Hey @Sunster how are you?
I see that you're also working Sundays - LOL
What you've described in your reply is absolutely logical and I agree with you.
Apparently I did not phrase my question properly.
What I'm really asking is - Between these two sellers for example, if all else is equal (meaning they are both located in China, they both pick and pack the merchandise within 48 hours - excluding holidays and weekends, they both receive the order and ship the item within the same day etc etc), you still see sellers getting a "bad rap", without really being their fault.
So this thought has led me to believe that whoever devised this shipping speed rating system was not thinking!
(Which was copied straight out of eBay).
The method is mostly unfair because shipping speed is completely out of the merchant's control and ends up skewing the average rating.
Best,
Hi, your guys really ask great questions.
It forces me to write a better answer.
First, the reasons you guys had brainstormed truly exist:
Order process time
Custom issues, etc.
What I am going to tell is something even some sellers don't know.
1. They are all called China post, but different post office in different city has different speed and pricing:
Let's say the 2 sellers in same city. One ships from local post office and pay higher shipping fee. The other one ships it to other city, like Guangzhou, and got cheaper shipping pricing. The post office compete with each other. And the cheaper post office always has package jam, right. You saw the shipping info shown picked up, but it takes longer time for the post office to process.
2. The stores have different customer groups. If your store have better conversation rate with Russian customers. Aliexpress will send more Russian traffic to you, so your orders are mostly from Russia. Some of them don't understand English and lower tolerance for the shipping speed. That leads to the lower rating.
3. Although the examples are all from jewelry niche, but I still want to mention it: Different niches, customers have different expectations. For some skin care items, such as black head remover, you really want it the other day after you placed the order. You want a change instantly, and they will be disappointed for long waiting. Different niches lead to different ratings.
4. Different strategy applied. Just a guess here. The lower rating store wants to increase the listing quantity. So the seller list as many as he can even when he doesn't have stocks. That will make him get lower rating. The higher rating seller aims to make the existing list more hot sell, never out of stock, ships the item in 1-2 days.
5. The overall rating is a 90 days average.
They are using China post the day you take screenshots. But you don't know 1 week ago or a month ago. Did the lower one delayed a lot orders during China Spring Festival. It's hard to know.
For some sellers, we keep the rating in a acceptable level, it will not lower than the requirement for a listing to be shown on flash deal or today's deal promotion. If the rating will hit the bottom line, the seller will upgrade the shipping speed.
These are some reasons. Really a great question.
But I'll sign the petition. 