Selling books online these days means knowing how to sell on Amazon. I’d estimate they’ve got about 70% share of the market for online used book selling. If you want to give yourself the best chance for success, you need to know the ins and outs of the different marketplaces, especially Amazon. A lot of newbie booksellers start out having only ever sold on Ebay. Get ready to repeat after me, because here comes today’s mantra:
Selling on Amazon is not the same as selling on Ebay.
Learn it, love it, live it.
As I’ve discussed in a previous post, Amazon is a stickler for their rules. It’s easy to understand why, once you realize that, unlike Ebay for instance, they are on the hook to the customer should anything go wrong. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: know the rules. It’ll save you from having to deal with headaches and consequenses up to and including losing your Amazon account.
Here’s a few ways that Amazon is different than Ebay:
Multiple Accounts
On Ebay, a lot of people will recommend that you have different accounts for different things. Ebay doesn’t care how many accounts you have. You can have as many accounts as you can open free checking accounts and email addresses. As far as Ebay is concerned, you can have an account for every day of the month and another one for holidays and special occasions. Amazon is different. You cannot have more than one Marketplace Seller account. Not only do they have a policy against multiple accounts, they actually check. They have several ways of trying to find people skirting this rule, and if you get caught, you could be looking at being permanently banned from Amazon.
That being said, you may see some sellers that do have more than one account. There are some megasellers who get exceptions to the rules. This doesn’t mean you can do it. They have special approval from Amazon. You don’t. Often times these different accounts represent separate locations, separate operations, completely different segments of a corporate structure, etc. The point is, it doesn’t apply to you.
Returns
On Ebay, you’re the selling company and you get to set up whatever kind of return policy you want. A better return policy may make you more successful, but ultimately it’s up to you. Once again, Amazon is different. Amazon considers you to be little more than a dropshipper. From their point of view, they are the public face, the company, and they will set the return policy. Read the rules here. The bottom line is that you’re probably going to have to take any returns made within 30 days. You’re free to take returns beyond that 30-day window, if you so choose, but you cannot have a shorter return window. Personally, I’ve been contacted by Amazon to issue a return on a sale that was 40 days old. I refunded the order. It’s just not worth it to take on Amazon on these issues. Don’t take my word for it though, read and learn the rules in their entirety for yourself.
Blocking Buyers
You can’t. On Ebay you can create “blocked bidder” lists to weed out any undesirables. Not on Amazon. As long as their money is green, Amazon wants them as a customer. This goes for anyone who’s considered a “domestic” customer, including APO/AFO, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Guam. You can opt not to ship internationally, but that’s about it. Some sellers that specialize in selling used textbooks complain that certain buyers are actually other sellers who turn around and resell their books to students or textbook stores. Well, tough. There’s no way to block any buyer from buying any book. And as far as I’m concerned, if someone is reselling the books you’re selling, there’s no point in getting mad at them. It’s your own fault for pricing your books to low.
Anyway, these are just a few of the differences between selling on Ebay and selling on Amazon. As always feel free to ask me any questions you might have, and I’ll try and answer them in a future post.
Tags: amazon
I have a question. I’ve only had to buyers to rate me. One gave me 5 stars and the other gave me a neutral. Both of them left positive comments such as the books arrived ontime and were in the condition I described. However, it lower my rating to 50% positive and 50% neutral. I haven’t had any buyers since. Amazon said they could not remove the buyers comment. What should I do?
You guys stink because on the first page there is no icon that says “lists of sales.”
I just wanted to say thank You. I guess the best way is to sign up for both Ebay and Amazon to understand the rules through personal experience. This blog is all about Positive Perceptions and how to apply them. Pls check out and let Us Know.
Im sell and Buy all kind of Books so I waana to work as agent in overseas. My question is how can get more return from this work please suggest me and help as soon as possiable