New Design for Biblio Sites

Biblio has redesigned its Biblio.co.uk and Biblio.com sites. It does provide a better, more coherent look and, according to Biblio it is:

"...only the beginning steps of our longer term strategic plan to differentiate Biblio and its booksellers as the premier destination for book collectors and other discerning readers who share our passion for the book as a tangible object and for the independent bookstore as a cultural institution."

It's just a pity that so few customers seem to have heard of Biblio.

Amazon Introduces 'Tell us about a lower price'

If you go to one of the Amazon product pages and look at the bottom of the 'Product details' you'll notice that further opportunites for providing feedback have been added:

"Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?"

The last one is particularly interesting because it gives a clue how Amazon might enforce Price Parity across the board without investing huge resources. Simply, it looks as if they are going to rely on customers and other sellers to report - in many cases unwittingly - those who are violating the Price Parity policy.

Amazon Price Parity Does Not Apply to Books...

Books have been exempted from this policy on Amazon.de's site in Germany and this is clearly stated in Amazons' Terms for their sellers...

Clause 2
Are the conditions for price parity for all items that I offer on Amazon EU platform?
The conditions for price parity are valid for all items that you offer on one of Amazon EU sales platforms. The price parity does not apply to the supply of books on Amazon.de. Other parity requirements (e.g. regarding customer service and return and refund policies apply), however, even for that product category. For sales of books that fall under the French law on fixed book prices, the terms and conditions apply to price parity too, but of course these products at the item prices to fixed prices to take account of the book trade. [sic]

[The auto-translation is a little muddled at the end but the main sentence is clear.]

Source: Sheppards Confidential Newsletter No. 163

Original German link: http://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200458420#all

Amazon Referred to European Commission

Graham Watson, MEP for West Dorset, has submitted a Parliamentary Question to the European Commission on Amazon's Price Parity policy:

“Online retailer Amazon has become a major retailer of books across the UK and wider EU. Its online market place has provided a valuable virtual shop window that has benefited many small specialist book retailers across the EU.

However is the Commission aware that Amazon is now demanding price parity from undertakings wishing to use this market place service, which will prevent undertakings from selling their products at a lower price than the price of the product on Amazon’s online market place? Does the Commission consider this could be damaging to small local book retailers that utilise Amazon? Does the Commission consider this decision to be inline with EU competition rules?”

Amazon introduces new Pricing Policy (Price Parity)

I run my own website and set prices to give me a fair return. I also list my stock on Amazon Marketplace and set prices higher to account for the Amazon selling fees. From 31 March, Amazon are introducing new terms and conditions which prevent sellers from pricing an item on other websites lower than they are selling it on Amazon. To comply with this, I will need to lower my prices on Amazon (and make a loss on many books) or raise prices on my own site which will reduce my sales and give my customers a worse deal.

Also see:
Amazon Referred to European Commission
Amazon Price Parity Does Not Apply to Books...
Amazon Introduces 'Tell us about a lower price'
Has 'The Book Depository' left Amazon?
Amazon Price Parity Does Not Apply to Books...
EU responds to Amazon Price Parity complaint


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Amazon Pending Orders Problem

Amazon's official time for expiring and re-listing pending orders has been increased from 3 to 7 days. In reality, many sellers have been reporting that it can take up to 12 days or more for the pending orders to expire. From other Amazon sellers' comments and my own experiences we now know that:

• Pending orders are not cancelled by putting stock on vacation.
• Pendings can still convert into orders after 11 days.
• It can take 12 days for pendings to expire and re-list automatically.
• Customer Service refuses to cancel pendings at any time.

So, if I want to be sure that I don't get any orders while I'm on holiday, I need to put my books on vacation 14 days before I go - even if I am going to be away for only a couple of days. I will, of course, continue to sell my stock on other sites - which don't have Amazon's pending policy - until 48 hours before I leave.

Alternatively, I could take the pending items on holiday with me, ready to post if a pending converts into an order.

Or, I could carry on as normal, apologise to the customer if any problems result and take the hit on feedback and metrics.

I would be very interested to hear of other sellers' and customers' experiences. I would also like to see a copy of the email that Amazon sends to a customer when an order goes pending.

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IOBA Membership

I recently applied for membership of the Independent Online Booksellers Association and, although I was turned down for unspecified reasons, I was invited to join their mentorship programme. Joining this programme does not guarantee future acceptance into the organisation. Does anybody know anything about this scheme? Is it a hurdle that all applicants have to jump? Is membership of the IOBA worth the effort of participating in what seems an open-ended scheme?

BookFinder.com - Buy 'Direct from Seller' Links

I was checking the price of a book (ISBN 0586042385) on BookFinder.com when I noticed that several of the copies could be bought 'direct' from sellers who are not listed as one of BookFinder.com's sellers. Obviously, this gives sellers a big price advantage if they can sell their books directly. Does anyone know how to do this is?