Amazon 'Charge When Ship' becomes mandatory this summer

Amazon is encouraging its Marketplace sellers to opt into a program it calls "Charge When Ship" requiring sellers to confirm shipment before buyers pay for purchases.

In an announcement, Amazon is encouraging sellers to opt into the program now. According to Amazon's list of Frequently Asked Questions, the program becomes mandatory sometime this summer. No date was given.

In Charge When Ship, if the seller doesn't confirm an order's shipment within two business days, Amazon automatically sends "late shipment" e-mail notifications to the seller and the buyer. Then, if the seller doesn't confirm shipment within 30 days, the order is automatically cancelled, and the buyer is refunded.

When sellers confirm a shipment, they'll be able to indicate the shipping service and tracking or delivery-confirmation number -- although tracking numbers aren't mandatory. Pro-Merchants will be able to upload a text file to confirm multiple shipments at the same time.

My take on the program: Overall, it should be positive because it provides buyers with an experience more consistent with orders filled by Amazon. For example, I currently receive e-mails from buyers who are confused that they can't look up the shipping status or tracking number through Amazon's Web site, even though I provide this information in a shipment-confirmation e-mail. Presumably, "Charge When Ship" allows buyers to view the shipment status in the same way they view orders fulfilled by Amazon -- and if that's true, it should result in fewer inquiries from buyers regarding shipping status.

For sellers who aren't already signed up for the program, my personal advice would be to wait a few weeks. This will allow Amazon to work out any possible kinks in the program, and for third-party software providers to transition to begun supporting the program.

One remaining concern I've seen on Amazon's seller boards: What happens if a buyer's credit card is declined after the seller ships? Amazon doesn't really address this in the FAQ. Hopefully, a pre-authorization is obtained at the time of the order, confirming that the funds are available, and the card number and expiration date are in order.

Another observation: Charge When Ship puts additional pressure on drop-shippers, because the FAQ further emphasizes that sellers shouldn't list items they are unable to ship within two business days.

Amazon launches used item buyback service

As if the competition among sellers of used items on Amazon wasn't fierce enough, Amazon is getting into the game itself. They've launched a trade-in store for DVDs.

It's the same type of setup you see at many textbook buyback sites -- you get credit for about half of what the item usually sells for used. For example, if you wanted to trade in Heroes, Season One, Amazon credits you $6.75 (This DVD retails for $59.98, and Amazon sells new copies for $45.99. Used copies go for about $12.)

Here's how Amazon publicizes the buyback program: There's an expanded buy box with a trade-in here button (see the picture below). When you "trade in" an item, Amazon gives you a prepaid shipping label, and when they receive it via the Postal Service, your account is credited in the form of an Amazon gift card. So you don't get any cash, just credit toward buying stuff at Amazon.

Amazon has also started a video game buyback program.

Wow. Assuming Amazon likes the results of this program, it's only a matter of time before they expand into used books. One more problem for third-party sellers to deal with. In addition to the sputtering economy and Amazon's proliferation of free shipping offers, this could be the most troublesome. Not only will sellers be competing directly with Amazon for sales of used items, but Amazon will be diverting the supply of used items to itself, driving prices down.

Here are more gory details.

Amazon won't require Pro-Merchant status for collectible book sellers

Amazon's Marketplace managers must have gotten an earful from outraged booksellers upset about its plans to charge dealers $40 a month to sell collectible books. Without much explanation, they've dropped the requirement.

I've never seen Amazon back off a proposed policy change as quickly as this one.

Both sides have some merit. Pro-Merchants, on average, are more likely to be responsible sellers who describe their books accurately and bend over backwards to please customers -- after all, they have more to lose. There are exceptions, of course.

On the other hand, it's unfair to ban a seller from selling collectibles simply because their business isn't big enough to justify the extra $40 in monthly fees.

Here's the article from last week explaining the new policies on collectibles. There's a great debate in the comments section at the bottom, in case you missed it.

I am still waiting to hear back from Amazon regarding my application to sell collectibles. Evidently my track record of 19,700 feedbacks with 99 percent positive is not good enough to get in the door automatically. Maybe I'll check my spam folder one more time ...

Amazon tests new "leave seller feedback" page

Amazon is testing a new "leave seller feedback" page, according to this announcement.

Usually when Amazon posts an announcement like this, there's also an accompanying image of the new page being planned or tested. Not this time. Hmmm.

It seems I'm seeing the change in my buying account already. The thing I notice most is that the "seller's comments" are reproduced on the feedback page. That's a good thing, I guess. Also, when you run your mouse over the empty stars, a guide pops up telling you that 5 stars is "excellent," one is "awful," etc. Here's what I see when I click "leave seller feedback" link on my most recent Marketplace order. Anyone else?:

Some good reasons to consider Fulfillment by Amazon

For a while now I've been reading an excellent blog by Randy Smythe, who provides some interesting statistics about his Amazon selling, especially how Fulfillment by Amazon has been getting additional sales for him.

Randy ran his numbers this weekend and found a unmistakable pattern:

In January, FBA shipped 796 orders for me.

• Amazon Prime Customers- Made up 20% (157) of those orders.


• Super-Saver Shipping - Made up 53% (423) of those orders


• Regular Shipping - Made up 27% (216) of those orders.

As you can see, free shipping is a huge incentive for buyers, and it seems FBA orders are making up a growing percentage of Randy's business. (You can list some of your items via FBA while continuing to sell other items directly to buyers.)

Why do I even mention these numbers? Because, if you are not listing and selling using FBA, you are missing out on a huge number of Amazon buyers, who want free shipping (I still sold 27% of my orders to customers who paid for S&H as well).

Read the rest of Randy's post for an illustration of why buyers regularly choose items listed with FBA. (Hint: It's all about the shipping fee and the sorting advantage FBA gives your listing.)

Judging from the FBA Message Board, Amazon is still working the kinks out of this program. Hardly a day goes by without an FBA merchant screaming about how Amazon has fouled up their account. Perhaps the problems are confined to particular warehouses, while other warehouses are managing FBA without too many hiccups.

Judging from Randy's reports, FBA seems to be developing into an important sales tool already.

Amazon redesigns payment accounts

The excitement never stops at Amazon. Now they're redesigning the payments section of seller accounts. Click twice on the picture at right for an enlarged illustration. Here's the announcement:

Soon we will be upgrading the Get Paid section of your Seller Account. Below is a preview of the redesign. Please note, these changes are designed to make this feature easier to use. No fees are being changed or updated. Improvements include:

• A completely new interface that makes it easy to examine your financial data.
• No longer need the additional log-in step currently required.
• Quick access to other settlement periods.
• A set of Quick Filters to quickly refine a list of transactions.
• Easy drill down to transaction details and order information.

We know that access to your Payments account is key to your business; therefore, we will provide continued access to the current interface while you move to the new one.

As always, we welcome your comments. Please feel free to send feedback to sya-changes@amazon.com.

Thank you for selling on Amazon!

After eBay policy changes, Amazon sees surge of new sellers

No, it's not your imagination, there really are a lot more people selling on Amazon lately.

Amazon claims it has seen a spike in new sellers after several controversial policy changes by eBay.

"We've certainly heard of frustration with other marketplaces, and we've seen a significant increase in registrations," said Matt Williams, Amazon's business solutions general manager.

Longtime eBay seller Debi Lee said Amazon has worked well for certain items in her repertoire. She tired of eBay's tactics and now uses the site primarily to educate consumers about her products...

The full article is posted here at Fortune Small Business.

Amazon accepts seller input on packing slip changes

Based on feedback from Amazon sellers to a proposed design to the "Manage Your Orders" section of its Web site, Amazon has made these revisions (click here and then click again on the image for an enlarged view):

• Added a Pending Orders feature that will allow you to view orders that have not finished processing. You can use this option to help reconcile inventory levels. Previously, you would have needed to access your payments account to obtain this information.
• Updated the packing slip in the following ways:
  • Included the seller contact e-mail address.
  • Added a link to seller feedback.
  • Removed the price information.

Still no word on when the changes will be put into effect. Feedback from sellers is still solicited at sya-changes@amazon.com

Amazon plans changes to Marketplace packing slips

Amazon is redesigning the packing slip for Marketplace orders. See this page for all the details. Amazon isn't saying when the new design will roll out, but here's a rundown on the new features:

• A redesigned and streamlined Search feature.
• Buttons in the Order List to print a packing slip or refund the order.
• A set of Quick Filters that will allow you to quickly refine a list of orders by date range.
• The ability to sort your order list by Status and Shipping Service.
• A redesigned Order Detail page with the shipping address on the left side of the page.
• A simplified Refund tool.

Some of the shortcomings in the eyes of sellers:

• No URL for the customer to leave feedback.
• Apparently the seller's e-mail address isn't shown; instead customers are sent to Amazon's Web contact form.
• Item prices are displayed, which can be a problem for gift orders.
• The item condition and seller comments are missing. Amazon only recently added these features to packing slips in response to seller complaints.

To send feedback to Amazon about the redesign, send e-mail to: sya-changes@amazon.com

Google Base service provider throws in the towel

Remember BuyBundle, the service for listing your Amazon and eBay items on Google Base? It looks like they've called it quits, and have sent this message out to members (thanks to BeachSideBooks for sharing):

Dear BuyBundle Seller,

We would like to update you on the status of BuyBundle's operations.

BuyBundle was an attempt to bring the reach of Google Base to independent sellers. Unfortunately, Google Base has been slow in catching on. We waited patiently for over a year but given the current status of Google Base, we are not sure how long it will be before Google Base becomes a viable channel.

We are officially suspending operations from January 1, 2008. Till then, the site will be open for sellers. You can check your account and take care of existing orders. We are closing the site for new buyers so there are no more pending orders.

Thanks for being a part of BuyBundle community.

I haven't heard much about Google Base recently and its effectiveness as a bookselling platform. Personally I had taken a wait-and-see approach to see if brought in a decent amount of sales for other people. I didn't want to have to monitor it if it was only bringing in negligible business.

This isn't a knock against BuyBundle, whose team seemed to have a lot of great ideas. They couldn't help it that Google has left this Base thing on the back burner indefinitely. I don't think Base will ever take off until it's organized into something like a marketplace where people can compare prices, merchants, etc., easily. Opposition from Amazon surely didn't help.

I can only guess that Google has bigger fish to fry right now. Or maybe they were afraid of inviting government regulation. They have so much control of the Internet already. They practically control Internet searching and advertising completely. If they started taking over Internet shopping people would really be up in arms.

Should Amazon buy eBay? Ho ho ho!!!

Here's an interesting but hilariously misinformed item on the New York Times' Bits blog raising the possibility of Amazon buying eBay.

The author and the dozens of commenting readers argue that either Amazon should buy eBay's auction technology or build its own. That's brilliant, Einstein. Except that Amazon buried its auctions section about seven years ago.

For most of the Internet age, eBay has been a Wall Street darling, while Amazon's stock has been in the cellar. That's turned around dramatically in the past year, with Amazon's stock price tripling.

I don't see anything Amazon has to gain by buying eBay, do you? Amazon already has all the sellers they want. The only thing they'd do is inherit eBay's problems.

I think Amazon has enough to worry about. I have a hunch that their Marketplace business is down over the past year. Once that becomes common knowledge they're going to have a tough time explaining why. And there are enough distractions with this Fulfillment by Amazon boondoggle.

Amazon wants to kill duplicate ASINs

Finally Amazon has decided to confront one of its biggest messes on Marketplace: the epidemic of duplicate ASINs. It's gotten progressively worse ever since sellers were given the ability to create detail pages (and automatically generate a new ASIN) a couple of years ago.

According to this announcement, Amazon is going to start merging ASINs when the same title is being sold under more than one ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number).

Supposedly the ASIN with the highest sales ranking and most merchants will be retained, and other listings will be migrated over. No word on whether this is going to be an automated process or whether humans will be taking care of this. Hopefully the cure won't be worse than the disease.

Here's the entire announcement:

In order to provide Amazon customers with a better discovery and shopping experience, duplicate ASINs for the same books will be merged beginning on November 13, 2007. This will mean that sellers will not have to list on multiple single detail pages that refer to the same product.

ASINs will be merged when a duplicate ASIN is detected. This will result in all merchant product data, image data, offers and seller listings for one ASIN (the “merged” ASIN) being transferred over to a second ASIN (the “retained” ASIN). The first ASIN will no longer be viewable on the Amazon.com website. We will make a concerted effort to retain the ASIN that has a higher sales ranking and more merchants using it.

If a listing in an inventory loader feed refers to the first ASIN after the merge, the listing will be assigned to the second or retained ASIN. A warning will be displayed in the processing report and the new ASIN will be identified. You should verify that the new ASIN correctly identifies the product you are selling and use the new ASIN in subsequent uploads. You will not have to make any other change to your feeds.

In rare instances, you may believe that an incorrect merge has occurred. If you believe an incorrect merge has occurred, contact Seller Support and include the original ASIN and the new ASIN in your correspondence.

Q&A: Can I sell teachers editions or solutions manuals on Amazon or eBay?

QUESTION: I've known for a long time that we are prohibited from selling teacher's editions on Amazon or eBay. As a used bookseller who also home-schools (and has experimented a lot with curriculum), I'm aware that I can list my books through e-groups or Home School Legal Defense Curriculum Marketplace (though there don't seem to be a lot of bids there. I see a lot of zeros).

So I was rather surprised and hopeful to see a math solutions manual listed on Amazon, both new and used, a book that I want to sell (but can't if I'm to comply with their prohibitions). The teacher's edition of the same book is also listed, although the listing doesn't state that it's a teacher's edition.

So I started thinking hopefully that maybe they've changed their policy on this. But I looked and it still says the following are prohibited:

Solutions manuals. Manuals or teacher's editions that provide answer keys to student textbook editions are prohibited.

Is Amazon inconsistent or just unaware? I'm not planning to tell them. It just bothers me that I would like to list these books with them and can't, and yet the books are actually listed there with copies for sale. Have you or anyone else had similar experiences or frustrations?

ANSWER: I've never understood why teacher's editions are against Amazon's policy in the first place. As long as the buyer is getting what they expect ... But the policy hasn't changed as far as I know.

Is buying a teacher's edition cheating? Seems like a silly question to me. Anyone who goes to the trouble of buying and reading a teacher's edition is probably going to learn the stuff assigned for their class, and isn't that the whole point? Besides, 99 percent of the teachers manuals bought online are probably purchased by teachers and homeschooling parents.

At one point I had a ton of teacher's editions and I sold them all on Amazon under the regular ISBNs by listing them as "collectible" then providing the description. I guess Amazon polices Marketplace more closely these days.

I wonder if any Pro-Merchant sellers are creating detail pages on Amazon for teachers editions and solutions manuals? There's probably nothing to prevent it, unless they have a filter that includes all the ISBNs for these items.

But for the two examples you've given, they don't look like seller-created pages, it looks like Amazon is carrying the books. So my impression would be that if Amazon has a "Sell Yours Here" button on one of their pages, it must be OK to sell that item.

Getting reimbursed for Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee claims

If you've been selling on Amazon for a while, you've probably received at least one dreaded A-to-Z Guarantee claim. This is the mechanism that enables Marketplace buyers to get their money back if they don't receive their merchandise, and the seller refuses to refund.

Sometimes, of course, the customer who files the A-to-Z claim has made a mistake. Often they've actually received their merchandise, and sometimes they receive it soon after filing the claim. Because of this, Amazon allows customers to withdraw their claim and have their card re-charged by responding to this language in the refund e-mail:

*************************************
Occasionally, we have found that the product eventually arrives after the claim is reimbursed. If you have received this order, please let us know by replying to this e-mail and placing an 'X' in the box below. If you are unable to place an 'X' in the box below, you are welcome to simply reply to this message and confirm that the merchandise has been delivered. Your confirmation of receipt will provide us with authorization to withdraw the claim and recharge you for this order.
*************************************

If only it were that simple. A reader, Lawrence, says it was a nightmare getting reimbursed by Amazon after a customer in Italy used this procedure to withdraw an A-to-Z claim for an expensive book. Lawrence had to write several angry e-mails before getting his money back. His story:

I sold a book to a nice Italian fellow and shipped it out the same day. Eleven weeks later, the customer reported to me he had not received the book. He filed a claim about 10 days later, and I refunded his money (about $40).

Last week the customer sent me an e-mail stating the book finally arrived, and he was very happy with it. He replied to Amazon's A-to-Z Guarantee e-mail (and CC'd me) and put the "X" in the box to authorize recharging his credit card. Very honest fellow!!

Several days later I inquired with Amazon.com to ask when I should expect the money in my account. They stated that the customer, while acknowledging that he had received his book, had to authorize the recharging of his card by "calling" their 800 number customer service line. I replied with the copy of the e-mail he had sent me.

I got stonewalled for another week by the Amazon reps. I continuously sent messages to every avenue possible on the Web site and through email, specifically pointing out that the customer had already given permission when he first replied to them. Finally, a third or fourth rep finally wrote to me stating that I would receive my money.

Here's the subtle e-mail that finally dislodged the funds from Amazon:

GREETINGS:

I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE WRITING TO YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN. I POINT OUT THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY SET UP A PROCEDURE TO RECHARGE MR. [DELETED]'S CARD THROUGH THE E-MAIL PROCESS, OF WHICH THE CUSTOMER ALREADY INITIATED. I DID NOT INVENT YOUR "PROCEDURE". NOW YOU ARE TELLING ME HE HAS TO CALL AMAZON.COM PERSONALLY BEFORE YOU WILL CHARGE HIS CARD? THAT IS NOT WHAT I READ IN THE E-MAIL THAT HE SENT BACK TO YOU, AND I DO NOT BELIEVE I SHOULD HAVE TO MAKE THAT REQUEST OF HIM. BY MARKING THE "X'', HE AGREES TO ALLOW YOU TO CHARGE HIS CARD. NOW, AM I JUST PLAIN IGNORANT, OR ARE YOU INVENTING, ON THE FLY, A NEW REQUIREMENT? I DO NOT SEE WHY I NEEDED TO BE INVOLVED IN ANY OF THIS.

THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS.

Before hearing this story from Lawrence, I hadn't known that buyers could easily have their card re-charged for the purchase amount. That seems to be a good reason to send all customers who claim non-receipt to A-to-Z first, instead of refunding directly. Unless, of course, Amazon has inserted some hidden requirement into this process, such as the customer having to "call" an 800 number. (Lawrence also suspects that a language barrier with the Amazon reps might have contributed to the confusion.)

Reminder: In 3 days, Amazon deletes customer info from shipping e-mails

Three days from now Amazon will no longer include customer names, shipping addresses and e-mail addresses in "Sold, ship now" e-mails. From that point on, the e-mails will include only:

• Notification that a customer has purchased one of your products.
• The order ID.
• The quantity and product title of the item in the order.

Click here for more info and an example of the new "Sold, ship now" e-mail format.

Q&A: Where did my Amazon listings go?

QUESTION: I just checked 60 of my Amazon listings and a bunch are missing. The first two I checked don't even show up. Surprised, I frantically searched my open listings for a few more. Only three out of the first 12 I checked were even there.

Of the remaining 48 randomly selected books, only about half were actually listed. Had these items been penny books, my concern would be less urgent. But most were saleable items and, since having been relisted, have sold. I am a Pro-Merchant and have been for the duration of the listings (about one year).

Furthermore, several listings I checked by clicking on the link for the item led to a dead end, 'This Page No Longer Exists' page. My theory is that the page was closed after the listing, but how would I have known?! Now, I fear, I have to check every single link to every single listing and pull each book from my shelves to learn whether or not it is even listed. This would, obviously, be as enormous a project.

There has been no indication to me that any of these listings were closed. Where did they go? This is, obviously, very disappointing and frustrating for me.

ANSWER: This sort of thing has been a continuing problem for me too, ever since I've been selling on Amazon. It seems to be just a random thing, that every once in a while some of my listings just drop off into thin air. About once every six to nine months I go through and make sure everything on my shelves has a listing. I usually find about 15-20 percent of the items I have are no longer listed, for no apparent reason. Very frustrating, because I depend on Amazon's listings to know what I have in inventory.

Also, there has been a big glitch at Amazon recently, and that may be part of what you're seeing. So before you do anything drastic (like taking a complete inventory) I would give this a few more days. There are many comments on Amazon's seller discussion board about missing listings. I think there is some kind of payment snafu that is making the dropped listings problem look even worse at the moment.

And there's one more factor: Every so often Amazon goes through their catalog and deletes books. Sometimes there seems to be a legitimate reason for it, like the book is an obsolete edition. And other times these deletions seem to be just random and nonsensical. Your listing won't be closed, but it's in limbo because it's not showing up anywhere on Amazon. For this kind of missing listing, assuming it's a fairly valuable book, you should verify that the ISBN is no longer in Amazon's catalog. Then try to find the best match for what remains in Amazon's catalog and list it there.

I remember one time about six years ago, Amazon had a big crash and lost most of the listings of many of its Pro-Merchants. Poof, one day they were gone, and that was that. Those sellers who didn't have a backup list of their stock had to relist their whole inventory.

Since you're a Pro-Merchant and don't have a separate inventory system, I'd recommend keeping a periodic backup by generating an Open Listings report at least once a week and saving it to your hard drive. That way, if Amazon has a big failure someday, you'll have a record of your ISBNs, descriptions, and SKUs, and you won't have to reinvent the wheel entirely.

Amazon will raise shipping credits and closing fees

Amazon announced it will adjust Marketplace shipping credits and variable closing fees when the Postal Service changes rates March 14:

To reflect these changes, we will increase Marketplace shipping credits for Books, Music, Movies, Video Games and Software, effective May 14th. The increases will range from $0.39 to $2.51 depending upon the product category and shipping method. In addition, we will implement modest increases to the variable closing fees in these product lines.

A full list of the changes compared with today’s rates is set forth in the charts below. Here is a short summary of the changes:

1. The Books, Video Games and Software standard shipping credit will be increased from $3.49 to $3.99.

2. The Music, DVD and VHS standard shipping credit will increase from $2.59 to $2.98.

3. The Books, Video Games and Software variable closing fee will increase from $1.20 to $1.35.

4. The Music, DVD and VHS variable closing fee will be increased from $0.70 to $0.80.

Shipping credit changes:

Domestic Standard
Current: $3.49, New: $3.99

Expedited
Current: $5.99, New $6.99

International
Current: $9.98, New $12.49

Variable closing fee changes:

	Current	New
Books	$1.20	$1.35

If you have questions about these changes, please contact Seller Support by going to our Help pages and clicking “Selling at Amazon.com,” and then “Contact Customer Service.” If you have feedback about these changes, and you do not need a response, please feel free to write to postage-increase-feedback@amazon.com.

Amazon Marketplace growth stalled during 2006

Although Amazon registered strong sales growth last year, the percentage of sales resulting from Marketplace merchants failed to increase for the first time ever.

A new breakdown of the North American book market published by Morris Rosenthal shows that Amazon's media sales exceeded those of brick-and-mortar giant Borders for the first time. Amazon's sales of books, music and video rose 15 percent last year, while sales at most other retailers were flat.

Marketplace accounted for 28 percent of Amazon's sales during 2006, the same as 2005.

Rosenthal estimates that because of Amazon's overall growth, Marketplace sales rose about 15 percent compared to 2005. But the share of Marketplace third-party sales relative to Amazon's sale of new items stalled, perhaps because of Amazon's heavy promotion of its Super Saver and Prime shipping programs. Last year on Marketplace, Amazon began displaying listings for its own merchandise above better deals by third-party merchants -- unless sellers undercut Amazon by more than the price of standard shipping.

An excerpt:

Amazon failed to grow sales through third party sellers for the first time in 2006, including those individuals and businesses selling through Amazon Marketplace, Merchants and other programs. Third party sales accounted for 28% of Amazon's total unit sales in 2006, no change from 2005, but still more than one in 4 items sold. If you assume that the majority of the third party item sales are books, and that the non-book media vs book ratio continues around 1:2, this would imply that about 1 in 3 books sold at Amazon are actually sold by a third party without even taking the other Amazon merchandise into account.

Q&A: Why is Amazon outlawing Google Base Store Connector?

QUESTION: I sell on Amazon and upload my listings to Google using Google Base Store Connector. But I just received this e-mail from Google:

Dear Google Base Store Connector user,

Our goal with Google Base Store Connector is to make it as easy as possible for merchants to make their inventory searchable on Google. Unfortunately, Amazon is requiring us to remove support for Amazon Stores from Google Base Store Connector. As a result, in the next update to Google Base Store Connector, this feature will be removed. This update will be required for all users.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We are working to resolve this issue and will let you know of any changes or updates that occur.

Thank you.
The Google Base Team

WHY would Amazon drop something that drives traffic TO Amazon?? This ranks right up there with the elimination of our neat, orderly zShops and giving us the resulting mess that is currently an Amazon store -- a mess that is impossible to categorize or sort usefully, which just shows a morass of listings that are useless to a buyer. Why is Amazon trying to kill potential sales??

ANSWER: Wow! Thanks for letting me know about this. I'm registered with Google and didn't get the e-mail.

I agree with you, Google Base is an opportunity for Amazon to make its wares more visible to more people on the Internet and make more sales. But apparently Amazon sees risks here. I would guess Amazon is worried about two things, and these are purely guesses on my part:

• Google Base is potentially a way for Amazon sellers to make sales without paying any fees to Amazon. Of course sellers are free to list their inventory wherever they want, but I guess Amazon doesn't want to make it too easy for people to export their listings. For example, if sellers are using something like Buybundle.com to manage their Amazon listings on Google Base, it's possible for buyers to use PayPal instead of Amazon Payments, and Amazon would receive no commission.
  

• Amazon may see the potential for security weaknesses or outright fraud -- that unsuspecting customers *think* they're buying from Amazon when actually they're not. I'm not saying necessarily that anybody is doing anything untoward, but this could be an argument that Amazon is using.
  

It's very interesting that eBay seems to be behind this 100 percent (they encourage Store owners to export their listings) while Amazon is not.

UPDATE: After writing an e-mail to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the original poster received this reply:

From: resolution-sellers@amazon.com

[mailto:resolution-sellers@amazon.com]
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 8:04 PM
To: xxxxx@yahoo.com
Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry

Greetings,

My name is Nathan, and I am an Escalation Specialist with the
Amazon.com Seller Support team. Your message to Jeff Bezos was forwarded to me
for my review and reply. I will include Jeff's office with this correspondence.

Google has removed support for Amazon Marketplace from the Google Base
Store Connector application because there were problems with Google’s
original implementation of Amazon Marketplace support. We are working to find
the right solution to this issue.

We appreciate your patience.

Best regards,

Nathan S.
Amazon.com Seller Support

Beware of this Amazon phishing e-mail

Here's a phishing e-mail making the rounds that I've received twice in the past week.

Here's the full text:

Hello, I wanna ask you if you still have this item for sale,sorry for bothering you ,but i think is a error in this link ,send me an reply after you able to sell the product. ! Please let me know soon.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/172282412312

Thank you.

Brian Petesburg.

The e-mail address displayed was BrianPetesburg@bellsouth.net. If you reply to the message, it goes to commmgr-autoreply@amazon.comt.

Of course this is a scammer hoping you'll go to his Web site and enter your Amazon ID and password. Then all hell breaks loose with your account.

There are several things about this e-mail that tip you off that it's a fraud. For one thing, the URL embedded in the e-mail wasn't the one that appears in the text. The URL actually went to a rogue site:
http://210.233.10.229/wiz/www.amazon.com/gp/SignIn.html

(You can see the actual URL by moving your mouse over the URL displayed in the e-mail while looking at the bottom of your browser. This rogue site has been shut down, but this phisher probably is using a different one by now.)

Do you see any more telltale signs that this e-mail is from a phisher? Have you received one of these lately?

Here's more information about Amazon phishing scams. At the bottom is a link for reporting these "spoof" e-mails.

Q&A: Why does Amazon buyer feedback often critique the book, not the seller?

QUESTION: I've been selling books on eBay and Half.com for five years with 100 percent positive buyer feedback, and have only recently started to sell on Amazon.

Feedback is important to me is because it lets me know I'm grading my books correctly and meeting a buyer's service and quality expectation. But something is driving me nuts on Amazon: Many of the feedbacks I've received are mini book reviews that have absolutely nothing to do with the transaction. For example, two out of the three most recent feedbacks I've received went like this:

5 out of 5: "Clear, concise, practical, funny, personal. I couldn't put it down!"
(RE: Idiot's Guide to Toltec Wisdom)

4 out of 5: "This book was fascinating at first, but was too long and became predictable. It was an interesting read for the most part."
(RE: The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue)

I have received thousands of feedbacks on the eBay sites, and no one has ever assumed I was responsible for a book's content. Why are book buyers on Amazon so confused? Do they think they are buying a book directly from the author or publisher? What should I do when I receive negative feedback based on the buyer's dislike for the book's content?

I have concluded feedback is not as important on Amazon as it is on the eBay sites -- mainly because the average buyer is not as sophisticated as the average eBay buyer, and because if a buyer leaves a poor, mindless, or ridiculous rating on eBay there is no real consequence for doing so.

ANSWER: I agree, Amazon buyers are much less aware of the purpose of feedback. Some of them don't have the foggiest idea that they're buying from a third party instead of Amazon itself.

I read a lot of the customer book reviews on Amazon, where people are supposed to critique the book, and several of them say stuff like, "Thanks for the fast shipping."

Jeez, how did these people ever get a credit card?

No, seriously, I think there's more to this. I'm not sure the eBay buyer is more sophisticated. It's a different culture. Amazon buyers are driven more by convenience, and don't give much thought to feedback. On eBay, lots of buyers (maybe most?) have been on the seller's side of a transaction, so they understand feedback. On Amazon, I'd bet that less than 5 percent of buyers have ever sold something online.

The bad news: We have to deal with some clueless customers. The good news: This shows that our business is growing. People who never thought of buying from an "online seller" are buying our books. Lots of these people have never been on eBay, and perhaps never even bought a used book before.

You're right, feedback is much less important to buyers on Amazon. However, I think it's essential to your business to keep your feedback average as high as possible. Because feedback does matter to buyers of expensive books.

The best we can do is to clean up after the mishaps. Just as on eBay, Amazon allows buyers to delete feedback, and I think it's worth the effort for us to educate them. Hopefully this prevents inappropriate feedback for another poor seller!

Here's a post where I give instructions for feedback removal. On eBay, the equivalent is mutual feedback withdrawal.

I guess the additional challenge in the type of case you mention is to e-mail the buyer and educate them -- within a sentence or two -- that the purpose of feedback is to rate the seller, not the product. I think you need to be very brief when you ask a buyer to delete feedback. If they were careless enough to leave silly feedback, they aren't going to care enough to read an e-mail from a seller that drones on for several paragraphs. As far as they're concerned, the transaction is done.

Does anyone out there have a diplomatic way of saying this?

Amazon launches order-notification software

Amazon announced the launch of its order-notification software, Amazon Services Order Notifier.

When Amazon announced plans for this software last summer, it threatened to eliminate customer information from the "Sold, ship now" e-mails. But as of this evening, I'm still receiving customer shipping addresses and e-mail addresses in my "Sold, ship now" e-mails.

I've been using the beta version of ASON for a few weeks, and it's been working fine, except for two weekends ago when I couldn't get a connection for a few hours. Amazon's Web site was down at the same time.

Two features recently added to ASON that I think are very helpful:

• The ability to export order data to a comma-separated file.
• Copy-to-clipboard functionality, allowing you to copy order information into other applications like Endicia, for postage printing.

One bug that still irritates me about ASON -- the "ship to" name often includes only the buyer's first name. I'm not sure if this has been fixed or not.

If you're currently depending on the "Sold, ship now" e-mails for your Amazon orders, it probably wouldn't hurt to download ASON and get familiar with it. It does provide better security. But if you're using a Mac, you're stuck with cutting and pasting from your Seller Account page.

Here's more information about ASON.

Q&A: Is it safe to sell books on Amazon and eBay?

QUESTION: I'm interested in selling used books on Amazon and eBay to supplement my retirement income. But I'm worried about giving my credit card to Amazon and PayPal, even though I buy books from online booksellers through Amazon all the time. I cannot jeopardize my life savings in any way.

ANSWER: I can understand the concern, and I felt exactly the same way when I started bookselling. However, I've earned my living from deposits to a regular checking account from Amazon and PayPal thanks to my bookselling during the past six years. I've never had an unauthorized deduction to my account from PayPal or Amazon, and I've never heard a story of this happening to anyone else. Sure, there is a customer every now and then who might try to cheat you. But looking at the big picture, there are U.S. consumer-protection laws against unauthorized charges to bank accounts and credit cards. So you can report any bad transactions to your bank, if it ever comes to that.

You could probably gain some peace of mind by setting up a separate bank account to collect your deposits from the bookselling, and transfer the funds periodically to your personal account. This is a worthwhile thing to do anyway, so you can keep your business and personal funds separate.

The biggest danger to online sellers, I think, is with hackers and "phishing" e-mails that ask you to "update" your account information, and give a Web link for you to follow. These are always fraudulent, and a scammer can gain access to your accounts if you give your password. The only thing you have to remember is, never follow a link in an e-mail that supposedly takes you to eBay, Amazon, a bank, or anywhere else you need a password. Instead of following links, open your Web browser and type in the address yourself.

Phishing isn't unique to online selling, of course -- everyone with an e-mail account receives this junk. But some of it can appear legitimate, so keep your guard up. Here is more information on fraud prevention from Amazon and eBay.

Tired of book scouting? Print them yourself!

Have you ever wished you could be the exclusive seller of a hot book -- by printing them yourself?

Well, this seller did just that, and made quite a few bucks at it -- until Amazon and eBay pulled the plug.

The seller downloaded a free e-book by business guru Seth Godin and printed hundreds of paperback copies. Sales were so good, Amazon began recommending the book to customers who purchased similar books, and one of those recommendations made its way back to Seth, who promptly blew his stack.


Hey, it's almost as easy as Xeroxing $20 bills, without those nagging counterfeiting accusations ;-)

Actually, the seller didn't violate any laws in this case. More details on my other blog.

Q&A: How can I list books for sale on Amazon's international sites?

QUESTION: Now that Amazon has done away with zShop listings in lieu of building a universal catalog, how does one go about listing a book that is already listed on Amazon.uk, for example? I have bought from other U.S. third-party sellers who have listings there. How can a single person set up such an account which requires you to have an address, checks and a credit card in that country?

I would imagine that to list a book in the U.K. catalog, one has to have some markup to cover shipping costs. Any insight on listing books that I cannot list at my regular Amazon.com (U.S.) account?

ANSWER: As you probably know, several weeks ago Amazon launched a feature where our U.S. listings automatically appear on the international sites, if the book isn't already for sale there, and assuming we've checked "Yes" for international shipping.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not?) I've gotten lots of e-mail lately from sellers having trouble listing books on Amazon.com which were published outside the U.S. Maybe this is a temporary glitch, maybe not.

Anyway, back to your question: Apparently a lot of U.S. sellers open up accounts on the international sites so they can sell there directly -- although it sounds like a lot of trouble to me.

However, if you were doing a good volume of business at the international sites, it might be worth it to set up an account with one of the software vendors that can provide some automation, so that you're not constantly having to manually delete the listings that sell.

I'm totally clueless about this, so I asked Shaun Jamieson, the business development manager at FillZ, for some more elaboration, and the answers appear below. (FillZ is one of several companies that provide automation tools for Amazon sellers.)

QUESTION: If a seller was using your software, can they automatically list on Amazon's U.K., German, Canadian and French sites using their .com account? Or does selling on these other sites require new accounts with those international sites? Can someone sell on those international sites without software such as yours, just by using their browser?

ANSWER: FillZ offers access to all of these markets, but you still have to have separate seller accounts for each market. Sellers can sell directly on those international sites without of a service like FillZ, but it’s more difficult to maintain you inventory when you are getting orders from multiple markets simultaneously.

The main barriers to selling on these markets are having a local mailing address and bank account. FillZ has a referral program to help sellers get set up with escrow bank accounts in Germany and the UK . This makes the decision to list on their markets easier. Since we put this program in place, a number of existing sellers have started listing on the international Amazon markets. I know of sellers who had flown overseas just to get his accomplished.

QUESTION: It seems a lot of sellers are having trouble listing certain books on Amazon.com now because of listings appearing on the international sites. I'm not sure I understand the problem -- whether it's a bug, or just the way things are now.

ANSWER: We have many sellers who list the same inventory on multiple markets including the international Amazon markets. We have, however, only ever heard from one seller who received an error message for an item that was listed to Amazon.com in the context you mention.

This seller was told something to the effect of: This item was already listed on Amazon.co.uk and could therefore could not be listed on Amazon.com. After further clarification and investigation, it appeared as though this item had an ISBN that was in the UK catalog (UK ISBN), and was not in the .com catalog.

I don’t think Amazon was saying the item could not be listed on both markets. I think they were saying the item was not recognized by the catalogue of one market (.com) and were suggesting they list it on the other market (.co.uk).

Q&A: Will cancelled orders from students hurt my Amazon performance summary?

QUESTION: My store sells textbooks on Amazon. I'm worried that our performance summary rating on Amazon is going to suffer because we're getting quite a few order cancellations from students buying textbooks for the Spring semester.

I believe Amazon's threshold for refunds is 5 percent. Today we've had 100 Amazon Marketplace orders but five cancellations before the books shipped. We're not getting any reasons for the cancellations, just e-mails asking to cancel.

I think this is a double-edged sword -- we're apt to get negative feedback for some unknown reason, and we're worried about our account being suspended by Amazon Alliance for an excessive refund rate.

Do you think I should call Amazon¹s customer service number to try to explain the situation so they don't kick us off? If so, what number should we call?

ANSWER: Your performance summary provides statistics on your sales, refunds, customer feedback, and A-to-Z Guarantee claims.

I remember when Amazon began compiling this data in 2003, there was a big hubbub because they e-mailed the first few monthly tallies to the sellers, even sellers with good records. Many sellers felt compelled to contest each and every ding on their records. Amazon quit mailing the monthly statistics, and I assume nowadays you only hear about them when you're in hot water.

Honestly, I wouldn't be too concerned about one day of excessive refunds. I doubt your refund rate is out of line compared to other sellers who do heavy volume in textbook selling. I'm sure Amazon sees a spike in refunds across the board this time of the year thanks to the back-to-school rush.

I always get a lot of cancellations without explanations from students this time of year too. As we know, most students are notorious tightwads and don't select "Expedited" shipping. So my hunch is that when they receive the e-mail confirmation from Amazon and notice that delivery may take weeks, they freak out because they're desperate to receive the book quickly. Of course these were the same folks who ignored the opportunity minutes earlier of upgrading their shipping to ensure delivery within a few days.

And I'm sure a good number of the cancellations are from students who realize they've bought the wrong edition. It's frustrating, but it's better to get an immediate cancellation than a returned textbook several weeks after the big bookselling season.

My understanding is sellers get a warning if the refund average gets to be unacceptable. Personally I wouldn't waste the energy explaining the refunds until it got to that point, if it does. Then I'm fairly sure a human at Amazon would take into account the situation with textbooks.

If you want to contact someone at Amazon, my best advice would be to call the seller support line and ask to speak with a supervisor: 1-877-251-0696

Here's Amazon's tip sheet for improving your performance summary, but it's all common sense for anyone who's been selling for longer than one afternoon:

• Carefully describe and categorize your items to avoid buyer confusion.
  

• Provide helpful and timely customer service.
  

• Carefully pack items to avoid damage that might occur during shipping.
  

• Ship orders within 1-2 business days and provide post-order support (refunds, returns, and exchanges) to help ensure buyer satisfaction.

• If an A-to-z Guarantee claim is filed against your account, respond quickly to the claimant to attempt to resolve the dispute.

It would be nice if Amazon Pro-Merchants had account representatives so that we could talk to a human occasionally about issues like this. I'm curious if other sellers have gotten into hot water about refunds or other things related to the performance summary, and how they resolved it. Comments, anyone?

Q&A: Why do you send Amazon Marketplace buyers to the A to Z Guarantee?

QUESTION: You've said you usually steer people requesting refunds to the A to Z procedure at Amazon.com rather than just refund their money yourself through your Seller Account. Why? Is there any advantage to the seller to send a buyer to Amazon.com and A to Z for a refund, or is this just to figure out if the buyer is running a scam?

ANSWER: It's a combination of things. The bottom line is, I know from experience that Amazon will pay the A to Z claim if I have proof of postage.

So my typical response to a customer complaining about a late Media Mail delivery, for example, is, "I'm fairly certain you'll receive the package very soon, but in the unlikely event you don't receive it within 30 days of the purchase, I'll assist you in getting a refund from Amazon."

This way, the A to Z Guarantee covers me in the case of nondelivery by the Postal Service, and also in the case of a scammer trying to get his money back because the Postal Service actually delivered, but didn't scan the package delivered.

But A to Z isn't my first resort. Actually I do a fair amount of refunds, especially for customers who aren't belligerent. But my radar goes up when a customer's first response is, "I want a refund." That's the first response of a problem customer, and that makes me suspicious they're trying to take advantage. For customers who give me the benefit of the doubt, I give them the same courtesy, and I rarely go the A to Z route -- I'll meet them halfway somehow.

The interesting thing is, the people I refer to A to Z actually follow through on it less than one out of 10 times. And it's not like they're confused, I give them the A to Z link, and I give them their order number just in case they don't know it. That's the key, making it firm but not confrontational.

Why do only a small number of people demanding a refund actually go through with the A to Z Guarantee claim? Well, I have no way of knowing for certain. But after several years of experience, my hunch is that the people who ask for refunds but don't follow through with the A to Z claim think better of it when they see this warning on Amazon's claim form, where they must indicate:

I understand that submitting a false claim violates federal and state criminal fraud laws and may result in serious criminal penalties.

I've had four or five A to Z claims deducted from my payments account in over 100,000 Marketplace transactions, and in each case it was a customer I would have refunded if they'd notified me of the problem before filing the A to Z claim. There have been two or three other cases where I believed the customer scammed me by filing an A to Z, and in those cases Amazon has always restored the funds to my account after I insisted on it. In two of those cases, I had to insist several times, but I thought it was worth making the point.

Anyway, my stock response to customers "I'll assist you in getting a refund from Amazon" covers me in both cases. It assures the scammers I'm not a pushover, and it reassures the 99.9 percent of the others -- the skittish customers who are probably going to get their book in the mail tomorrow.

Amazon will delete customer e-mails and shipping addresses from "Sold, ship now" e-mails

Do you rely on Amazon's "Sold, ship now" e-mails to fill your orders? Starting Feb. 1, those e-mails will no longer contain customer e-mail and shipping addresses. We'll need to get that order information from our Seller Account or with software Amazon will introduce in two weeks.

Here's the announcement:

To protect the privacy of our customers and sellers, we will soon be changing the content of "Sold, Ship Now" e-mails.

Beginning on Thursday, February 1st, "Sold, Ship Now" e-mails will contain only the following information:

• A notification that a customer has purchased one of your products.
• The quantity and product title of the items in the order.

We will no longer be including information about the buyer, such as the buyer e-mail address, or information about the order, such as the order ID or the product ID, in the "Sold, Ship Now" e-mail.

On Jan. 15, Amazon will introduce the Amazon Services Order Notifier application.

When ASON is launched, an icon is added to your Windows system tray in your task bar. Running in the background, it periodically polls Amazon.com to retrieve any new orders you have received. When new orders arrive, ASON displays a user-friendly “pop-up” notification to let you know that you have new orders.

Here's what the new software will look like (click on the pictures for a clearer view):

Pop-up notification:








View up to 30 days of transactions in the Order History window:



























View the details of each order and print shipping labels and packing slips:

























I'm interested to know the reaction of sellers to this. If this new Amazon software works as advertised, it could make order retrieval more reliable. I've had several mishaps this year when my Internet provider, Verizon, deleted my Amazon e-mails, mistaking them for spam.

Amazon's new software could also reduce the value of some of the third-party software that automates the tasks of printing address labels and packing slips, especially if you're paying $30 a month to handle those jobs. What do you think?

Q&A: What are velocity limits on Amazon Marketplace?

QUESTION: Today I was surprised to find no Amazon Marketplace orders, so I checked the "Payment Processed" list for my seller account. I found several orders processed yesterday and today that haven't shown up on my order list. I haven't received any "Sold, ship now" e-mails and I got concerned about customers having their shipments delayed due to some Amazon glitch.

I called Seller Support, and they told me I had reached my "velocity limit," a speed at which orders can come through for each 28-day period, and a seemingly arbitrary dollar sales amount. Thanks to the busy holiday season, sales have been up for me this week, far beyond what is usual, but it came grinding to a halt today.

I was told I had to e-mail Amazon (at payments-request@amazon.com) and request an increase in my velocity limit. At the present setting, I'm not allowed to exceed a certain dollar amount in sales (which, by the way, must also include the postage amounts because the value of books sold doesn't equal the amount they quoted me).

It's been several hours since I emailed them, and still, no orders posted. Plenty of items down to "0" quantity, with unsuspecting customers on the other end. I typically follow-up order reports immediately with a confirmation to the customer & notice of intent to ship today, tomorrow, or whatever.

I find it very frustrating that Amazon should delay these orders from posting, even for a few hours, especially going into a weekend with holidays fast approaching. I actually took it upon myself to contact each of the customers with the pending sales, just to let them know there seems to be some kind of delay in the posting of their orders to me.

Have you ever heard of this? I don't understand the logic of limiting the dollar value of sales. Amazon should not be doing anything that will get in the way of 100 percent customer satisfaction. To be sure, if the delays caused by Amazon for these pending orders leads to any negative feedback, I will be sending some strong complaints Amazon's way...

ANSWER: Ho, Ho, oooooohhh damn.

I think you've said it all. Almost.

I bumped into velocity limits five times in my first few years selling. It's a fraud-prevention measure, to makes sure the seller is actually filling orders. It's probably based on the same type of software that credit card companies use to monitor accounts for unusual spending -- and hence an alert for a stolen card.

However, in my case Amazon always contacted me before I reached my velocity limit, so I never had a gap in sales. Each time, I got an automated e-mail from Amazon, asking me to reply with my full name and phone number. They never called me back; they simply approved my new velocity limit within a few hours.

From your comments, it seems Amazon isn't sending those alerts out anymore -- they're simply letting seller accounts get locked up, with the poor seller having to figure out what's going on. I don't know whether it's a glitch or simply a new policy. If it's a policy, it seems like an incredibly foolish one to me.

I agree, it's an awful time of the year for Amazon to be dropping the ball on velocity limits. Amazon is shooting itself in the foot and leaving customers in the lurch. Not to mention we poor sellers are being hung out to dry.

I keep saying it and saying it, and I'll say it once more: Every Amazon Pro-Merchant should have an account representative who can help get crap like this straightened out promptly. Anything less is a disservice to us and a shoddy business practice by Amazon.

In the meantime, put in another phone call to Seller Support at 1-877-251-0696. Tell them Santa is holding and wants to speak with a supervisor.