Handling Post-Order Problems

The majority of holiday sales on Amazon.com go well, but occasionally you may encounter a problem. Let’s look at some of the most common things that could go wrong with an order and the ways to handle them.

I:  The buyer has made a mistake with an order and wants to fix it.

Below are the most common things buyers may ask you to do to fix an order and how you can respond:

Cancel the order

• If you have not yet shipped the order, you can cancel it. Buyers only have a 30-minute window to cancel their own orders, but you can cancel them up until the time you ship them.
• If you have already shipped the order, you can't cancel it, but you can ask the buyer to return it for a refund. It's best to wait until you have the item in hand again before you return funds to the buyer.

Upgrade the shipping

• If you have not yet shipped the order, it is up to you to decide whether to upgrade the shipping at the buyer’s request. Sellers aren't obligated to provide a service that a buyer hasn't paid for or to accept promises of future reimbursement from buyers (sellers can't invoice buyers for extra costs, including postage).
• If you have already shipped the order, provide the buyer with information about the shipping method you used, give them a realistic timeframe for delivery, and ask them to be patient. Here's the information Amazon provides to buyers about delivery expectations: Marketplace Shipping Times.

Ship the order to a different address

• If you have not yet shipped the order, and the buyer says they cannot receive the order at the address they provided originally, you should cancel the order. The buyer can then return to Amazon.com to place a new order using the correct address. Amazon policy requires sellers to ship only to the address provided in their Seller Account.
• If you have already shipped the order and the buyer states that they won't receive the package at the address they provided, you can’t cancel the order but it may still be possible for the buyer to get the package re-routed if they know the recipients. Packages should be routed back to you and you can then refund the buyer.

II:  The buyer hasn't received the item they ordered.

As you might expect, buyers are often anxious to receive their holiday orders and will contact you to check on the shipment status.

• In many cases, the shipment isn't late but may not have arrived as early as the buyer hoped. It's possible that the package didn't arrive at the earliest estimated date. In the case of "slow" packages, you will often need to explain the delivery time frames.
• If the outside delivery date has passed, the best solution is to refund the buyer. Compensating buyers for lost shipments is simply a cost of doing business.
• In the case of a "lost" item arriving in an empty box, you should contact the shipper to report the issue and ask about the options available to you. For a "late" item that may be lost, you may want to engage your carrier for assistance in locating the package and moving it along.
• For an item that never arrives and is truly lost, you may be still able to recover your costs if you purchased insurance originally. You will need to determine your own level of acceptable loss when deciding to insure packages.

III: The buyer has received the order but wants to return it.

Here are the basics on handling returns:

• As per your selling agreement, you have to accept returns within the guidelines spelled out in the the current Amazon refund policies, even if the item was exactly as described and the buyer simply no longer wants it.
• Returns of new items are different from returns of damaged/defective/materially different items.
• Buyer returns should be postmarked within 30 days of the original shipment sent by the seller.
• Returns should be posted to the address included on the outside of each package. It's a good idea to also include your return address inside the package and to confirm it with the buyer before a return is shipped.
• In cases where there is nothing wrong with an item, buyers should cover the cost of return shipping.
• In cases where an item is damaged or defective, or when it is materially different than the item described on the product detail page, sellers should cover the costs of return shipping. You can do this by issuing a concession to the buyer in advance of the return.
• Sellers can charge restocking fees (up to 20%) for returned items that are not damaged, defective or materially different. These fees are meant to cover the extra handling costs to take the item back into inventory and relist it for sale.

We hope this information is helpful. If you have further questions about how to deal with order issues, please see our Seller Help pages.

Taking a break after Christmas?

If you take a few days off from processing orders after the busy holiday season, remember: you can set your listings to "Inactive" until you are ready to fulfill orders again. This prevents buyers from placing orders that might not be fulfilled right away.

When you are ready to sell again, just set your listings back to "Active." Within an hour your listings will again be available for sale on Amazon.com.

It's easy to set your Listings Status to "Inactive" in the account information page under Settings in your seller account. To learn more, search on "vacation" in seller Help.

Amazon Product Ads featured in Reuters News Article

While we’re heads-down focused on serving our customers, we’re always excited when our programs garner praise from industry analysts and experts. Yesterday, Reuters published an article about Amazon’s advertising businesses titled “Amazon's advertising push gains steam”. The article highlights the strong performance many retailers are seeing with Amazon Product Ads.

To learn more about Product Ads or create an account to advertise your products on Amazon, check out the Product Ads Homepage.

Manage Your Inventory Proactively

Managing your inventory proactively is one of the smartest things you can do during the holidays. Here are some tried-and-true suggestions from experienced sellers:

• Determine which of your products may be most popular during the holidays and make sure you have enough stock available at all times.
• Match your items by ISBN/UPC to the correct product detail pages. For example, if you list a book, your copy must be listed against the ASIN for the product with the exact same title, author, binding, edition, year of publication, publisher, and ISBN. Mismatched listings can result in poor customer experiences which can lower your Customer Metrics.
• Keep your listing details up to date. When you need to, use the tools in your Seller Account to edit the item description, item price, or the shipping methods you offer. Up-to-date listing details mean fewer potential order problems.
• If you use inventory uploads, remember that all items in a feed must be processed before any of the changes appear on Amazon.com. If you have time-sensitive changes, upload those first in a separate feed, and upload changes that are not time-sensitive in a later feed.

Learn more about managing and relisting your items.

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 issue 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.

Amazon Marketplace – Top Selling Textbooks for Fall 2011

With the fall term over and the winter term under way, textbook sellers are making plans to list and sell on Amazon Marketplace for the upcoming spring term. To help you decide which used and new textbooks to include for sale on the Amazon Marketplace, we are providing the following list of bestselling textbook titles.

These textbooks were the Top 100 textbooks sold by Amazon Marketplace sellers during the peak weeks of the Fall 2011 textbook season. Please remember that due to seasonality, books that are big sellers for the fall term may not be indicative of the books that will sell in the spring term. Also, historical sales on Amazon Marketplace may not be indicative of future sales, as used textbooks can have a limited lifespan.

When listing textbooks, it is important to note the publication date and edition. For the best buying experience, sellers should be careful to match the ISBN of the textbook they're listing to the exact detail page on Amazon.com to ensure that the title and edition are correct. Sellers should also note differences in cover art when checking for matches.

For example, one of the top selling textbooks on this fall's list, Wade’s Organic Chemistry, is the 7th Edition published February 1, 2009, ISBN 978-032159231X. The 8th Edition of this textbook, ISBN 978-0321768140, was published on January 11, 2012. While older editions of this textbook have value and can be sold on Amazon Marketplace, demand for the most recent edition will likely increase. (You may notice that several of the top-selling textbooks on the Fall 2011 list have upgrade editions.)

For additional information on each title, click on the image to see the product detail page in the Amazon catalog.

The table below shows the top 10 bestselling textbook titles for Fall 2011.

Click on the following link to download a full table:

Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Fall 2011

For comparison to the earlier lists, click on the link below:
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2011

We hope that providing information about top-selling textbook titles will help sellers be more successful in the upcoming Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 textbook seasons. If you have feedback about this effort, feel free to write to textbook-selling@amazon.com.

Communicating with customers

As an Amazon seller, you communicate with customers both directly and indirectly. Here are a few reminders about appropriate communication with Amazon.com customers.

Direct Communication

Do
Do respond promptly to buyer inquiries.
Do contact a buyer to complete an order when appropriate.
Do respond to customer inquiries about your listings, so they can make informed purchases.

Don't
Don't contact customers for marketing or promotional purposes.
Don't include any of the following in permitted communications with Amazon.com customers:

• A link to any website
• Seller logos that contain or display a link to any website
• Marketing messages or promotions
• Promotions for additional products or referrals to products or promotions

Indirect Communication

Do
Do confirm shipments promptly. (We notify the buyer about the shipment.)
Do issue order refunds when appropriate. (We notify the buyer about the refund.)

Don't
Don't send shipping notifications to buyers. We already have that covered, and we don't want buyers to get more than one notification for a shipment.