Amazon surveys sellers for new ideas
Yesterday some Amazon sellers received an e-mail purporting to be a survey from Amazon's Marketplace team. The survey offers a $5 Amazon gift certificate in exchange for completion of the survey, asking which new features sellers would favor.According to telephone support staff at Amazon's call center, the survey is legitimate. Some sellers have been suspicious of the survey, wondering if it's a phishing scam.
I think this is a good sign. At least Amazon is making some effort to understand what its sellers think is important. Based on past experience, though, I won't hold my breath to see if Amazon actually implements any suggestions it gets from sellers.
Here's what they asked:
What top three improvements would you like to see in the process of listing and selling items on Amazon? Please rank the items based on the importance to you, with 1 indicating the most important. [Select up to 3, at least 1]Well, what's your answer? What are your top three priorities? Humorous answers welcome.
- Ability to upload images specific to your offer
- Ability to offer promotions
- Ease of listing many items at one time
- Ability to set your own shipping price
- A “Trusted Seller” logo next to your items, if you meet criteria
- Consolidated shipping (customers who buy multiple items from one seller pay less shipping on the second and subsequent items)
- Ability to see the average price an item has sold for historically
- Tools to help price items based on other sellers' prices
- A buy-back program for sellers to post items they want to buy from customers through the Amazon site
- Other (Please specify)
posted by Steve Weber at 5/31/2007
13 Comments:
"What top three improvements would you like to see in the process of listing and selling items on Amazon?"
#1. Fines for wrong listings. Ie someone listing a 1945 textbook under the 2007 listing.
#2.Advertising on T.V.
#3 Amazon needs to clarify many of their guidlines and rules and distinguish between the two. For example, they "suggest" to insure and sig confirmation on orders over $100.00. Does the suggestion require it or imply it? Why are they siggesting insurance when we pay a $1.30 per transaction for A-Z claims.
My suggestion would be to include all long time sellers in these surveys. I've sold on amazon for 5 years, and do more volume than some sellers who have stated they received the surveys, I also have excellent feedback.
Combines shipping would be my number one choice.
I'm a new seller (since Feb. 2007), but I'd like to see a "low price limit" on books, perhaps $2.95?
Pipe dream, I'm sure. I just hate listing a book at a normal price and finding it selling for a penny within a week.
Uploading images, consolidated shipping and pricing assitance are all good, but a low price limit would be incredibly good as anon. suggests. Above all else, I would love to see that so that I wouldn't be outpriced by 40 penny books. How the heck can you make a profit on that? I've only been selling on amazon for the last couple weeks, and with less than 50 books listed, have felt pretty good to already sell 2 and profit about $10.
I have to say, Steve, love your blog (have been visiting regular since I read "The Home-Based Bookstore" recently), and have been putting your ideas into action a little at a time. I figure it's better to get one thing right and then add another thing that's going to get done right, than to try to do it all at once and make a hash of things. So far, it's been working out pretty good!
Thanks for all you do - you're helping me to learn to be an online bookseller with a future!
I thought the survey was actually from Amazon until I went to do the survey, and found it "closed" after only 12 hours of receiving the email - then I thought it might be phishing. Glad to know it was legit. Guess they didn't want too many opinions, though.
A low price limit -- my continual pet peeve with AM in the six years I've sold there!
Consolidated shipping would be really nice in combination with the ability to have easier access to a single seller's inventory so buyers could purchase other books. I know it's possible to do this already but it's hard to find for the average buyer. Also I'd like buyers to be able to search by seller name. That way you could advertise to select groups if you specialize in some particular subject. i.e. Check out my many other books on antique glassware, magic, gardening....etc.
I thought that Amazon had already implemented combined shipping if multiple purchases from a single marketplace seller were made. Wrong?
A "search this seller's books" option (Without having to scroll the list)would be very helpful.
Uh, what's up with only getting to pick three? All of those ideas you listed are great ideas.
My three that aren't on the list:
# Advertise on TV (already said by others). Everyone's eBay sales went through the roof when eBay started advertising like crazy last year.
# Give sellers a decent store, sorted by category, like half.com is. This would encourage browsing and multiple orders (especially if they offered combined shipping). Then we'd all make more money.
# Work with Google to get the Google Base Store Connector working right with Amazon. Again, more sales = more money, an idea that Amazon doesn't seem to get.
Get the old Z-Shops back, where buyers can search my inventory by category.
It drives me crazy when people ask me about my French or Religious or whatever books for example, and I am forced to maintain and update a separate Word document to send to them. It looks like heck, is awkward to use (please copy ASIN number on the left and paste it into the Amazon search engine, aaahhhh).
I don't like the new e-mail format. We use the old e-mail page to find the book and after sending it file it for our records. We attach our delivery confirmation to the back side and also there is no Price of the book on the e-mail or the shipping invoice we now print for our records. We have to keep orders seperate from our state for tax records and now don't have any price info to file. I would welcome a 10% shipping saving to a customer that orders more than three books and would like buyers to be able to go to my inventory and search by subject. I also don't like the fact that they take such a large fee for low price books. I think they should only take a % of the price for the first $5 and then scale the fee down the more the book is with a cap.
I agree with the poster who said that amazon should be getting input from sellers who have been around for awhile. I too have been selling on amazon for about 5 years and would like them to ask for my input. I would like to see historical data on prices as well as be able to reprice inventory easier, without having to click through so many pages.
CHANGE THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM!
How about a 48-hour delay in posting negative feedback to the web; instead the post is first routed to the seller, who is given a chance to respond. I once received a negative feedback on the CONTENTS of the book I shipped--which I later had removed; it would have been nice to head off that post BEFORE it went public.
Also there should be a way to dispute patently ridiculous feedback. While most buyers are great, most buyers don't have the time or inclination to always post feedback -- so we sellers are always at the mercy of the kooky fringe, especially during the first several months of operation.
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