Top Rated Seller requirements
To become a Top Rated Seller your eBay account must have been active for at least 90 days. You must also meet sales and tracking requirements and performance standards.
Sales requirements:
You have at least 100 transactions with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period.
You have at least $1,000 in sales with US buyers over the most recent 12-month period.
Tracking requirements:
You've uploaded valid shipment tracking to My eBay within your promised handling time for at least 90% of transactions with US buyers in the last 3 months.
1 business day handling time: If a buyer pays on Tuesday, you need to upload tracking by 11:59:59 pm Pacific Time on Wednesday.
Same business day handling time: If you offer same business day handling, you also have 1 business day to upload valid tracking information. For example, if a buyer pays on Tuesday at 10:00 am Pacific Time, you need to upload tracking by 11:59:59 pm Pacific Time on Wednesday. The tracking number must have at least one carrier scan recorded within your promised handling time.
Handling time is measured in business days. Weekends and holidays aren't counted. For example, if you specify 1-day handling time and a buyer pays on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you need to upload tracking by 11:59:59 pm Pacific Time on Monday.
If a buyer purchases items from multiple listings, each listing (or transaction) must have a tracking number, even if all the items have been combined into a single order for shipping.
Exceptions: You're not required to upload tracking for:
Unpaid items
Canceled transactions
Listings where the buyer selects freight or local pick-up
Classified Ads
Learn more about uploading shipment tracking.
Learn more about handling time.
Transaction defect rate:
The defect rate is the percentage of a seller's transactions that have any of the following transaction-related defects:
eBay Money Back Guarantee and PayPal Purchase Protection cases closed without seller resolution
Seller-initiated transaction cancellation
To meet eBay's minimum standard, sellers can only have up to 2% of transactions with one or more transaction over the most recent evaluation period. To qualify as a Top Rated Seller, sellers can only have a maximum 0.5% of transactions with one or more defects over the most recent evaluation period. Only transactions with US buyers count toward your seller performance on eBay.com.
The defect rate won't affect your status until you have transactions with defects with at least 5 different buyers, at least 4 different buyers to impact Top Rated status, within your evaluation period.
Sellers can have a maximum of 0.3% of eBay Money Back Guarantee or PayPal Purchase Protection closed cases without seller resolution over the most recent evaluation period. That means the buyer opened the case, you weren't able to resolve it, the buyer reached out to eBay or PayPal to review it, and eBay found you responsible.
Sellers with 400 or more transactions over the past 3 months are evaluated based on the past 3 months and sellers with fewer than 400 transactions are evaluated based on the past 12 months.
Learn more about fair performance evaluation.
You meet the following eBay Money Back Guarantee and PayPal Purchase Protection case requirements:
Case requirements
Percentage of cases
Cases closed without seller resolution
0.30%
Learn more about fair performance evaluation.
Late shipment rate
In order to be a Top Rated Seller you must have less than 3% of transactions with late shipping.
The late shipment rate is the percentage of your transactions that weren’t shipped on time. We’ll track how often your items were either shipped within the stated handling time or delivered after the estimated delivery date.
If the shipment receives a carrier scan within your handling time, it will count as being shipped on time. We won’t check whether the carrier delivered the shipment after the estimated delivery date.
If the shipment doesn’t receive a carrier scan within your handling time and the shipment was late according to the tracking details, it will count as a late shipment.
If the shipment doesn’t receive a carrier scan within your handling time and there's no tracking info available, we'll check with the buyer. If the buyer says the carrier delivered the shipment late, it will count as a late shipment.
If you would like to see a summary of the new seller standards, please see the Fall Seller Update.