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

Q&A: Will Amazon increase our shipping credits when Postal rates rise?

QUESTION: How can we get Amazon to do right by us third-party sellers when the postage rates go up May 14? Will they increase shipping credits? I've seen nothing posted on their site. While I haven't had the time to call them, I know from past experience that while the Seller Support people are very nice, they're usually not told anything.

This time the Postal Service rate hike is really steep, and it hasn't been too long since they raised them last time.

I don't make that much per book. I have to really watch my pricing and how much postage is going to be, so this rate increase really concerns me.

ANSWER: I'm also surprised at how steep the Postal Rate hikes are this year. It seems to be totally out of whack with the rate of inflation, rising fuel costs, etc. Nearly 18 percent more for Media Mail?? Where on earth did they come up with that number? It's so much I don't think Amazon can ignore it this go-around.

Amazon stiffed us after the last two Postal rate hikes. They didn't give us a cent the last time rates went up, and only a nominal amount the time before that. This time, at the very minimum, they need to raise Marketplace shipping from $3.49 to $3.99 or $4 and change and give us all of the increase.

Sure, we can raise prices. But it would be helpful to know whether we'll need to do it.

I'm not sure how to extract this kind of information from Amazon. Although I think Amazon is a great company, it management is afflicted with a common syndrome -- the idea that because it operates on the Internet, it can ignore input from its customers and business partners.

Of course we can e-mail or call the seller support folks, but I doubt it would make a difference. One way to break through the bubble is to send an e-mail to jeff@amazon.com. E-mails sent there are read by the executive staff and legitimate complaints are taken seriously. Perhaps if enough of us write in, we'll at least get some clarification on what to expect about shipping credits this time.

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: 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: How generous should I be in correcting my shipping mistakes?

QUESTION: This past weekend I received an e-mail from a customer on the opposite coast inquiring why they hadn't received their book yet. The buyer paid for expedited shipping, but I accidentally sent it Media Mail. I've been selling books on Amazon for two years now, and this is the first time I've made this mistake.

Since the customer paid $60 for the book, I've offered to refund them half the cost of the book. Do you think my offer to refund half the purchase price is appropriate? Is there anything else I should do?

ANSWER: I've made the same mistake several times. Usually I apologize profusely and refunded the shipping fee, $5.98. But several other times I have done exactly what you did and refunded 50 percent of the total (but never for an expensive book like this).

Sometimes I've based my decision on how much longer the person had to wait -- for example if the person was in Alaska and Hawaii and it took over a month, I've refunded 100 percent -- but those happened to be cheap books.

On an expensive book like your transaction, a 50 percent refund really hurts. It's exceedingly generous, so I defintely wouldn't offer anything more.

Through experience, though, I've noticed one great result out of admitting your mistakes and offering to make good on it. For example, many times when I've offered a partial refund (for this and other types of problems) the customer has responded, "No refund is necessary, thanks for the offer." They were totally satisfied that someone acknowledged the problem and made a gesture of offering something for their inconvenience. This puts us in a favorable light compared to most retailers -- so often when people make a complaint about service, it's not even acknowledged.

Missing the manual for Amazon Services Order Notifier

I remember when I bought my first computer about 12 years ago. The thing came with a users manual as big as a small telephone book. And the manual for Microsoft Word was even bigger!

Software has has gotten lots more powerful and complicated in the past few years. Meanwhile, the software makers have been eliminating the users manuals to cut their costs. I suppose that's fine -- IF they include all the documentation you need in well-designed help files viewable on your computer.

But what happens when the help files aren't very helpful? That so-called productivity tool you paid big bucks for can waste your whole day. It's gotten so bad recently that a whole new field of publishing has cropped up to help people learn how to use the stuff they've bought. The "Missing Manuals" are selling like hotcakes because the makers of software and other products often can't be bothered to let us know how to use the products they've sold us.

I was reminded of all this on Friday afternoon when I downloaded the Amazon Services Order Notifier. It's the new software that's going to be replacing our "Sold, ship now" e-mails pretty soon.

Usually I avoid installing software updates until the last minute, and I've gotten pretty gun-shy of trying out betas. I need my computer 24/7, and I don't want to have to pay Geeks on Call to get my computer unstuck.

But I couldn't wait to try this one out. I make my living on Amazon, so I was just too curious to resist this download.

The good news is that installation was pretty fast and, no, my PC didn't lock up. But I was a bit surprised that there was no documentation -- at least none I could find -- as to how to use this darned software. I stared at it for about 10 minutes before guessing that you had to select and double-click an order in your Order History window to do stuff like print an address label/packing slip. Am I the only one that didn't get it?

The lack of documentation aside, I think the ASON is going to be a handy little tool, and I'll tell you why: Last November, my Internet provider, Verizon, began filtering some of my Amazon orders into a spam folder, and I wasn't aware of it. If Verizon had filtered ALL my Amazon e-mails -- or MOST of them -- I would have noticed. But Verizon only killed about one in every 15 of my "Sold, ship now" e-mails.

It took me about five weeks to catch on to the fact that Verizon was filtering some of my Amazon e-mails. When I got the third "where's my book?" e-mail in one week for a transaction I'd received no e-mail for, I finally woke up. So I had to send about 75 books via Priority Mail, along with a personal letter of apology to all those customers. But that was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out which customers I hadn't shipped to. I had to spend two days comparing my shipping log against my Payments Account. What a nightmare!

If you've had a chance to check out the Amazon Services Order Notifier, I'm interested to hear what you think about it. Please add a comment at the bottom.

Amazon postpones changes to "Sold, ship now" e-mails

Amazon has indefinitely postponed the deletion of customer e-mail and shipping addresses from its "Sold, ship now" e-mails.

Amazon had planned on making the change February 1, but now says it will wait until it has released new order-notification software, which has also been delayed.

The announcement:

As a result of your feedback, we have postponed this change. We will announce a new date for the change in the near future.

We want to allow plenty of time for sellers to make the transition from relying solely on e-mail order notifications. To help you make this transition, we will be providing two new notification options: an Event Notification Web Service API (Application Programming Interface) and the Amazon Services Order Notifier (ASON).

The Event Notification Web Service API documentation, including SDKs (Software Development Kits), and a beta preview of ASON will be released together soon.

We welcome your feedback on both the Event Notification Web Service and ASON. We will consider your suggestions and comments when making future improvements.

Q&A: Can I sell books on Amazon.com from Canada?

QUESTION: I live in suburban Toronto and I'm wondering if it's possible to run an online bookstore from here. I looked at Amazon.ca and the book selection is much less, and the sellers are still in the States.

Would I have equal access to the U.S. market? How different would shipping costs be? Would there be duty on used books sold outside of Canada?

ANSWER: I think your best bet would be to list books on both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com, especially your higher-priced books. Of course that would require you to delete listings manually on the other site when you have a sale.

You need to have a U.S. bank account to sell on Amazon.com but perhaps you can arrange that with a visit to a bank in the northern U.S. to open an account.

Being outside the U.S. Postal System would be a handicap for you (when selling on Amazon.com) but not an insurmountable one. For example, there are sellers on Amazon.com who live outside the continental U.S., in Hawaii and Alaska. To be competitive, these sellers often pay for airmail delivery for all their orders sent to the mainland, to ensure prompt delivery -- even when the customer pays only for ground shipping. These sellers seem to do OK, even though it's certainly a drain on their profits. You'd be operating with a similar handicap, but you're accessing a big market.

Another thing you might consider: Amazon has a new program called "Fulfillment by Amazon." Participating booksellers send their inventory to Amazon, and Amazon does all the shipping and customer service, and sends the bookseller the proceeds minus some storage and service fees.

Personally I wouldn't use Fulfillment by Amazon because I like to have total control of my business. But you might consider it if it allowed you to dramatically reduce your costs -- you could bulk-ship your inventory to an Amazon warehouse. Using a truck freight company you could probably get your per-book cost down very low.

If you fill the orders yourself, I'm not sure about the duties of books being shipped from Canada to the U.S., so I'm hoping we'll get some helpful comments. Anyone?

How to be a hero instead of a villain at the Post Office

I don't know what I'd do without online postage. My pet peeve is standing in line, and there's nothing worse than standing in line at the Post Office, if you ask me.

To make it even worse, some of the sourpuss postal clerks just hate to see us online booksellers lugging our day's worth of sales up to the counter. That's another pet peeve of mine: Being hated for bringing someone business.

And there's more: In the past year or two, Post Offices have been outfitted with a new postage printing system that works much slower than the older system, which can make your time with the clerk even longer. Another pet peeve: New, "improved" technology that makes tasks harder to do, not easier.

I've been using online postage practically since I started selling books six years ago. I print my postage at home and drop my packages at my Post Office's loading dock -- half the time, they don't even know I've been there. And hardly a day goes by when the thought doesn't go through my mind, "What will I do if Endicia is down and I can't print postage tomorrow?"

But believe it or not, there are some people who actually enjoy going to the Post Office. Here's a note I received from Carlos Sandoval, who looks forward to taking in his mail every day. If you take your mail to the counter too, pay attention, because Carlos a great idea for making your trip more pleasant, especially during this holiday season. He's been through the drill so many times, he knows the Postal Service's computer system better than most of the clerks:

Call me old fashioned, I still like the interaction with people and like to talk with the people behind the postal counter. And so it goes for the many years I've been selling books, CDs, and movies online.

But a funny thing happened just a month before the busy holiday season -- the USPS decided to outfit all their Post Offices with a new system complete with new software and touch-screen display units. This was supposed to streamline the processing of mail. But, alas, it did the opposite -- many counter personnel complained that it slowed down processing with answering of many questions, slow refreshing of many screens of information, just to process one piece of mail. And, of course, there was learning a new system in a short amount of time.

So standing there with stacks of mail to process was starting to wear on me and the counter person. I could see the frustration they were experiencing, and what was once a pleasant visit was fast turning into drudgery. But I noticed what was going on with the new system. The clerk put on a piece of mail, typed in the Zip code, and proceeded to punch at the flat screen before them, waiting five seconds for the next screen and punch another response, wait for the next screen, and so on. Finally it would spit out a label and it would be applied to the package. On to the next.

Want to be a hero to that person behind the counter? Here's the secret. Tell them to quit punching the screen, keep their hands on
the keyboard. Each of the "buttons" they have to "push" on the screen correspond to the F keys (function keys) on their keyboards. So on a particular display, F1 equals the first button, F2 is the second, F3 the third, and so on. By memorizing or writing down the series of F keys you are hitting for each type of mailing (Media Mail, First Class, Priority), you can speed up the processing dramatically. For instance, I know the "code" for processing First Class mail is: Put in the zip code, F2, F4, F8, F1 (the first screen of information the second button is always pushed, the second screen the fourth, etc.). So instead of waiting for each screen to come up, the clerk types Zip code, F2, F4, F8, F1. And as he is waiting for the label, he takes the package off the scale and is ready to enter the next package as soon as the label is dispensed. The "code" is different, of course, for all the other kinds of services, especially if there is Delivery Confirmation or insurance. Caution the clerk when entering Priority Mail, the different screens for regular Priority Mail and Flat Rate Priority.

Processing time for my Post Office visit used to average about a half hour for a box of miscellaneous packages; it's now reduced to as little as ten minutes. I still have postal clerks thanking me for teaching them this shortcut that isn't in any of the postal manuals.