Amazon is adding a built-in postage printing system for Marketplace orders. The service uses Stamps.com to generate the labels, but you don’t have to download the software or pay Stamps.com’s regular monthly fee, $15.99.
However, there’s a fee of 7 cents for each postage label printed, unless you already have a Stamps.com account.
This new service will probably benefit smaller sellers more than high-volume sellers. Sellers with lots of daily USPS packages often print all their postage in a batch through Stamps.com or Endicia.com.
But smaller-volume sellers will probably appreciate this feature because it can eliminate the task of cutting and pasting customer order addresses. Not to mention standing in line at the Postal Service window. You’d think with business down so much recently, visiting the Post Office would be a breeze — not around here, though. The lines are longer than ever. And not only have they taken out all the stamp vending machines, but most of the time the clerks don’t even have First Class stamps for sale in their drawers! What is going on with these people? It’s like USPS is bound and determined to go out of business as soon as possible. It’s like they want to make dealing with them as big a pain-in-the-butt as possible.
Stealth postage is another issue. Doesn’t look like it’s available through this new feature. Stealth postage conceals the dollar value of the postage page, and prevents feedback like this:
1 out of 5: “Seller charged me $4 for postage but sent it via Pony Express and only spent $1.30. RIP OFF!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!
Here’s an e-mail being sent this morning to some Amazon Marketplace sellers:
Greetings from Amazon Services,
We are excited to offer you an opportunity to participate in a limited beta of the new Amazon Marketplace Shipping Service. The new service will be activated for your account by 9:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, April 30th.
Using this new service you can purchase USPS postage directly through your Manage Orders pages. To start the process of buying postage for an order, click the Buy Postage button under the order’s Product Details section. For more information, click any of the “Learn more” links you see along the way, or go directly to this Help page:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=200472520
We value your feedback about this new feature and we will review your input carefully as we prioritize feature improvements for the deployment of the Amazon Marketplace Shipping Service later this year.
Please send your feedback to buy-postage-feedback@amazon.com by May 30th.
Thank you,
Amazon ServicesAnd here’s the features described at the Help page:
Buy Postage & Print Shipping Labels
Buy United States Postal Service® postage on Seller Central to save time and money:
- Automatically pay for postage safely and conveniently with your Marketplace Payments account. Postage fees for a settlement period appear as a MiscEvent on your Settlement report, and as a Miscellaneous Adjustment on your Payments page.
- Discounts
- Delivery Confirmation is free for Priority Mail® ($0.65 at your local Post Office).
- Delivery Confirmation for packages sent via First Class Mail®, Parcel Post®, or Media Mail® is $0.19.
- Buy insurance through Stamps.com, discounted 10% below USPS rates for coverage under the same plan: Parcel Insurance Plan (PIP).
- Print domestic and international postage-paid shipping labels on your standard printer. Shipping labels for international shipments include customs information.
- Request free Carrier Pickup instead of taking your packages to the Post Office.
- Set a default ships-from address so you won’t have to type or write it for each shipment.
- Request a postage refund if you decide not to use the shipping label within 48 hours of printing it (requires the use of delivery confirmation and is dependent upon approval by USPS).
This feature is easy and fun to use. Go to Manage Orders to get started, or read step-by-step instructions first.
Related posts:
![[Google]]( http://www.weberbooks.com/selling/wp-content/plugins/easy-adsenser/google-light.gif)
10 Comments
This is interesting. So this is still in the beta stage, with just a few amazon.com sellers testing it now? I’ve used stamps.com for some time but amazon.com sales have been really slow lately. As a smaller seller this sounds like an interesting program, although I don’t understand why they wouldn’t offer stealth postage under the stamps.com software since that’s an option, to hide or display postage with my stamps.com software, with the $15.99 monthly fee I pay now.
If they don’t offer stealth postage then I’ll probably just keep paying the higher fee despite slow sales now. I can’t handle buyers who think $4 is too much to cover media mail postage, careful handling, sturdy protective shipping supplies, trips to the post office (we all can’t be home for carrier pickup during the day since books have to be mailed within 2 business days) and so on. It’s just not worth the hassle. Still, good to know about this since I didn’t realize amazon.com would even be offering this soon. Thanks.
I’ve only had a Fee disparity complaint once and in Reply:
Years ago I got this garbage as well.
Tell them the “unseen” balance is:
1. Invoice Printing
2. Packing Tape
3. Boxes
4. Inner plastic wrapping[?]
5. Jiffy Bags
6. other sundry
7. Web access
And the Finale
Those whose shipping is more than $3.99 you have no way to collect additional shipping from – so you loose money every month on the average.
The $3.99 does not cover all you ship per month
PS – If you really want to open their eyes:
1. $0.99 Transaction
2. $1.35 Withholding
3. 15%
PSS: An idiot asked AZ about my fees then AZ contacted me and told me not to tell buyers this. Odd since you can “START SELLING IN 30 SECONDS”
http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=2333441�
You can’t ask for more money if shipping is higher.
You never have Buyers offer to send you more money.
I got the email a few weeks back that Amazon wants (not demands, just a request right now…translation: SOON will be a demand, IMHO) us to use delivery confirmation on all orders.
DC is only cheaper on the post office site, and if you still pay at the window (we only have 3-5 orders a day) it is $.70 or so.
When you are very small, and also run an open shoppe (a lot of labor/time), you want to keep it as simple as you can.
Learning anything new (and there is always something new on Amz!), takes time (and occasionally, error), but we bit the bullet and are just learning (don’t laugh we are a dinosaur as an old real bookstore), how to do mail on the PO site.
IT is massively time consuming. I appreciate this information from Steve, because I had not heard anything from Amazon regarding it (KIS means I don’t go to their community forums on a regular basis…and I miss stuff). To be honest, I hate having to spend all this time just to make under $25.00 or $30.00 online a day…but I know I don’ thave other options (as a real retail, online saves my shirt when the economy is tough…which is pretty much the whole time I’ve been in business …ten years this year).
Okay, done rambling.
Again, thanks Steve for what you do for the bookseller community.
Debbie E.
At first, I thought this might be nice for mother, who is a low-volume Amazon seller. But she lists through The Art of Books and also sells on a number of other sales venues, so she would have to maintain her Endicia account for those other venues, making this an essentially worthless change for her. It would benefit those who only sell on Amazon or who don’t mind taking items sold on other venues to the post office.
Just throwing in for consideration the fee per package cost that we swappers pay to use a similar feature on PaperBackSwap.com is a lot higher than 7 cents! I think I’m paying about 50 cents per package plus another 28 cents extra fee to have online tracking of the delivery confirmation (above and beyond the USPS fee for DC).
I use Paypal shipping, no fees. DC is required but only 17 cents. The only drawback is that you have to cut and paste the address info. It does not offer first class postage for some reason. Perfect for domestic and international media mail and Priority.
Here’s the link: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
I wish I had been one of the “chosen” sellers to participate. I am a small seller, but as Steve suggests, smaller sellers will probably gain the most benefit from this service. I currently use the USPS’s Shipping Assistant program to print postage labels, but unfortunately, the program does not allow users to pre-pay postage for packages sent via Media Mail, First Class Mail, or First Class Mail International. This is true even for their online Click-N-Ship program. However, they DO allow users to purchase postage for packages sent via Priority Mail (flat rate or other) using either program, so I take advantage of this option when buyers choose expedited shipping. The only reason I use the Shipping Assistant program is due to the discounted delivery confirmation rate. I still have to tote all of my packages to the post office, but I’m only charged $0.19 per package for delivery confirmation, as opposed to $0.70 per package. I’m not sure why the pre-printed labels warrant a discounted rate, but I take advantage of the offer. I’ve always appreciated the convenient PayPal program that eBay offers to sellers for printing pre-paid postage labels. (The sight of pre-paid labeled packages also has the added benefit of pleasing the clerks at the post office, as all they have to do is toss it in the outgoing mail cart. Of course, the pleasure is usually short-lived as they glance over to see two stacks of other packages all labeled with, “postage required”.) I’m rambling…(exhale)… I just wish Amazon had offered this generous opportunity to me. I definitely would have taken advantage of it. Does anyone know what the requirements were for the chosen participants? Also, does anyone know when the service will be available for all sellers? Thanks in advance for your reply. Kudos!
From what I’ve seen, stealth printing is available and DC is .19 for first class and media mail, and free for priority mail. Express mail is 10% discount.
Hey Dave,
Thanks for the paypal shipping link: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
I did’nt know that you could ship direct using paypal.
Yeah, you dont have to that extra fee with paypal and they do actually offer first class postage. But, i am still glad amazon finally added on this service. it’s long overdue.