Amazon is encouraging its Marketplace sellers to opt into a program it calls “Charge When Ship” requiring sellers to confirm shipment before buyers pay for purchases.
In an announcement, Amazon is encouraging sellers to opt into the program now. According to Amazon’s list of Frequently Asked Questions, the program becomes mandatory sometime this summer. No date was given.
In Charge When Ship, if the seller doesn’t confirm an order’s shipment within two business days, Amazon automatically sends “late shipment” e-mail notifications to the seller and the buyer. Then, if the seller doesn’t confirm shipment within 30 days, the order is automatically cancelled, and the buyer is refunded.
When sellers confirm a shipment, they’ll be able to indicate the shipping service and tracking or delivery-confirmation number — although tracking numbers aren’t mandatory. Pro-Merchants will be able to upload a text file to confirm multiple shipments at the same time.
My take on the program: Overall, it should be positive because it provides buyers with an experience more consistent with orders filled by Amazon. For example, I currently receive e-mails from buyers who are confused that they can’t look up the shipping status or tracking number through Amazon’s Web site, even though I provide this information in a shipment-confirmation e-mail. Presumably, “Charge When Ship” allows buyers to view the shipment status in the same way they view orders fulfilled by Amazon — and if that’s true, it should result in fewer inquiries from buyers regarding shipping status.
For sellers who aren’t already signed up for the program, my personal advice would be to wait a few weeks. This will allow Amazon to work out any possible kinks in the program, and for third-party software providers to transition to begun supporting the program.
One remaining concern I’ve seen on Amazon’s seller boards: What happens if a buyer’s credit card is declined after the seller ships? Amazon doesn’t really address this in the FAQ. Hopefully, a pre-authorization is obtained at the time of the order, confirming that the funds are available, and the card number and expiration date are in order.
Another observation: Charge When Ship puts additional pressure on drop-shippers, because the FAQ further emphasizes that sellers shouldn’t list items they are unable to ship within two business days.
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14 Comments
Wow, the board critters are losing their minds over this on the Amazon threads. I don't see it as too much of a deal,really. Frankly, if it chases off some of the folks who don't know how to use their repricing software and run prices into the ground, good on it. Further, if it makes the megas and the dropshippers more accountable, even better.
I think that Amazon will certainly be confirming credit cards and freezing funds and the payments issue will turn out to be a non-issue. It is really standard operating procedure for the majority of e-commerce sites already.
Over on the AZ discussion boards, though, you'd think that it was the coming of the Antichrist.
I agree. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me, and it will improve the customer experience.
My business model is built around providing quality service and attention to detail, so I think it's a great idea.
Here's an example of the e-mail a customer currently receives when buying from a seller who has opted in to Charge When Ship:
From: Amazon.com [mailto:order-update@amazon.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:22 PM
To: buyer@customer.com
Subject: Your Amazon.com Purchase from SellerABC
Dear buyer@customer.com,
We're writing to confirm your purchase of the following item from
SellerABC:
1 of RCA VH128X Coaxial Duplex Wall Plate (White) (available to ship by
June 11,2009)
Amazon Payments has charged your credit card (Mastercard) for this
purchase, and the funds have been credited to SellerABC.
You have chosen to ship your order via Expedited shipping. The delivery
estimate for this method to your address is 1 to 4 business days after
shipping. The actual delivery time for the item(s) in your order will
depend on the shipping policies of SellerABC and when the
item(s) are available to ship.
QUESTIONS?
If you have questions about this order, including the status of your
shipment, you can either visit http://www.amazon.com/wheres-my-stuff or
e-mail sellerABC@seller.com to get in touch directly with
SellerABC.
**************************************************
Safe Shopping Tips
Amazon.com works hard to protect our customers. For your safety, when
ordering items advertised by sellers other than Amazon.com:
* Always place your orders directly through the Amazon.com shopping cart
using Amazon Payments. Never send money directly to sellers through wire
transfers or checks; we do not guarantee such transactions.
* Beware of e-mails that request direct payments, request payment to
international locations, or ask for personal information. Amazon.com will
never e-mail you to pay for Marketplace transactions outside our shopping
cart, or ask you to confirm personal information such as a credit card
number or password via e-mail. If a particular e-mail looks suspicious or
unusual, please contact us directly.
Reporting suspicious activity to reports@amazon.com will help us enhance
marketplace safety and serve you better in the future.
For more safe-shopping tips, read about Safe Online Transactions at
http://www.amazon.com/safe-secure.
**************************************************
Here are the order details.
—————————————————
Date: June 18,2009
Amazon Order #: 101-4866683-2605037
1 of RCA VH128X Coaxial Duplex Wall Plate (White), $0.01
Shipping & Handling: $0.02
Tax:
Total: $0.03
Buyer: buyerABC@customer.com
Paid by Mastercard: $0.03
Your Shipping Address:
123 Mexico Road
Phoenix, AZ 12345
Shipping Method: Expedited
—————————————————
Thanks for shopping at Amazon.com.
http://www.amazon.com/
Earth's Biggest Selection
Find, Discover & Buy Virtually Anything
I like the "confirm shipment" button – it's actually a lot fast to click the button and type in your tracking # than to copy and paste into a separate confirmation email.
Its good
Alibris has been doing this day one.
BUT,
I found out on a trip to the Sellers Board. AZ SHOULD HAVE SENT EVERYONE AN EMAIL. I use a 3P service – I only visit my venues the End-of-Month
AND
They are behind in letting 3rd Party Inventory management services know the programming details.
Sellers are going to loose money – NO MAJORITY HAS BEEN INFORMED
Once I got my amazon notification, I thought, I can't wait until Steve has postings on this so I can figure out if it is as GOOD as it looks!
As a 'reliable' amazon seller, I don't believe much will change for me. I currently ship within 24 hours of receiving my notification on the Amazon site (If you wait for the email, you lose time), and then I ship. I usually tell the buyer by email that I have shipped, so they know when to expect the order (and I alert them to 'where' I am located so they know how much time to expect for their either standard/media or their expedited/priority to arrive.
I find most buyers like this alert, and it has only helped me find more buyers from the positive feedback I have received.
Only complaint. ANYTIME Amazon promotes a new service, I don't get sales for a day or two (which makes me wonder what is going on with them fielding my sales (or ANY sales?) while their computers are being reprogrammed.
Debbie K.
I think it is great. I already send shipment notification (individually – not with repricing software) and this new innovation makes it even easier.
I wonder if it will have any negative impact on the dropshippers [quality7, woodysbooks, bookgrove, etc]. I hope so. And I hope it is one more move by Amazon to do away with penny sellers.
Crazy as it sounds, I am also happy Amazon has not increased shipping credit after the USPS price increase!!!
Peter
Minneapolis
Here's a suggestion one reader made to Amazon, along with Amazon's response:
If Shipping Confirmation is going to become somewhat automatic and mandatory, as a Seller I would like to be able to include a custom greeting and note to my customers when I confirm shipping. I've done this for years and would like to continue to do so – to personalize it – without having to duplicate my efforts by having to BOTH confirm shipping AND send a separate correspondence to the customer. Please modify the existing Shipping Confirmation form/process to allow Sellers to do this. Thank you.
ANSWER: We thank you for taking your time and writing to us.
Sellers can voluntarily sign up at any time through a Charge When Ship sign-up box, found on the Seller Account home page, the Manage Payments page, and the Manage Orders page.
Please note, when you subscribe for the Charge When Ship process, upon confirming the order the system would automatically send to the customer.
We do understand that sending the order confirmation email with customer greeting would be more personalized and specific to the customer.
I will be sure to pass your message on to the appropriate group for consideration and to include it in the near future. Feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve the services we provide.
When any additional features are included the information would be posted in the seller account home page.
Thank you for selling at Amazon.com and wish you success.
Best regards,
Kaarthi
Amazon.com Seller Support
Check your seller account: http://www.amazon.com/seller-account
I just signed up for "confirm ship." It's easier for me. I had been offering free delivery confirmation anyways. It's better for the customer to be able to track all of their purchases in the same place.
I think it also lends an air of greater legitimacy to used sellers.
Penny sellers and re-pricing software should be banished and scoured from the earth.
Back in the day, they used to call such individuals, "scabs."
WOW – So no one here thinks this is a bad idea – This is probably the worst thing I could possiable see happening – Amazon has just found a way to screw the sellers that made the company – Just as eBay has found ways to screw the sellers.
There will be way more fraud on the site, buyers NOT paying and the sellers getting screwed in the end.
I have already pulled all my items, and refuse to put anything on – NOR will I ever buy anything from Amazon again.
I forgot to click the “confirm shipment” button on one of my orders. So now I’m out almost $100. Amazon won’t do anything. The buyer is ignorning my emails. Is there anything I can do? I won’t be selling on Amazon anymore–that’s for sure! Shame on them for essentially helping customers steal from other customers. Don’t they want items to be paid for? They don't get their cut if it isn’t! I also received no reminder emails, even though Amazon insists that they sent them.
Some sellers find it tedious to confirm items one by one on Amazon’s site (click on the first order, fill in info, click submit, go back, click on the second order, fill in info…). If you do it that way, Charged When Ship can be a pain. You can also consider using free software that will let you confirm many orders at once, Charge When Ship Made Easy: OglieOglie.com/cws.
It works with Endicia as well.
I have been using “Charge when shipped” ever since it came out and have not had a problem. i did forget once and did NOT receive a reminder, so Amazon should look into this, but I check my orders daily and realized my mistake in time to correct it. You are given 4 days after the order so you do need to check daily. I like the idea about personalizing the shipping notification so I would not have to send 2 emails. The note area for the seller could be where you personalize the email for your buyer. All in all, I’ve had a good experience, but I am not that large a seller, so your experience my not be like mine.
actually I believe you have two business days from the day of order to confirm shipment.