Dear Amazon Seller,
This newsletter will cover the following topics:
1) Summertime – it's almost summer!
2) Negative ratings – Use feedback wisely and act fast
3) New – International bank accounts possible for Amazon.it and Amazon.es!
4) Use inventory files to create listings
5) Amazon Services Europe will be participating at the next Great British Business show
1) Summertime – it's almost summer!
The anticipation of summer and that wonderful holiday feeling are at the forefront of many people's minds at the moment. Their imagination is starting to conjure up images of wonderful beaches, sunbathing, relaxing evenings, romantic sunsets, for some the taste of adventure and others the freedom which comes with motorbiking, camping and much more. This opens up a wide range of opportunities to sell products in a variety of categories, such as barbecues in the "Garden" category, sun and body creams in the "Health & Beauty" category, swimming trunks and costumes in the "Clothing" section, tents, sports equipment, suitcases and rucksacks under "Sports & Leisure", climbing shoes, trainers and sandals under "Shoes", travel guides and reading material under "Books", helmets in "Car & Motorbike" and much, much more.
* Prior approval is needed for the sale of products in the following categories: Clothing, Food & Drink, Health & Beauty and Perfumes, Jewellery and Watches. If you are not currently authorised to sell products in these categories, please contact Seller Support, who will provide you with a full list of requirements to obtain approval.
Plan your holiday and let Amazon work for you whilst you're away
It is easy for Amazon sellers to activate the vacation settings in their Seller Account. Go to Settings / Account Info in Seller Central in order to change the listings status to "inactive". This prevents the system from accepting new customer orders if sellers dispatch products themselves. To be sure that all orders have been fulfilled and all returns processed, we advise you to activate your vacation settings a few days before your holiday.
The vacation setting in Seller Central allows you to select delivery of your items using Fulfilment by Amazon here. While you are away Amazon then fulfils your orders and takes over the customer service and returns handling on your behalf meaning you can continue to sell and earn money during your holiday. Find more information on Fulfilment by Amazon here. Enjoy your dream holiday while Amazon carries on working for you.
2) Negative ratings – Use feedback wisely and act fast
Every now and again, you will have dissatisfied customers who express their annoyance by leaving negative feedback instead of contacting you directly.
By contacting the account individually, you can clear up any misunderstandings and attempt to persuade your customer to change or remove the negative feedback. Respond to the content and together with the customer, try to find a solution. Customers have the option to delete reviews for up to 90 days after posting them, something many will agree to do if they are happy with how you resolve their complaint and you do so in a customer-friendly manner. Below are a few tips to help you make your customer service even better:
- "The delivery took far too long!": Consider changing your shipping provider. Another option for shortening your delivery time and making order processing easier is our "Fulfilment by Amazon" service – contact us for more details! When using Fulfilment by Amazon, any negative feedback relating to delivery will be removed by Amazon.
- "I haven't received an invoice!": Have you already sent it? Maybe the customer missed it – send the invoice again and apologise for any inconvenience caused, e.g. due to a non-descript e-mail which was not recognised as an invoice.
- "There was nothing on the product page to say that the XY property was missing!": You filled in the product page correctly but the customer didn't read all of the information? Make your product information more customer-friendly: A good detail page makes the decision to buy easier for the customer, leading to an increase in sales. We have produced guidelines on creating detail pages for our sellers – why not take a look!
We have created an e-learning tutorial especially for our selling partners, which explains, amongst other things, how to get positive feedback even when customers return goods and how to react when you receive negative feedback. You can find the video tutorial here.
3) New – International bank accounts possible for Amazon.it and Amazon.es!
Amazon is making selling internationally even easier. Up until now, it has only been possible to receive payments from Amazon when selling on Amazon.it and Amazon.es. when you have a local Italian and Spanish bank account. Now, you can use bank accounts located in a large selection of Eurozone countries to receive payment on your Sales on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es. Bank accounts from the following countries can now be used: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Find more information on the European Marketplaces Account here including how to update your bank account details in Seller Central.
For selling internationally, please note the following:
- You must continue to upload inventory files separately for each country in the local currency.
- You must ensure that you meet all tax obligations and regulations in each marketplace you want to sell on.
- Sellers using SOAP must migrate to MWS to be able to use the multi-marketplace feeds.
4) Use inventory files to create listings
There are several possibilities for creating listings on Amazon. Products can be created individually in Seller Central under Inventory / Add a Product. However, in many cases it makes more sense to create an inventory file, as it saves time when creating the product, the price and quantity can easily be updated and several steps can be automated. Inventory files can be uploaded to Seller Central under Inventory / Upload Inventory File to Amazon. Inventory files differ between categories and marketplaces.
To create an inventory file, you first need a copy of the appropriate template. The template is a Microsoft Excel file, which has several columns (or fields) for your product description. To understand more, all fields are explained in detail on the "Data Definitions" sheet which is included in the file. We advise you not to open the template directly in your browser window. Save the file on your computer and open it with a table calculation programme, such as MS Excel.
- In the browser, right click on the appropriate link in the template.
- In the pop-up menu, select "Save target as".
- Choose a folder in which to save the template and then click "Save".
Templates (see below for further category-specific templates)
- Book Loader
Use this template only when you wish to add new books for which there are no existing listings in the Amazon catalogue. To add your products to existing catalogue listings, please use the Inventory Loader instead. The Book Loader also accepts product data without product identifiers (ISBN, EAN). The Book Loader compares the data with our catalogue and automatically creates the listing on the existing detail page. If there is no existing detail page, a new one is created providing that all prerequisites are met. In the first tab of the file, you will find precise instructions on how to use this template.
- Music Loader
The Music Loader matches your listing data in the Amazon music catalogue to ensure that your listing appears on the correct page or, if no product detail page exists for your listing, it creates a new one. Find detailed instructions on the help page Music Loader Instructions
- Inventory File Template
Enter your listings for non-media items using the inventory templates for your categories.
To view our step by step video tutorials explaining how to list products please click here.
5) Amazon Services Europe will be participating at the next Great British Business show!
Amazon Services Europe will be participating at the next Great British Business show that will take place in London on May 17-18 2012. Stand 738. Chris Poad, Director of Merchant Services, will be one of the key speakers and will show how Amazon Services Europe, through its suite of seller programmes is enabling merchants to take advantage of Amazon’s know-how and technology to manage businesses of all sizes and scale at home and abroad. Chris will be presenting on May 17th at 12:30 in Keynote Hall 1 – the presentation is aimed at established businesses and at 14:45 in Keynote Hall 2 – a presentation intended for start up businesses. The Great Business Show is an exhibition designed to provide UK business owners with expert advice on how to grow, improve and expand their business. To find out more click here.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Seller Support.
Our colleagues will be very pleased to help in any way they can.
With kind regards,
Amazon Services Team
5, Rue Plaetis
2338 Luxembourg
