Back to school: Successful Order Fulfillment 101

The busy back-to-school season isn't far away! Here are some best practices for timely and accurate order fulfillment:

• Keep up with increased orders by checking the Manage Orders section of your Seller Account daily.
• Students need their books and supplies fast!  Avoid listing items that you can't ship right away, and update your inventory daily if possible to avoid cancelled orders.
• Offer expedited shipping, and remember to check the shipping speed requested for each order.
• Keep buyers informed about their orders. This is easy with Charge When Ship. Simply ship your orders on time and confirm shipment promptly through your Amazon seller account - buyers can track orders in their account.  Learn more about Charge When Ship.
• Provide tracking information. It's not required, but based on buyer feedback, we highly recommend using shipping method that supports tracking. You can enter the tracking info when you confirm shipment of an order. Amazon provides all of the shipping information to the buyer in their Amazon.com account as well as in e-mail.

Good fulfillment practices go a long way to e satisfaction for buyers and good performance ratings for you!

Sell to Amazon Student members by listing with Fulfillment by Amazon

Put your textbook listings in front of more students during the busy Fall back-to-school season!  List your books with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and offer free shipping to members of the Amazon Student program.

Amazon Student is a membership program designed to help student customers shop for textbooks, dorm supplies, and even food. Amazon Student members sign up with a .edu e-mail address to receive a free year of Amazon Prime shipping benefits including FREE two-day shipping on millions of items sold by Amazon and sellers using FBA.    

When you list your textbooks using FBA:

• Your textbook orders are eligible for Amazon Prime and FREE Super Saver Shipping. Students love free shipping and can sort, find, and buy products based on these shipping features.
• Your used FBA-fulfilled books are eligible to win the Buy Used Box on Amazon.com Books detail pages.

In a recent survey, we found that professional sellers on Amazon who use FBA generally report growing satisfaction with FBA services and increases in unit sales on Amazon since joining FBA.  In particular:

• 91% of survey respondents who have shipped at least one unit through FBA reported their unit sales have increased since joining.
• 57% of survey respondents saw an average increase in unit sales of 20% or more.
• 89% of survey respondents would recommend FBA to a friend or colleague.

Register for Fulfillment by Amazon today!

Amazon Marketplace – Top Selling Textbooks for Spring 2011

With the spring term over and the summer term under way, textbook sellers are making plans to list and sell on Amazon Marketplace for the upcoming fall 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 Spring 2011 textbook season. Please remember that due to seasonality, books that are big sellers for the spring term (January 2011) may not be indicative of the books that will sell in the fall term (September 2011). Also, historical sales on Amazon Marketplace may not be indicative of future sales, as used textbooks 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 spring's list, Mankiw's Principles of Microeconomics is the 5th Edition published September 24, 2008, ISBN 978-0324589986. The 6th Edition of this textbook, ISBN 978-0538453042, was published on February 7, 2011. 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 Spring 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 Spring 2011.

Click on the following link to download a full table:

Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2011

For comparison to the earlier lists, click on the links below:
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Fall 2010
Top 100 Textbook ASINs - Spring 2010

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.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.com.

Selling Textbooks on Amazon: Your Feedback Requested

Throughout this winter/spring textbook season (December  2010 through the first week of February 2011), we provided sellers with best practices and resources for selling textbooks on Amazon. Our blog posts, tips in your Seller Account home page, and informative e-mails were designed to address the specific needs of our textbook sellers.

Now we want to know what communications were helpful and what could be improved upon. Please take a few minutes to complete our short Amazon Winter/Spring Textbook Selling Survey 2011. Your feedback helps us serve you better in the future. Thank you for your time.

All about buyer feedback

Buyer feedback is important to both sellers and buyers. Feedback is a metric by which Amazon measures seller performance, and buyers use seller feedback when making purchasing decisions. To get a head start on good feedback, read our Help page on How to get a great feedback score.

Buyers can leave a seller feedback for up to 90 days after the transaction. Once a buyer has left feedback, it cannot be edited, but the buyer can remove it for up to 60 days. Learn more in our Buyer Help page on feedback.

We encourage you to contact buyers about leaving and removing feedback. Remember, though, that ultimately it's the buyer's decision whether or not to give you feedback and what kind to give. Be courteous and professional. Inappropriate contact is a violation of our Selling Policies.

You use the Feedback Manager in your account to contact buyers. You can also use this tool to leave a response on your own Seller Profile to feedback buyers have left. Learn how in our page on Using the Feedback Manager and Feedback FAQ.

Good feedback rewards sellers who list products correctly, communicate well with buyers, and ship orders promptly. Customers are more likely to purchase products from sellers with higher feedback ratings. In the long run, it pays to be a flexible, fair, and professional seller!

Handling returns for textbook orders

Be prepared for increased returns during textbook season. Students sometimes need to return books due to class cancellations. All sellers must accept returns, even if the order is fulfilled correctly.

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

• You can't fulfill 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.

Whether you need to issue a full or partial refund, you can do so using the Manage Orders tool in your seller account.

Still have questions? Read our Fulfillment, Returns and Refunds FAQ.

Refresh your knowledge: Policies on Selling Textbooks

We all know that textbooks are big sellers on Amazon! But did you also know that certain editions of your textbook might be prohibited for sale on our site?

Prohibited Textbook Items:

• Promotional Instructor's Editions
• Teacher's Editions and Annotated Instructor's Editions
• Solutions Manuals
• International/Foreign Edition Textbooks

Learn more.

 

Buy postage in Manage Orders to save time and money!

Did you know you can buy United States Postal Service® postage using the Manage Orders tool in your seller account?

• Automatically pay for postage safely and conveniently with your Marketplace Payments account. Postage fees ($0.07 per postage purchase) appear as "Postage" on the "Transaction Details" Payments page in your seller account.
• Discounts
  • Delivery Confirmation is free for Priority Mail®.
  • Delivery Confirmation for packages sent via First Class Mail®, Parcel Post®, or Media Mail® is $0.19.
  • Buy insurance through Stamps.com, discounted from USPS rates for coverage under the Parcel Insurance Plan (PIP).
• Print domestic and international postage-paid shipping labels on your standard printer. Shipping labels for international shipments include customs information.
• Request free Carrier Pickup instead of taking your packages to the Post Office.
• Set a default ships-from address so you won't have to type or write it for each shipment.
• Request a postage refund if you decide not to use the shipping label within 48 hours of printing it (requires the use of delivery confirmation and is dependent upon approval by USPS).

This service is easy and fun to use. Go to Manage Orders to get started, or read step-by-step instructions.

Note: The postage service and related information is provided to you by Stamps.com, which is solely responsible for any errors or omissions in connection with the services or information it provides. You are responsible for any errors or omissions you make in using these services (for example, providing incorrect product weight or dimensional information). Amazon provides payment processing services in connection with your use of the Stamps.com services and charges a transaction fee for such services (subject to applicable fee waiver policies).

Shipping options and delivery expectations

Sellers are expected to ship textbook orders within two business days of the date the order notification is made available by Amazon. When you offer a certain shipping option, you can deliver your order using any carrier and method, as long as the buyer receives their package within the expected timeframe for the shipping service they selected.

All sellers are required to offer standard shipping. You may also elect to include priority expedited shipping; many buyers appreciate expedited shipping during textbook seasons!

Below are the available shipping options and delivery expectations. You can select any of the options on an item-by-item basis when listing or editing single listings.

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.

Webinars and Videos for Textbook Sellers

If you're new to selling textbooks on Amazon.com, you may want to view the 30-minute New Textbook Seller Webinars we recorded last summer:

 Part 1: Listing your Textbook
 Part 2: Managing Orders
 Part 3: Providing Great Customer Service
 Part 4: Returns, Refunds and Buyer Feedback

Visit the Video Workshop for even more selling tips from our most experienced Support staff, including our 8-minute Textbook Season Tips.