The Basics of Getting Paid

To avoid delays in receiving your disbursements, be sure you've met the basic requirements:

Enter valid bank account information in your Seller Account.

We require all sellers to have valid bank account information on record in their Seller Account because that is the account to which Amazon will disburse payments. You can always change bank account information later if you need to. (However, for security reasons, you will not be able to request disbursement for 7 days after you make any changes.) After funds are released from your Marketplace Payments account, it can take up to 5 business days for the funds to be transferred from our bank to yours.

Enter valid credit card information in your Seller Account.

Your credit card information is used for verification purposes. It helps to authenticate you for the transfer of your funds into your checking account. (We do not transfer your funds to your credit card.) You can change the credit card information in your Seller Account whenever you need to; for instance, if you cancel your card or it expires.

Confirm shipment of your orders.

Sellers are required to confirm shipment of orders in order to be paid. “Confirm shipment” means that you notify Amazon (using tools we provide in your Seller Account) when you have shipped an order to the buyer.

New Seller?

For new sellers, there is an initial 14-day holding period  before funds will be disbursed to your bank account. This holding period is an important security requirement and is applied to all new seller accounts. After the initial 14-day holding period has passed, the funds credited to your Marketplace Payments account are automatically disbursed into your bank account.

Product Ads Minimum Bid Adjustments on June 1, 2011

On June 1, 2011, we will be adjusting the minimum bid in 36 bidding categories. The minimum bid will decrease in 4 categories and increase in 32 categories. There will be no change to the minimum bid amount in the remaining 117 categories. 

Amazon will automatically set your bids to the new minimums in the impacted bidding categories on June 1, 2011.  If you do not want your bids to be set to the new minimums, you can opt-out of this change in Seller Central.  Simply log in to your Seller Central account and look for the Notice titled “Minimum Bids in 36 Categories are changing” at the top of any page.

IF YOU DO NOT OPT OUT OF THE NEW MINIMUMS, ON JUNE 1, 2011 BIDS IN THE IMPACTED CATEGORIES WILL AUTOMATICALLY SET TO THE NEW MINIMUMS.

Lastly, in a few short weeks you will be able to advertise products in the Musical Instruments, Grocery and Gourmet, and Pet Supplies categories.  Minimum bids for these categories can be viewed and edited in Seller Central (log in required).   You can expect more communication about these new categories in the coming weeks. 

Please contact our Seller Support team (log in required) if you have any concerns about the new pricing adjustments, or changes to your minimum bid amounts.

-Amazon Product Ads

Expert Tip: Prioritize Product Data Optimization

Your retail success depends on shoppers choosing to purchase products from you rather than another retailer. By providing as much granular product information, you make it easier for shoppers to make an informed purchasing decision.

Knowing where to begin optimization in your product uploads is often a challenge. Prioritize your most important product categories. For example, if you sell both apparel and appliances, you may want to first optimize your apparel products, because shoppers browse by multiple attributes such as color, size, material, and type. Ignoring this principle may result in lost sales to a competitor who offers the appropriate level of granularity on the same channel.

-Larry Weeks, Manager of Strategic Consulting Services at Channel Intelligence

Refunding orders: full or partial refunds

When you want to issue a refund for an order there are several options: full refund, partial refund, and refund concessions.

Which one you choose depends on why you are refunding and how much you want to refund.

To start any kind of refund, the order must have already had the shipment confirmed. If it is not confirmed and you will not ship the item, you can cancel the order and the buyer will not be charged, therefore no refund will be necessary. If the order was confirmed you can proceed with these steps:

1.    Log in to your seller account
2.    Go to your orders section and bring up the details of the specific order you want to refund
3.    Click the "Refund order" button on the Order Details page

To proceed with a Full refund, once you have followed the first three steps above, you would use the default page that comes up when you click "Refund order."

4.    Choose the reason for the refund
You will see several options in the drop-down, choose the most appropriate one.
5.    Write a note to the buyer in the "Memo to buyer" field
While this is optional, a personally written note provides a good customer experience
6.    Click the "Submit Full Refund" button

By following those steps you will have refunded the item and shipping amount.

To proceed with a Partial refund, once you have followed the first three steps above, follow these steps:

4.    Click the Partial Refund tab, which is under the order ID
5.    If the item is listed by name only, click the check box for the item being refunded on the right hand side; if the item details are displayed, proceed to the next step
6.    Select the "Reason for refund" from the drop-down
7.    Enter the "Amount to refund" for the Product or the Shipping or both
8.    Write a note to the buyer in the "Memo to buyer" field
While this is optional, a personally written note provides a good customer experience
9.    Click the "Submit Partial Refund" button

You do not need to enter any information in the two concession fields for either type of refund if you do not want to. A concession is an amount you can refund aside from or in addition to refunding basic order costs. More information about concessions can be found in the Help section in your seller account by searching on the word "concession."

Expert Tip: Ensure Consistent Product Data

When working with multiple channels, make sure that your product catalog reflects what is displayed on your website, including product information and availability. Inconsistent product data can damage your business and brand, and it can even lead to termination of partnership between you and a marketing channel.

Larry Weeks, Manager of Strategic Consulting Services at Channel Intelligence recommends listing products that meet a minimum inventory level – a level at which the product will continue to be available until your next feed update. Chip Arndt, cofounder of Merchant Advantage adds that monitoring your product inventory also means staying on top of each product’s consumption pattern for each channel. The best way to keep all your channels up–to–date is by refreshing the data feed daily or multiple times in a day.

Upcoming webinar - Get in Front of Millions of Shoppers with Amazon Product Ads

- hosted by GoDataFeed

GoDataFeed offers datafeed management solutions that help sellers optimize product listings, automate datafeed submissions and drive more qualified, targeted traffic using a simple and affordable web-based interface.

Please join GoDataFeed and Amazon Product Ads in a webinar on Thursday, April 21, 2011 (10:30 AM - 11:00 AM PDT). We will cover the following topics:

- Overview of GoDataFeed services.
- How Product Ads fits into the CPC advertising landscape.
- How GoDataFeed can help you optimize your Product Ads feed.
- How to get started with Product Ads and get $75 in free clicks to your website.

Click Here to Reserve Your Webinar Seat Now!

Expert Tip - Partner with Third-Party E-Commerce Solution Providers

With multi-channel retailing, managing product feeds across various sites with unique specifications can be a challenge. Manually updating all the associated data fields takes time and is prone to errors.

Consider outsourcing feed maintenance. Select a provider that can generate many data feeds based on one inventory feed from you. This arrangement allows you to monitor success of each channel by using performance reports generated by your provider.

-Scot Wingo, CEO of Channel Advisor