Marketplace, you, me and Captain Obvious!!

With all the information we have seen here (The Seller Support Blog), now the question is how to filter it to your own needs.  Thus far, we have focused on all merchants selling on Amazon.com. But now let’s turn our attention to our Marketplace sellers. First, many ask what is the difference between Marketplace sellers and non-Marketplace sellers, and the answer is something that could (and likely should) be talked about at length. However, in an effort to save space, we will keep it simple with one major difference:

Marketplace sellers sell BMVD (Books, Music, Video & DVD) and non-Marketplace sellers do not

 

There are many, many other differences; we will table that conversation for later in the future when we compare selling platforms for Amazon.com. 

From the ground up, to start selling you really want to follow the outlined steps

List your items
Get orders
Ship
Get paid

Or at http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161232

This is not an exhaustive list, and if it were it would be entirely too long to be useful. However, before you even get here you need to know:

How selling really works
Shipping easy as 1, 2, 3
Profit Margins
Customer Service Standards
How to get paid

How selling really works

Selling on Amazon.com in nearly any platform can be summed up in a single phrase: “You tell us about an item, and then you tell us what you want to sell that item for.” The detail page, the place that the buyer sees, is really owned by Amazon.com and can have hundreds of sellers listed on it. This leaves the choice in the hands of the buyers as to whom they will buy from. When viewing all buying choices, sellers are listed in order of price including shipping. Shipping cost to the buyers is pre-set for all Marketplace sellers, and especially for BMVD. 

Why, Pourquoi, Warum,  Por qué, Kāpēc, De ce?

~Consistency. For you the seller this is an inconvenience, but for the buyer, they know we are setting the price for this and they are getting a fair deal.~

Shipping easy as 1, 2, 3

1.    Know your shipping cost
2.    Know your shipping time frames
3.    Know the cost of those time frames

No one part is more important than the other, and I struggled to pick an order that made sense. The shipping cost is simply the packing materials, time and trouble. If all you have is 10,000 mass market paperbacks then picking out, and picking up, the packing materials would be really easy. Unfortunately, not all of us are that lucky. Normally, our house or basement has stacks of empty boxes waiting to fulfill their potential, along with stacks of shipping sleeves and padded envelopes just waiting. Here is the homework part: search, and research to find the best packing material for your items.

~Remember: You own it, until the buyer opens it~

Your shipping time frames are a little easier and with a little homework, you will be able to create a list or cheat-sheet, to know these times by heart. There really are only 2 shipping speeds for media items you ship in the US, Standard and Expedited. These are easier to remember as Normal and Fast.

Normal shipping should get from your door, to the buyers in about 14 days.

~yes, it says up to 21 in some cases, but would you wait this long for a book?~

Fast shipping should get from your door to the buyers in about 6 days.

If you know media mail will get from your door to theirs in this amount of time, use it. If it won’t or odds are good that it won’t, don’t. Buyers don’t want to hear that it may take extra time, and all it does is make a bad situation worse to tell them that it might be lost in the mail. The cost of shipping for an internet order is part of the cost of doing business, you need to know this cost, and have it well in mind when you price your items.

~since the shipping credit is fixed for all books, you will want to add the extra expense of shipping onto the price ahead of time~

 Profit Margins

We partially touched on this already, and by now you should realize that there are a lot of little things that add into the sale of a single item.

Bubble wrap ………………………………………………….....................…$59.99
Padded envelopes ………………………………….....................….$22.95
Scale and internet postage …………......................$32.65
Printer.............................................…$78.99
Your orders getting where they need
to be when they need to be there…................…Priceless

The best sellers on Amazon.com, and in the retail world, pick a pricing structure and stay there. There are a lot of buyers out there, and if you are constantly trying to be the lowest price, you are catering to the most volatile buying group around. They will go to where the price is cheapest, and historically, will not be repeat buyers. Your pricing structure is one facet of your business; give it only the importance it deserves. Some sellers will price things at ½ retail price to start with, and this is not a bad place to start. Each item has a market, and each market has what is considered a fair price.

~before you ask us about pricing strategies, remember the people in Amazon Services have a Market, selling on Amazon.com. We have not done the homework for your items and will not be able to tabulate the cost of doing business.~


Customer Service Standards

Customers return to shop where they were treated fairly. Time and time again companies have proven that service with a smile is just as important as the product being received. I could go into length here, but I would suggest reading “Customer Service by Captain Obvious”

This lays it out there for you to see, with the exception of returns. As a seller, you will accept returns. This is not up for debate or just a suggestion, it is a fact. This does not need to be the bane of your existence, or something to cause you to have sleepless nights. Buyers are human, and they, like us, make mistakes. The return policy that you must meet is here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161246#return


How to get paid

All right, we got the shipping materials, the item has been received, the buyer is totally happy and the only thing left is to get paid……..Did you give us a checking account?.....when will it be there?.........how much is it?.........are there more fees?

~Breathe~
~In and out~
~Slowly~

This is the typical, and like the above homework suggests, easily controlled and conquered. When you set up your account just go through every section of the “Seller Account Information” and make sure they are all filled in. We collect money from the buyer, and for the first 14 days we let those funds accumulate. At the end of this time we subtract our fees and shuffle the rest off to you. These then appear in your checking account in 3-5 days. This is your first Disbursement.  Disbursements will occur automatically every 14 days after this.

What happens if you don’t add your checking account right away?
Better do it, if you do it too late (within 24 hours of the end of your first scheduled Disbursement) it can delay getting your funds for another 14 days. I suggest entering it in when you first set up your account, or before you list your first item. There is nothing more frustrating than having to wait nearly a month to get paid.

James M.

Comments

[Danielle Eickenhorst]

How are you guys getting inventory? Has anyone found reliable inventory without chasing books all over town? I have looked into wholesale purchasing, but Amazon's prices are lower than what I can purchase for. We're losing our minds here. Any advice would be appreciated!

Danni

[Customer Service Training]

Thanks for the interesting and informative article. When talking about selling, you mention the importance of "service with a smile." In our ever increasing technological world of internet shopping, email correspondence, and reduced human contact, how do you think the idea of 'service with a smile' is going to be communicated, if at all, and how detrimental will this be to a company?