What is “Merchant Star Rating”?

Merchant Star Rating is a hierarchical system that comprehensively judges the willingness and ability of platform merchants to serve overseas buyers based on the four major capabilities of information display, communication services, transaction conversion, and performance guarantee. It includes three levels: one star, two stars, and three stars.

Rating standards for “Merchant Star Rating”

Only merchants that meet certain standards in the four major capabilities can become star merchants. The standard for one star corresponding to each capability item is 60~69 points, the standard for two stars is 70~79 points, and the standard for three stars is 80 points and above. The lowest of the four major capabilities determines the star rating of the merchant.

Definition of indicators of the four major capabilities

The four major capabilities include a total of 13 sub-items. The scores of the four major capabilities are calculated based on the comprehensive coefficients of the indicators of each sub-item. The higher the value of each sub-item indicator, the higher the score of the four major capabilities. The specific sub-items are as follows:

1) Capability 1: Information display includes product information quality, store conversion rate, risk health, and certificates.

(1) Product information quality. Product information quality refers to the average score of the information quality of all products in the store. The product information is evaluated from the perspectives of image quality, text quality, transaction logistics information and other dimensions, and a score is given.

(2) Store conversion rate. Store conversion rate refers to the proportion of store visitors who have been converted into active customers in the past 30 days. Active customers refer to buyers who have sent TradeManager consultations or inquiries. This indicator can also be viewed in “Data Manager” → “My Store”.

(3) Risk health. Risk health is scored based on the violation points, violation frequency and severity of the store on the website in the past 365 days. The sources of violations include false transactions, intellectual property rights, prohibited and restricted sales, trade disputes, image theft, spam, etc.

2) Capability Item 2: Communication Service

Communication service includes the number of business opportunities, click-through rate and average response time.

(1) Number of business opportunities. The number of business opportunities refers to the number of valid inquiries and RFOs sent for product information and company information in the last 30 days.

(2) Click-through rate. Click-through rate refers to the number of times your product information or company information is clicked/viewed by buyers on the search results list page, browse list and other pages in the last 30 days, that is, the number of clicks/exposures.

(3) Average response time. The average response time refers to the average response time for all valid inquiries sent by buyers within 7 days, calculated in hours and rounded up.

3) Capability Item: Transaction Conversion

Transaction conversion includes credit guarantee transaction amount and the number of credit guarantee transaction buyers.

(1) Credit guarantee transaction amount. The statistical order range of credit guarantee transaction amount is the orders with prepayment matching and receipt in the last 90 days (the proportion of prepayment amount in the order contract must meet a certain proportion, and the actual prepayment amount on account must also meet the prepayment proportion greater than a certain proportion of the total order amount). The statistical amount of credit guarantee transaction amount is the total amount of credit guarantee orders (excluding false transaction orders).

(2) Number of buyers of credit guarantee transactions. The number of buyers of credit guarantee transactions is the number of buyers of credit guarantee orders that have been matched and received in the last 90 days (excluding false transaction orders).

4) Capability Item 4: Performance Guarantee

Performance guarantee includes export visualization, on-time delivery rate, buyer evaluation, and satisfied order rate.

(1) Export visualization. Export visualization refers to the ratio of orders that can be tracked online, which is a value between 0 and 100%. The calculation formula is: the number of orders using One-touch export within 180 days x score A + the number of orders with Alibaba official logistics x score A + the number of orders with offline delivery certificates uploaded x score B) / the number of credit guarantee orders that have been posted and shipped within 180 days. Note: ① score > score B. ② Customers who use One-touch export and Alibaba official logistics at the same time will not be scored repeatedly.

(2) On-time delivery rate. On-time delivery rate = number of orders shipped on time and not cancelled in the last 180 days / total number of orders in the statistical period – number of cancelled orders – number of orders that have not reached the agreed delivery time).

(3) Buyer evaluation. Buyer evaluation refers to the average score of all historical scores given by buyers on the three dimensions of supplier product quality, seller service, and timely delivery after the transaction is completed.

(4) Satisfied order rate. Satisfied order rate = orders matched and received within 180 days and not upgraded to arbitration / credit guarantee orders matched and received within 180 days.