Amazon will replace order e-mails with desktop software
Amazon plans to develop Windows desktop software for sellers to download order notifications for their Marketplace sales.
The software will allow Amazon to eliminate most order information from its "Sold, Ship Now" e-mails sellers use to fulfill orders. Starting in February 2007, the e-mails will contain only the name of the item sold. Sellers will need to get details like the shipping address from the new software or their Amazon Payments account.
According to an announcement on Amazon's message board, the new software will be made available in "plenty of time" for sellers to try it before its use becomes mandatory.
Two big unanswered questions are:
1) Will sellers continue to have access to buyer e-mail addresses? Amazon has made a series of changes over the past few months making it harder and harder for sellers to communicate with buyers. This has resulted in lots of extra work and frustration for sellers and buyers struggling with Amazon's poorly designed Web-based contact form. If past experience is any guide, the new Windows software will also be poorly designed and phased in over a weekend with no notice to sellers, resulting in lots more problems.
2) Will Amazon bring third-party software makers into the loop on these changes? Most large-volume Marketplace sellers are already using software to help them process orders. If all this third-party software becomes obsolete overnight, there will be thousands of unhappy buyers and sellers on The River this winter.
This is the third bombshell Amazon has dropped on its sellers in 10 days. Here's number one and number two. I'm guessing there will be lots to talk about at next month's Amazon Sellers Conference, if it still happens.
I would think Amazon's brain trust could have postponed these three items if they wanted input from the Sellers Conference. Looks to me like Amazon doesn't much care what seller think. What do you think?
posted by Steve Weber at 7/17/2006
7 Comments:
I've just decided to go to Margaritaville in February.
Amazon is full of B.S.
Thats all I can think to say. I will no longer sell books with them as of today.
The Amazon announcement says that "You can then use the application to view order details, including the customer e-mail address...", so yes, it would appear sellers will still have access to customer e-mail addresses.
It also says that "You can easily integrate the application with your custom applications". Amazon's definition of "easily integrate" remains to be seen, of course.
Why must you assume that every change is negative? Amazon has been hinting and saying for a couple of years that they wanted a more secure way to provide addresses to sellers, and this way is not as bad as some others I could have imagined.
I'm sure they will take sellers' opinions into consideration. They always do. In fact, most of the things they announce either seem to never happen or happen in a much different form than first announced.
Experience is a great teacher.
Now, if they would just give us a bigger shipping credit, I would be 100 percent happy with them.
And what about sellers who use a Mac?
I was just thinking the same thing in regards to a Windows only program, as I use my trusty Mac laptop for all of my book sales. Having a web based interface is the surest way to allow people to use the same system across multiple platforms, but then again I have no idea how many sellers are using the Mac. Luckily I use both systems, so it looks like it may be time to dust off my old PC, but this entire idea surely seems like a step backwards, rather than forward...
I'm a Linux user- looks like I'll have to stop selling on Amazon in February...
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