If you sell books online then you know that back to school season is a great time for us.  Students are always looking for a bargain.  I have hundreds of academic books and a decent amount of current textbooks so I sell my fair share this time of year.  Now that we are at mid-September the textbook season is winding down and textbook return season is starting up.  This is the time of year when I have the most returns. 

 Students drop classes or buy the wrong edition or no longer want their books for any number of reasons.  So this time of year is is important for us to cintinue to implement excellent customer service when handling returns.  If somebody buys a book and there is something “wrong” with it and they want to return it I accept it and provide a full refund (including shipping).  If a person decides they no longer need the book I accept a return and refund the purchase price but not the shipping.  This is my simple policy and I have never had an issue with a buyer. 

There is almost never a case when I do not accept returns – most markets require you to accept them (see Amazon’s A-Z policy).  I keep my return policy simple.  The only time I have not accepted a return is when a significant amount of time has passed between the purchase date and the return date or if the books condition is materially different from when I sold it (such as full of highlighting).  Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the customer experience when I run a business from home and do not interact with the customers.

Amazon Charge when Shipped is their newest change to their marketplace.  Amazon CWS does what it says – which is that the buyer of your book is not charged until you confirm the book has shipped.  This is somewhat similar to how Alibris handles their marketplace.   I am not going to go over the whole terms of Amazon’s CWS as there is a comprehensive overview at Amazon but there are a few things worth pointing out.

What does CWS mean for us booksellers?  Not much.  You will not have your account credited until you ship a book.  If you use The Art of Books or a similar inventory management system Amazon should be automatically updated when the book is shipped.   There are a couple of downsides to Amazon’s Charge When Shipped – you do not get to send your own confirmation email to the buyer and the buyer can still leave feedback on a canceled order.

I like sending out my own confirmations.  They promote my “brand” (nominally) and provide a more personalized experience.  Also I ask that buyers contact me directly with any issues before going to Amazon and filing feedback or a “A to Z” claim.   The sample confirmation email that Amazon has provided does not include seller contact information.  Many times I  have been contacted by unhappy buyer (mistakenly of course since I am perfect lol) who has an issues with the condition of the book.  Though it turns out that they didn’t read the book description closely or their idea of what a bumped corner (or similar damage) is different then mine.  With direct communication with the buyer I can resolve these issues to the buyers satisfaction quickly. My guess is that neutral or negative feedback will increase with less direct communication with the buyer.

Hopefully, Amazon CWS will go smoothly but I am concerned that Amazon is going to cause problems for a lot of sellers given how their feedback system works.

Selling books online can be a rewarding business.  There are a few major pitfalls in starting a business selling books online.  I wanted to share some that I have made in order to help out others and I would love to hear from others about some of the mistakes you have made.

The below is an edited excerpt from my eGuide called “An Insider’s Guide to Selling Books Online” which is available here www.booksellingguide.com.

·    Too vague in my book descriptions – call a tear on the dust jacket a “tear” and not something else such as “light wear”.

·    Not being careful enough in examining books for underlining/highlighting then listing and selling them as having “clean text”.

·    Attach the mailing label to the wrong package – make sure what you print comes out in the right order.

·    Losing inventory – I have sold a few books then torn up my office looking for it because god knows where it is.  I end up with a refund and a lost book

·    Entering an ISBN and for some reason it is recognized as a title different than the book I have.  ISBNs are sometimes misprinted on the back of a book or on the copyright page.  The mistake here is I don’t catch the mix-up until after I have listed the wrong title and sold it.

·    Listing a really heavy book and accidentally allowing expedited shipping or international shipping.  You can lose a lot of money shipping really heavy books this way.  I once had to spend $34 to send a book to Australia of which Amazon only gave me $5.64.

·    Not updating the price info on my scanner.  I try to do this every week but sometimes I forget and I scan books that seem like winners only to list them and find out their prices have dropped.  Prices can drop quickly on books that have great sales ranks.

·   Taking feedback to personally.  If a customer is not happy with the book it is their privilege to comment.  Do not respond to negative feedback when you first read it and are upset.  Contact the buyer and try to work it out but be professional.  Do not post a response until you contact the buyer directly.  Empathize, apologize and offer a refund if you feel their complaint is legitimate.  I try to recognize that they are upset and then gently prod them that it is more productive for them to contact you directly rather than post negative feedback.  Request that they remove their feedback (which can be done on Amazon) and when they do provide them their refund.  These situations can be uncomfortable so be calm and do not make it personal.

·    Not re-pricing my books.  Many of my books are high value and high sales rank which means they do not sell frequently but there is a lot of profit.  I do not ever get wed to the idea of how much my inventory should sell for.  This is a market and prices fluctuate.  If the book does not sell because all the competition has lowered their prices to make mine the most expensive then I need to re-visit my price.  Never price my books to be the lowest – I will match the lowest price at times but never set the lowest price.

·    Using cheap, unpadded mailers – I had a stack of cheap unpadded mailers that my wife had left-over from something she did.  I thought I could use them for my smaller paperbacks and save money (and make some more profit on the shipping).  I had to refund two buyers because the books got damaged in the mail.  Don’t get so driven to make a profit that you skimp where you should not. 

Do not let your mistakes stop you from enjoying this business.  Learn from them and get back online and sell more books.