the public can give it a thumbs up or down and they can report the review if needed. It would then be reviewed by an eBay team and it may be considered to be removed from the site. So ,keep this in mind if you spot an unfair or a spammy type of review. It’s helpful to all if you report it.
That wraps up the new eBay Spring 2016 Sellers Update for product reviews. All in all, very exciting stuff!
Have questions? Feel free to contact me or visit the FAQ page on eBay.