Package Orders With Care

A great deal of orders placed in the weeks before Christmas are intended as gifts. Buyers not only expect to receive them on time, but also in excellent condition. Having to return items that got damaged in transit would not be a good buying experience any time of the year, and even less so during the holiday season.

To help protect your items and provide a world-class buying experience, follow some "best practices" when packing orders for shipment:

Package Orders Carefully

• Prepare a professional, clean package. Wipe away dust or debris that may have collected on the item while in storage. Use new shipping/packing materials. Seal all shipments tightly.
• When sending fragile items, package them using bubble wrap or polystyrene chips. Use a “Fragile” sticker or mark the package clearly.
• Put your item in its original box (if you still have it), then put it in a slightly larger box and fill out the gap with paper, polystyrene or cardboard. Shake the box and add more packaging if there's movement.
• Include a packing slip in the package. You can print one from the Manage Orders page.

Label Packages Clearly

• Use a complete shipping address. You can cut an address label from your printed packing slip and attach it to the package.
• Use a complete return address, typewritten or printed in a neat and legible manner, on all packages.
• Orders may arrive sooner if you use the nine-digit ZIP Code associated with the buyer's shipping address. You can find the extra four digits for any U.S. shipping address at www.usps.com.
• The use of metered postage is recommended. Avoid excessive postage and the use of small-denomination postage stamps.

Preparing your packages with care and professionalism makes good sense. Happy holiday selling!

Take advantage of record holiday traffic on Amazon.com

This holiday season we have seen record number of visits to Amazon.com. Experian Hitwise reported Amazon.com as the most visited retail website on Cyber Monday, a record we have held since 2006.  Make sure that you take advantage of the increased visits to the site by taking steps to ensure your product ads are displayed without interruption.  Here’s how:

1. Raise your daily budget.  Don’t miss out on increased traffic to your website.  Make sure your ads are listed the entire day by increasing your daily budget.  Continue to monitor your Product Ads account  performance meets your goals.

2. Update your feed regularly.  We continuously review products in our catalog for accurate pricing and stock quantities.  Update your feed file when you run out of stock or change product prices.

-Michelle S.

Offer Expedited Shipping for Great Customer Service

Speedy shipping is especially important to buyers during the holiday season. Offering expedited shipping on your orders shows you care about customer satisfaction.

Sellers can offer priority expedited delivery to domestic addresses for all products sold on Amazon.com. Depending on the products you are selling and features that have been enabled for your account, you may also offer additional shipping options to buyers.

New expedited shipping options for Books, Music, Video and DVD products (BMVD Products) allow sellers to provide higher levels of shipping services for those customers who want premium expedited delivery. Sellers who offer 2-day and next-day domestic shipping or expedited international shipping can increase order volume, as it provides buyers with a couple of extra days to place an order with you before Dec 25.

Here are delivery expectations for BMVD orders. All of the available options are provided for comparison.

Domestic Standard
The buyer should receive their order within 4-14 business days from the shipment date (up to 21 days in some cases).

Domestic Expedited
The buyer should receive their order within 2-6 business days after shipment.

Two Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 48 hours after shipment.

One Day Domestic
The buyer should receive the order within 24 hours after shipment.

Standard International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-6 weeks, though it may take up to 8-12 weeks depending on customs delays

Expedited International
The buyer should receive their order within 3-7 business days, though it may take longer depending on customs delays.

Sellers are expected to ship all BMVD orders within two business days of the date the order notification is made available by Amazon.

When you sell a BMVD Product on Amazon.com, Amazon automatically charges the buyer a per-item fee for shipping and passes that amount on to you. The shipping rate depends on the product you are selling and the shipping service selected by the buyer. To learn more about BMVD shipping rates, enter "Ship BMVD" into the search box on our seller Help pages.

You can select any of the new shipping options on an item-by-item basis when listing or editing single BMVD items. If you are using inventory files, you can enter values for the new shipping options in the "expedited-shipping" field for each SKU in your file. The Book Loader, Music Loader, and Inventory Loader all support the new expedited shipping options. (See the Data Definitions tab of the latest version of the file for instructions on coding the "expedited-shipping" field.)

Happy holiday selling!

P.S. Seller Holiday Tip: You can use the condition note to alert buyers of your cut-off dates and ensure buyers that orders placed before your cut-off  dates will get delivered by Christmas.

Returns, A-to-z Guarantee Claims and Chargebacks

For most sellers, A-to-z Guarantee claims and service chargebacks are a rare occurrence. However, when they do occur, be sure to take action to resolve them promptly. You may also occasionally need to make refunds, accept a return, or cancel an order.

Here are some examples of when you may need to refund, accept returns, or cancel orders:

• You can't fulfill an order or part of an order.
• The customer doesn't receive your order.
• The customer returns an item.
• The customer files a credit card chargeback or an A-to-z Guarantee Claim.
• The customer requests you cancel an order.
• The buyer is unable to receive the order at the address provided.

It's a good idea to check your seller account daily during the holidays so you can proactively take action on any order issues.

For lots of information on returns, refunds, canceling orders, A-to-z Guarantee claims and chargebacks, see our Help pages, which are available to you 24 hours a day.