Alibris bookselling site adds buyer feedback system

Bookselling network Alibris is adding a buyer feedback system, but sellers will have the option of keeping their ratings private. In an e-mail sent to sellers, the company said:

We give customers the opportunity to share—and you the opportunity to respond

After purchasing an item from Alibris.com or Alibris.co.uk, buyers will receive an e-mail asking for feedback in four key areas: overall experience, item description, shipping time, and packaging.

Of course, you’ll always be able to react to any feedback you receive, and we’ve put safeguards in place to keep feedback helpful for everyone.

1. Customers can only leave feedback on an order they’ve placed with you within the last 6 months.
2. No anonymous comments will be allowed. Customers will be identified on the website, and you’ll be able to see which order it came from via the Seller Hub.
3. Anyone—including you—can report a comment as objectionable. If this occurs, Alibris will review the comment in question and leave a qualifying response or block the comment, if necessary.
4. You can block all comments from appearing via easy tools on the Seller Hub.

We’ve also made it easier to locate orders that impact your overall seller rating (typically, cancellations, refunds, and returns) on the Seller Hub. You’ll soon see a new Seller Rating page which shows both these orders and all your customer feedback.

We hope you’re as excited about this new feature as we are.

Seller opinion is mixed. Some believe the change is warranted and will make Alibris more competitive, but others complain that feedback will emulate one of Amazon’s worse features. One skeptic, the seller “artisans,” said here on the Amazon seller board:

Buyer feedback should make Alibris more competitive if they didn’t offer sellers the option to disallow the public to see their feedback comments. What sense does that make? Sellers with poor ratings will probably opt not to show their feedback comments. What’s also interesting is that the feedback is being offered retroactively. That means buyers from up to six months ago can leave feedback on their orders. Is that fair? Also will the Alibris warehouse be able to leave feedback on orders going to Alibris?

Doesn’t make much sense to give sellers a choice whether buyers are allowed to see the feedback. A choice for sellers to show or not show feedback kind of takes the sting out of any potential bad feedback, doesn’t it?

Artie

Related posts:

1. Amazon’s new feedback page emphasizes delivery time
2. Q&A: Why does Amazon buyer feedback often critique the book, not the seller?