Amazon Seller Support

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 more about seller protection.
• 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.

Getting Paid - How It Works

A top concern for every seller is getting paid. To get paid for your Amazon sales, you need to be sure you've set up your seller account correctly and then remember to confirm your shipments.

The Basics

After you first register to sell on Amazon, the funds from your sales will accumulate in your Payments account for 14 days. This holding period is a very important security requirement.

At the end of this time, we settle your account – that is, we subtract amounts you owe, such as for selling and subscription fees and customer refunds.  The remaining funds are then sent off to you via an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer to your checking account. This is your first disbursement. After this, disbursements from your Payments account 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 in your Payments account. Amazon fees and customer refunds, if any, can affect your balance.

Important Details

Enter the information for a valid U.S. bank checking account into your selling account

Amazon transfers funds from your transactions 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  disbursement of your funds for another 14 days. We suggest entering all requested checking account information when you first set up your selling account, or before you list your first item.

Confirm shipment of each order you have fulfilled

After you receive an order and mail the item to the buyer, you must confirm shipment in order to be paid. We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Payments account. If you do not confirm shipment of an order within 30 days, we automatically cancel it and you will not be paid for the order. Learn more about confirming orders in our online "Charge When Ship" Help pages.

Payment Hold-ups

 

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

• You have not confirmed shipment of every order you have fulfilled.
• You have not yet entered your bank account information into your selling account.
• You recently began selling on Amazon.com and your first 14-day settlement period has not concluded.
• 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.
• You entered information for a bank account that is now closed. Contact your bank to obtain the checking account number and ACH routing number for your new bank account.
• You do not have a positive account balance.

If you still have questions about disbursements, please contact Seller Support via our online Contact Us form and we'll be happy to assist you.

We hope our Holiday Selling Tips have been helpful.  Happy holidays from all of us at Amazon Seller Support!

What is a Concession?

Sellers can always issue partial or full refunds for order costs, but the Amazon system also allows sellers to compensate buyers for order issues as an alternative to or in addition to refunding order amounts. Buyer credits that exceed the order total are called concessions. There are situations where you may want to issue funds to the buyer beyond the cost of the item(s) and shipping amount. For example, if a buyer receives a defective item and you want to compensate them for return shipping along with the order refund, you could issue a concession.

Concessions can be issued as partial refunds, with partial refunds, or along with full refunds. There are limits on the total amount sellers may provide to buyers when they issue order refunds and concessions. An order refund can't exceed the total amount originally paid by the buyer; however, the amount allowed in concessions may exceed the total cost of the order itself. Amazon displays the concession maximum for each item in an order using a formula that calculates the higher of the following two numbers:

Limit 1: 50% of the sum of original buyer-paid shipping plus product price
Limit 2: Twice the original buyer-paid shipping, plus $10 plus $20

To issue a concession:

1. Log into 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.
4. Choose the tab that fits your refund: Full (which is the default page) or Partial Refund (which is a tab below the order number).
5. Use the pop-up menu to select the appropriate Reason for Refund. 
6. Enter the amount of the return shipping and/or other concession into the Amount to Refund box.
   You will receive a pop-up asking you to confirm the concession.
7. Add a memo to the buyer. 
   This is optional but highly recommended, allowing up to 255 characters.
8. Click the Submit Refund button.

Additional facts to note about concessions:

• It can take 15 minutes for the data to be updated in the order to reflect the refund in your seller account.
• Buyers will see a concession amount as a different entry than a partial or full refund on their payment statement.
• Concessions do not contribute to the refund percentage in your seller performance metrics. If one or more products in an order are fully refunded, then the order is counted as a refunded order and is included in your Refund Rate.

If you would like a more in-depth look at concessions, please access the Help section of your seller account and search for concessions.

EXPERT TIP: Four A/B Website Testing Tips

1. Develop a method to track the differences between the two tests, such as number of sales, order size, etc.
2. Trust the data to be better than personal opinion. Try to determine why one approach won out over the other and figure out how to test your theory.
3. Come up with a new challenging approach, then keep testing, and continue improving. Let the data decide the winner every time.
4. Gather enough data to decide on the winner. If you only have a few data points, it may take a long time before you can be sure that the numbers are giving you information you can trust.

-Michael Lambert, CTO, MerchantAdvantage

Using Amazon to Grow Your Ecommerce Business; 6 Tools

In Practicalecommerce's article "Using Amazon to Grow Your Ecommerce Business; 6 Tools" read about different ways you can use Amazon services (Selling on Amazon, Product Ads, Display Ads, Webstore, Fulfillment, Payments and Amazon Web Services) to grow your business.

-Michelle

 

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."

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.