Changes “Behind the Scenes” for Selling on Amazon

Every day there are new ideas being explored for the Amazon.com web site, and every day teams of people are working hard to make the site “a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” As a seller, you are part of the result of these efforts. There are also people working to keep the seller business running while they make incremental changes to support all seller businesses on Amazon.com.

Here are just a few of those incremental changes that have happened recently.

INVENTORY REPORT: This is a tool in Seller Central that has been available to sellers who sell non-media products. There was a glitch causing anything with “zero” inventory to not be included in the report and many of you told us those were actually the products you needed to know about. That has been changed and now the inventory report is a list of all your products with the inventory, even if it is at zero. If this was something on your wish list or something new to you, check it out at the Inventory tab in Seller Central or click on the following link to learn more about Inventory Reports.

DISBURSEMENT INFORMATION: In order to provide more specific information about your payments account, the Payments pages have been changed to display revenue, reserves and what is available for disbursement, rather than a total settlement as in the past. There is new information about the account summary and reserves here in Seller Central or here on Amazon.com

ONE ACCOUNT IS ALL YOU NEED: We’ve simplified registration so that when signing up for the Selling on Amazon program you only need one account to list products – both media and non-media. Media is generally books, music, videos and DVDs and non-media is everything else open for selling on Amazon.com. To get started, or for more information, go to Amazonservices.com to sign up today.

There is still a choice to make, though, because two pricing options are available. “Sell a little” is for those of you who don’t have many products to sell (typically when you expect less than 40 orders a month) and “Sell a lot” is for those who are ready to take the professional seller route (“pro” account), no matter what you have to sell. There are some advanced options for detail page creation and bulk upload with the pro account. Don’t worry, if you choose one today you can switch later! For more information before you choose, check out the tabs on Amazonservices.com to see How it Works, to learn about Getting Prepared, and to read What Customers Say.

Condition Guidelines for Music, Videos and DVDs -- Cover Art and Liner Notes: We are working to reduce confusion about what is allowed or not in listings. Until now, sellers have only been permitted to list Music and Video & DVD products that are missing cover art, liner notes or other original inclusions on the Amazon.com website when granted an exception by category managers. The change made recently allows all sellers listing in the Music and Video & DVD categories to offer these items. In doing so, we hope to meet buyer demand for media content while also setting clear expectations for sellers about the used products they may list on Amazon.com.

For Music CDs and cassettes, and for Video tapes and DVDs, we have revised our condition guidelines to state that products missing cover art, liner notes or other original inclusions may be listed as "Used – Acceptable." These products may not be listed in any other "Used" condition, and they may not be listed in any "Collectible" condition. Check out the Condition Guidelines for more specifics.

Support Updates: Our Seller Support team is always fine tuning and making changes to improve your experience. This is a quick reminder about how to take advantage of that help – you may find something new as well! There are links on most tool pages to “Learn More” that take you to help pages. In the Help pages there is additional information worth browsing and reading as you optimize your business. When you really need help, don’t hesitate to use the links to Seller Support and choose either the email or “click-to-call” option where you input a phone number and the support team calls you back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Will you be enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner tonight? Or going rogue and eating something else?  Here’s what attendees of the last Product Ads webinar will be enjoying this year:
   
Traditional turkey with the fixings    63%
No dinner- I will be working on my Product Ads feeds    23%
Tofurkey (I don't eat anything with a face)    7%
Turducken (Turkey + Duck + Chicken)    4%
Forget turkey, it's hot here and I am having lobster    3%

Polls are not only a great way to learn about the attendees but we can use them to find out what you want to learn about in the webinar.  This way we can focus the webinar on that’s important to you.

In the last webinar on Building Effective Product Ads feeds, you wanted us to focus on how to improve your ads. We went into more detail on how to build an optimized feed file and provided optimization tips on product data that should be included in the feeds such as keywords, bullet points, multiple images, etc.

If you missed the webinar, you can watch it here.  Be sure to watch it before food coma sets in.

-Michelle S.

Be a star this holiday season - give great customer service

Sellers who give great customer service can see results in good feedback and repeat sales to buyers.

Here are some buyer-pleasing selling habits that can have buyers back for more:

• Make a point of responding to customer inquiries within 24 hours.
• It goes without saying that contact between you and a buyer must be courteous. Customers remember sellers who treat them well.
• To add a personal touch, include "thank you" notes on packing slips.

Watch our video to learn more about providing great customer service.

Getting Paid – Fulfillment Confirmation

 

_{You have an order – now what do you do to ensure you get paid?}

_{1.   Use the Manage Your Orders or Order Report Functions to track those orders frequently}

The orders interface provides you with a number of tools to identify orders that are ready for fulfillment. You can scroll through the interface, download reports, and search by unshipped or shipped status. Whichever you choose, make sure you are checking frequently for new orders.

Remember there are many options for working with your orders from date range search to advanced search with a number of variables, and in the interface you can sort by order date, shipping service and status. Then you can take actions there at the Manage Orders page or using bulk templates.

Orders will be listed by the date the order was placed. Remember, we are handling the credit card and fraud protection for you, so there may be a delay in receiving orders while we do the processing. That means that an order from Amazon.com is one that is ready to ship. Once you receive the order, don’t delay – start the processing to get the product shipped to the buyer.

_{You’ve shipped the order, but there is one more step.}  

_{2.   Confirm Your Shipments}

In order to receive payment, you must confirm shipment. This step is required for two reasons. First it tells the system that the product has shipped so a confirmation can be sent to the buyer and second it tells the system that you can be reimbursed for that order. Failure to confirm shipments can lead to inquiries from the buyer about their order, high late shipping rate in your customer metrics, and delay in release of your funds for disbursement.

When you successfully confirm shipment, Amazon.com charges the buyer's credit card, processes the shipping information and updates the shipping information in your customer's account. Buyers can then see the status of their shipped orders online, which results in improved satisfaction for your customers and reduced customer contacts for you. Amazon.com also sends an automated shipping confirmation e-mail after you confirm the shipment.

To be sure you get paid, after you package and ship your orders to the buyers, use any of the upload methods to notify the Amazon systems that the packages are on the way. Learn how to confirm a shipment here or in Seller Central here. Shipping confirmation feeds are available to confirm multiple shipments at the same time. Click here to read a recent blog post with more about Getting Paid.

Keep Safety and Security in Mind

Amazon wants to be the safest place to buy and sell online. Here are some things you can do to help us in that goal:

• Only accept payment through Marketplace Payments by Amazon for your orders. Transactions that are conducted outside of the Marketplace Payments by Amazon system are not protected by the Amazon.com A-to-z Guarantee.
• Ship orders only to addresses provided to you by Amazon. If you are asked to ship to a different address, cancel the order and ask the buyer to place a new order with the preferred address selected.
• Learn about “spoof” emails and how to report them to us immediately.
• Change your password regularly.
• Consider setting up a separate bank account for disbursements from your Marketplace Payments account.
• Amazon.com never asks you to verify sensitive information via e-mail. Submit such information only when completing an order on our website, registering for Marketplace Payments by Amazon, or contacting us directly through our online forms.
• Review the terms of our online Privacy Notice and our other Privacy & Security resources.

New feature to help drive traffic to your WebStore this Holiday

We just launched a new feature to help drive traffic to your WebStore. You can now download your feeds to market your products on comparison shopping engines like Shopzilla (Bizrate), Nextag, and Shopping.com. Internet traffic-monitoring services report that top comparison shopping engines, may attract up to 10 to 30 million visitors per month during the holiday season.

How it Works:

We construct the feeds for your WebStore products for the top comparison shopping engines, and all you need to do is click a button to download them.

You will also need to sign up for an account with the comparison shopping engines you want to advertise on, submit the feeds to them and track results with your own web analytics software.

More information is available in your WebStore account. Navigate to the Traffic Manager on the WebStore design tab, and click Advertise on Comparison Shopping Engines. If you want to try WebStore for 30 days, click here to learn more.

WebStore by Amazon Team

Getting Paid - How It Works

The item has been received, the buyer is totally happy and the only thing left is to get paid!  How does this work?

Have you entered the information for a valid U.S. bank checking account into your seller account?

Amazon transfers funds from your sales directly to the bank account you specify in your seller account. If you enter your checking account information too late (less than 24 hours before your first scheduled disbursement) it can delay getting your funds for another 14 days. We suggest entering it in when you first set up your account, or before you list your first item.

How and when do I get paid?

After you first register to sell on Amazon, we let the funds from your sales accumulate for the first 14 days. At the end of this time, we settle your account – i.e., subtract our fees and shuffle the rest of the funds off to you via an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer to your checking account. This is your first disbursement. After this, disbursements will occur automatically every 14 days.

Disbursements usually appear in your checking account within 3-5 business days. Note that for a disbursement to take place, you must have a positive balance. Amazon fees and customer refunds, if any, can affect your balance.

How do I know I have been paid?

Your settlements can viewed in the Payments account section of your seller account at any time.

Why didn't I get paid?

There are several reasons why you might not have been paid:

• You recently began selling on Amazon.com and your first 14-day settlement period has not concluded.
• Your first settlement period has concluded but you do not have a positive account balance.
• You have not yet entered your bank account information.
• The bank account information you entered is incorrect. Contact your bank to confirm the checking account number and ACH (Automated Clearinghouse) routing number.
• You entered debit card information instead of checking account information.  A checking account with an ACH routing number is required for seller disbursements.
• Your bank does not accept ACH transfers.  Contact your bank to confirm that they accept ACH transfers. If they don't, provide a checking account from a bank that accepts ACH transfers.
• Your bank is outside the United States.  A checking account in a US-based bank is required for seller disbursements.
• The bank account is now closed. Contact your bank to obtain the checking account number and ACH routing number for your new bank account.

Update: Product Ads Listings in Toys and Games Reinstated

We have restored all Product Ads listings in the Toys category which were erroneously cancelled yesterday.


Again we apologize for this error and any inconvenience this may have caused.   

Correction: Product Ads Listings in Toys and Games Reinstated

If you are a Product Ads seller that lists Toy products, you may have recently received an e-mail entitled "Your Amazon.com Toys & Games Selling Account" indicating your Amazon.com listings were cancelled.  These listings were cancelled in error.  We are currently restoring all Product Ads listings in the Toys category which were erroneously cancelled and expect this process to be completed today.

We apologize for this error and any inconvenience this has caused.   Thank you for your patience.

Dealing with negative feedback

When you sell at Amazon.com, you should work with buyers to resolve any differences. Communication is usually the key--simply explaining a delay or reassuring a buyer puts most issues to rest. But sometimes an order results in the seller receiving negative feedback from the buyer.

If you receive a feedback comment that you are not happy with, we encourage you to contact your buyer, and work with them to resolve any order issues. Your buyer could then remove the feedback if they feel it would be appropriate.

If the buyer has indicated that they're willing to remove the feedback, here are simple instructions to give them. They are also available on our buyer Help page, Leaving Feedback.

1. Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account
2. Under "Personalization," in the "Community" column, click "Seller Feedback Submitted By You."
3. A list of all of the feedback left by you will display. Click the "Remove" link next to the feedback would like to remove.

(If there is no "Remove" option next to a comment, this means the 60-day removal period has expired.)

Amazon will remove feedback only in the following cases:

• The feedback includes obscene language.
• The feedback includes personally identifiable information.
• The entire feedback comment is a product review.
• The entire feedback comment is regarding fulfillment or customer service for an order fulfilled by Amazon.

When you receive negative feedback, put it in perspective. A 0-2% negative feedback rate is great! If your negative feedback rate is greater than 5%, you may want to review your business practices. Remember that you can do a lot to avoid receiving negative feedback by providing great customer service!