Introducing Top Seller Program & Seller Standards
Important: Sellers please read
Beginning April 1, 2018, we will start rolling out Seller Standards. The status of your account will be based on how long you have been selling, as well as four Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
A KPI is a primary measure of success. For example, if a company wants to ensure their customers receive their orders faster than their competitors, they would likely have a KPI on delivery time. To launch Seller Standards, we have come up with four initial KPIs:
- Handling Time
This is the amount of time between payment from the buyer and acceptance scan from the carrier. Handling time will be calculated as the average number of days to acceptance for all accepted orders in the previous 30 days.
2. Broken Rate
This is the amount of seller-fault return requests divided by the number of delivered orders. Broken Rate will be calculated based on the previous 30 days of delivered orders.
3. Item Not Received (INR) Rate
This is the number of orders reported as not received by customers divided by the number of total paid orders. INR Rate will be calculated based on the previous 90 days of paid orders.
4. Total Sales
Total sales will be the sum of paid sales (hammer, shipping, upsells less refunds) over the previous 30 days.
Note: Tophatter may occasionally adjust the KPIs to account for any platform updates and to continue to optimize the buyer experience. These adjustments will be announced in advance so sellers can maintain or better their account status before the change.
Seller Categories
We will begin by categorizing sellers into four groups.
1. New Sellers
A new seller will be considered a seller account that has been on the platform for less than six months. Typically, the onboarding time will be at least one full quarter (three months), but we may allow up to six months. Once this time has passed, sellers will lose the New Seller status and be placed in one of the other programs based on their KPIs.
Note: Not all new sellers will receive Account Management Services or the ability to sell in multiple categories. It is important for new sellers to optimize KPIs to be considered for Preferred and Top Seller programs.
*Auction Sales may vary by program. These numbers are approximations and may not properly illustrate volume levels as of April 1st.
**Badging/Tagging is currently being developed. Rolling this out is contingent on positive tests for performance.
2. At-Risk Sellers
Outside of being suspended, banned, blocked, etc., At-Risk is the most unstable account status. If you find your account in this state, that means you will be subject to the following:
- Loss of auction volume
- Removal or limited exposure within Browse section (Catalogs)
- Ineligible for account management services
- Auto-suspension for listing & fulfillment violations
3. Preferred Sellers
To be a Preferred Seller means that you are doing everything right, but you have one or more KPIs holding you back from being a Top Seller. This status enables your eligibility for:
- Mid-High auction volume
- Exposure in Browse section (Catalogs)
- Account Management services
- A first strike for account/listing warnings (versus suspension)
- Multi-Category selling
Preferred status does not guarantee mid-high volume, Account Management services, and multi-category selling, but your account will be eligible and given priority over At-Risk sellers.
4. Top Sellers
As we continue to rollout seller programs, Top Sellers will essentially have VIP access to all new things on Tophatter.
- High auction volume (potential)
- Exposure and special access in Browse menu
- Account Management services complete with annual in-person meeting opportunities and formal Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR)
- Multiple strikes for account/listing warnings
- Auto-approve for new categories
- Eligibility for top seller Badges (in development; testing performance)
- Access to Early Payments program
*Bolded incentives are guaranteed for Top Sellers.
FAQs
When will these programs go into effect?
You will start to notice differences within your account in April. Examples of differences include:
- Dashboard Updates to highlight most important metrics
- Changes in Volume (sellers doing good/bad will get more/less volume)
- Exposure — We will start to experiment with badges and different placements for our top sellers (in addition to excluding underperforming sellers)
Where can I see this data?
We are in the process of exposing this info on the Seller dashboard. Some information is more readily available than others such as sales and handling time. Additional info can be found by manually tracking your own data (item not received complaints and return requests). You can also reach out to Support or your Account Manager to get the most accurate data.
How often do statuses change?
For now, we will check the account KPIs once per month. In the near future, this data will be rolling. This means your account can fall in and out of a status automatically. A status change should be relatively infrequent as we will be looking at account averages that aggregate 30–90 days of data.
Where do I go if I have questions?
If you have any questions please reach out to your Account Manager or our Seller Support team.
About Tophatter
Tophatter Inc was founded by Ashvin Kumar (CEO) and Chris Estreich (CTO), and launched in January 2012. The company has raised $35M to date from Goodwater Capital, CRV, and August Capital. The company is actively hiring at its offices in Silicon Valley and Shanghai. For more information about Tophatter, please visit: http://www.tophatter.com/about.
