Selling Your Stuff on Amazon Part 13 - Advice for newbies in first two posts

petestan

Kite2010 wrote: »

Is there an easy way to update all my listings to get rid of international postage as it's not going to be worth it offering international postage when Amazon gives you £1.80 and it will be at least £2.70 to post out. Although I might go though my listings getting rid of my First Class delivery line (not sure if it helps win me sales against Zover as people often go for the cheapest even if it is coming from the channel islands [although they might move back to the mainland as the Vat relief is gone]

A few sellers were having this discussion on the amazon forums and it appears there is no way to do it other than go through every listing and changing them unless you are a pro seller. If you are you can download a listing report alter the shipping on them by typing a letter in a box then uploading it again. I'll try and find the thread on it within this forum below.

http://forums.prosperotechnologies.com/am-UKsllconnect

Edit: Post 193 in the thread tells you how to do it if your a pro merchant.

http://forums.prosperotechnologies.com/n/mb/message.asp?web!!!!!am-UKsllconnect&msg=28362.191

Kite2010

I might keep the international option going for another 10 or so days, as some of the pro-sellers have already switched over.

petestan

Kite2010 wrote: »

I might keep the international option going for another 10 or so days, as some of the pro-sellers have already switched over.

It all depends on how many you actually send overseas, personally I only send a couple a month if that even though all but the heaviest of items have international delivery set so I will be staying as I am and taking any hit's if there are any.

lovinituk

petestan wrote: »

Not necessarily, the postage for books, cd's, dvd's and videos is fixed whether you are a pro seller on a non pro seller, if you sell items in other departments you can sometimes set your own postage but you have to be pre approved by amazon to do this.
However if you go down the fullfillment by amazon route (FBA), whereby you send all your goods to amazon's warehouse for them to send the items out on your behalf that is where you can charge less for items than everyone else.

http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/fulfilment-by-amazon/features-benefits/?ld=AZUKFBAFooter

I signed up as a Pro Seller last year and I have set my own postage costs for all the items I am selling - I certainly did not have to be pre-approved by Amazon to do this. I don't sell books, cds, dvds or videos though.

petestan

lovinituk wrote: »

I signed up as a Pro Seller last year and I have set my own postage costs for all the items I am selling - I certainly did not have to be pre-approved by Amazon to do this. I don't sell books, cds, dvds or videos though.

Are you a FBA seller lovinituk, if not apologies but I was under the impression that was what was required.

lovinituk

petestan wrote: »

Are you a FBA seller lovinituk, if not apologies but I was under the impression that was what was required.

I don't use the fulfilment services, everything is dispatched by ourselves - I can set my own postage rates for domestic and various overseas regions. You are correct about the postage for cds/dvds/books - I had a look in my shipping settings and cannot change the postage rates for those.

donkem

Is there a cheaper rate for posting books or is this something I imagined or that isn't done anymore. I'm failing at turning anything up on Google. I just want to offload my book collection on Amazon but for the vast majority of the books I have I can't cover the postage costs after fees.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

soolin

donkem wrote: »

Is there a cheaper rate for posting books or is this something I imagined or that isn't done anymore. I'm failing at turning anything up on Google. I just want to offload my book collection on Amazon but for the vast majority of the books I have I can't cover the postage costs after fees.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Unfortunately not.

Kite2010

donkem wrote: »

Is there a cheaper rate for posting books or is this something I imagined or that isn't done anymore. I'm failing at turning anything up on Google. I just want to offload my book collection on Amazon but for the vast majority of the books I have I can't cover the postage costs after fees.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Come next week when the postage rates increase it will be harder to cover your postage costs.

Currently if a book sells for 1p, a regular seller will end up with £1.46 which isn't enough at the moment to cover 2nd class package (under 250grams it is £1.72, soon to increase to £2.20 for package up to 750g). You can make a small profit if the book is small enough to fit though the large letter slot of either 36p or 6p (depending on the weight).

So come next week, even the sellers with pro-accounts whom get that extra 80p per sale won't be making any money on penny books which are to thick for the slot.

Easiest way to get rid of the books is donating to a charity shop or doing a car-boot sale.

petestan

donkem wrote: »

Is there a cheaper rate for posting books or is this something I imagined or that isn't done anymore. I'm failing at turning anything up on Google. I just want to offload my book collection on Amazon but for the vast majority of the books I have I can't cover the postage costs after fees.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Your probably thinking of Printed Papers rate which used to be cheaper for sending items abroad, unfortunately Royal Mail did away with the price difference a couple of years back, you can still send items printed papers and you don't usually need a customs sticker, although I usually still put one on just to be safe (don't want it being sent back for any reason), but there is no price difference.