Star Rating System

I think it’s pretty safe to say, that all of us as sellers would like to have 5 Stars on all of our items. Right now, if you have less then 5 stars on an item; You have one or two empty stars, sitting next to a couple of shiny blue stars.

The process through my eyes:

A seller has an item that looks good enough, on the outside, for a buyer to purchase. At the time of purchase, the buyer is saying, ””Great! I need this… this is for me!”

So a buyer makes the purchase… decides there’s 1 or a few things wrong with the files, and gives that seller a less than perfect star rating.

With how it is now… the seller is out of luck. No feedback from said buyer… No way to correct the problem and have his star rating improved.

My suggested fixes:

1) Please remove the empty stars.

Not only do buyers have to be found amongst thousands of files; be chosen amongst similar products or styles; but when a potential buyer finally gets to an items page, now there’s this blemish that something might be wrong with it. Something wrong that may only be unique to 1 or 2 buyers and not the majority of buyers as a whole.

Psychologically, 4 stars sitting there by themselves says to a buyer that your item is pretty good. That empty star sitting there says to a buyer that your quality of work is less than perfect. Which I just believe is totally unfair when sellers haven’t been given any reason as to why their items are less than perfect. It could be that the way that the files where organized struck that buyer in the wrong way; Or it could be that they don’t particular like the color blue and wished it were red. We as sellers just don’t know!

2) Require buyers who give less than 5 stars to give feedback.

A seller should be given the chance to fix his/her file if there’s some things that buyers don’t like about it. It’s better for the marketplace as a whole to have files in it that are all up to the best standards.

Require buyers to fill in a form and explain why the files were less than expected and ways to improve them. Let sellers know who purchased items, so they may correspond with that buyer. Thank them for their purchase. Ask upon how to improve the files, etc…

If the seller chooses to adjust, and re-upload the files, let said buyer be allowed to receive the new files and adjust the star rating accordingly.

These solutions are only going to help the marketplace over the long term. Better quality items/files, happier buyers, happier sellers.

Thoughts?

Definitely agreed on getting more feedback from buyers, especially when rating less than five stars. It helps everybody.

Also, I think adding half stars to display rating may be useful to show more accurate ratings. Does a score of 4.49 equal 4 stars?

my thoughts

1) Please remove the empty stars.

You will not know the maximum number of stars… 3/5… it’s more intuitive then 3. You can also have 3/10… new users will not know the rating.

2) Require buyers who give less than 5 stars to give feedback.

This is a good ideea.

Definitely agreed on getting more feedback from buyers, especially when rating less than five stars. It helps everybody. Also, I think adding half stars to display rating may be useful to show more accurate ratings. Does a score of 4.49 equal 4 stars?

1 = +1

2= it’s maybe better to use a 0,5 star

my thoughts

1) Please remove the empty stars.

You will not know the maximum number of stars… 3/5… it’s more intuitive then 3. You can also have 3/10… new users will not know the rating.

I think most people will get it when they see nothing higher than a 5 star while shopping the site.

Again, I just see the empty stars as a problem…

I’d rather do away with the star system as a whole and let buyers give feedback in the comment section if they like or dislike the item.

But if others feel the star system is important, then at least make it something that doesn’t blemish the item… especially when that blemish may only be unique to a few buyers…

I’d rather do away with the star system as a whole and let buyers give feedback in the comment section if they like or dislike the item.

Adding the buyer’s personal star rating to his/her comments may be nice. You could take it one step further and force the buyer to leave a comment when rating too.

Oh, and by the way, it would be quite useful to allow buyers to change their rating afterwards since the file can be updated as well.

I think most people will get it when they see nothing higher than a 5 star while shopping the site.

You cannot see things like that. You can get a user from Google, his first visit… he can see 3 stars. He will understand “3 stars is maximum” => “wow… what a great file”. He can see 5 stars… 5 from 10? “yeak, a half quality product” an so on. I’d rather prefer a numeric rating, like 3/5 … and this is ugly for a professional website.

But if others feel the star system is important, then at least make it something that doesn’t blemish the item… especially when that blemish may only be unique to a few buyers…

Only a buyer can tell if a file is good or not… and this is great, you cannot rate yourself or make 2 users and add ratings to your files. It’s good that a buyer can blemish the item… I don’t think we need only 5 stars items. Some files don’t know the word “quality” so, they have a low rating, nothing else.

To require a feedback [more than 5 words if you rate less than 5 stars] is a great idea.

It’s good that a buyer can blemish the item… I don’t think we need only 5 stars items. Some files don’t know the word “quality” so, they have a low rating, nothing else.

How is that a good thing for the marketplace? It could stop a sale… now nobody wins, not you the seller or Envato…

Example: - I (the seller) make a big red star

- You (the buyer) are looking for a big blue star

- You can’t find one, so you purchase my big red star so you can make a big blue star.

- You wish it was a big blue star in the first place, so you give me 4 stars out of 5 stars as my rating.

- Let’s say there’s 3 other buyers like you who rate my item for the same reason that it’s not red.

- Now my rating has is 4 out of 5 stars… there’s a blemish.

- Now Joe Blow comes along looking for a star of any color. Any comes across my item.

- Joe Blow is about to make the purchase only to see that the item has been rated to less than steller quality. He doesn’t know why. But he’s not willing to buy something that’s not the best quality. So he moves on. Doesn’t buy anything.

- Game Over. I lose. Envato loses. All because someone doesn’t like the color red.

I know this is a less than likely scenario.. but you can see how a similar problem could arise, and also see the blemishes are not a good thing… unless you can make a better case as to why they are.

Why can’t I revisit a file I’ve already rated to give more/less stars to it.

What if the author helped me out, or updated the file with extra functionality, and now I decided it deserved more stars?

This needs to be fixed.

Why can’t I revisit a file I’ve already rated to give more/less stars to it.

What if the author helped me out, or updated the file with extra functionality, and now I decided it deserved more stars?

This needs to be fixed.

Yeah even though buyers shouldn’t rate based on support they do. And through quality support you can often turn a frustrated buyer into a happy one.