March 2008
From MediaSell
Contents |
[edit] Get Your FillZ! March 2008
Dear Sellers,
For those of you who made it out to CAMEX this year, you know all the buzz was about Amazon's Kindle and its impact on traditional methods of bookselling. Amazon has been in the news quite a bit as of late; read the Marketplace News section below for all the latest news.
CAMEX, The National Association of College Stores trade show, was very well attended this year. CAMEX 2008 drew a total of 2310 attendees to San Antonio, TX. This was the highest attendance in 11 years and the third largest turn-out in CAMEX history. Booth space for CAMEX 2009 in Anaheim, Ca is filling quickly, so get yourself registered soon if you're planning on attending.
Shaun and Marc were very pleased to meet existing FillZ users and met many campus store managers interested in using FillZ to help them manage their online Marketplace sales.
Informative sessions reinforced the idea that the demand to purchase textbooks from online Marketplaces still remains strong and students are mostly motivated by the fact that they want to find a wider selection of used textbooks at lower prices.
Upcoming Trade Shows:
Shaun Jamieson, President of FillZ will be attending the London Book Fair, April 16-18 2008. If you would like to book an appointment to meet with Shaun, please ( mailto:news1@fillz.com?subject=London%20Book%20Fair ) send us an email. For more information about the show, click ( http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/ ) here.
Happy Selling!
Aleksa H.
[edit] Marketplace News:
AbeBooks:
HomeBase 3.0 Alpha Launched: Testing for the latest version of HomeBase 3.0 began on March 10th. Watch the AbeBooks forum for more details.
Plans to launch AbeBooks.it: The newest domain is scheduled to launch on April 2. If you're selling on AbeBooks, your listings will automatically appear as soon as the site is rolled out.
Alibris:
Half.com Partnership: Alibris continues to broaden their exposure by offering third-party CD and DVD listings on Half.com. read more
Amazon:
PODs to sell through BookSurge: Last week Amazon announced that print-on-demand publishers will be forced to sell titles through BookSurge, a subsidiary of Amazon. There has been a lot of speculation about the decision. Click here to read more.
Tell them what you think: Amazon is looking for volunteers to participate in usability tests. Click here to see how you can participate.
Contacting Seller Support: As of April 8th, sellers will no longer have a direct number for Amazon support. Amazon has replaced all direct-dial support numbers with an online "Click to Call" button. Click here to read the post.
Changes to 'Alliance': Amazon changed their seller support address from alliance@amazon.com to seller-performance@amazon.com, as of March 25. To view the announcement, click here.
Audible $300M Acquisition: On March 19th, Amazon finalized the deal with Audible closing the deal and making Audible a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon . read more
Changes to Marketplace order numbers: The format of order numbers has changed as Amazon adds new prefixes. This change does not affect your FillZ account in any way. read more
Borders: Up For Sale? Borders is exploring the option after posting fourth quarter losses. Experts blame the steady increase in e-commerce sales and pressure from mega-retailers Costco and Wal-Mart for losses. read more
[edit] New Features on FillZ:
Our Technical Team has been very busy implementing the following exciting New Features:
Packing Slip sort: We added the following sorting options for you to organize your packing slips:
Zip Code, Country/Zip Code, Marketplace & Shipping Method
Orders API: We now pass the purchase date and shipping cost in our API data for sellers using this feature to manage orders on FillZ.
Export Orders: You can now choose to export individual orders on the following pages:
New, In Process, Complete, Deferred and Cancelled
Shipping Methods: We added support for the new "Large flat rate box" option provided by USPS.
Resolved Bugs:
Endicia XML files: Last month we rolled out a feature let sellers modify the names of Chrislands and Custom accounts. We have updated the Endicia XML files to reflect the user added content in these fields.
Email Test: You should no longer be receiving error messages when trying to test Order Confirmation emails on the settings page.
[edit] Upcoming Roll-Outs:
ISBN Consolidation: When your listings are consolidated, you will have the option to list titles with the lowest price first. Currently, the default is to consolidate your items using the highest price. Improvement to AbeBooks filter: This improvement will prevent all listings with "Audio CD" in the media (binding) field from being uploaded to AbeBooks. Previously, we were flagging items that had been designated as "Music" in the Item Type field. If you have books on CDs, they will still be listed on Abe as the media (binding) field will be populated with "Audiobook CD." If you're still seeing Music CDs on Abe by next week, please contact us with a list of SKUs and we will investigate.
[edit] Site Performance
We would like to thank all affected sellers for their patience and understanding during the intermittent downtime experienced over the last few weeks. We've been upgrading our servers to improve performance and to prepare for some of the new features that are still to come. We sincerely apologize for the impact this has had on your business and for any inconvenience it may have caused.
[edit] Marketplace Tip
Take a little back from eBay.
eBay offers a referral credit to Store subscribers who promote their stores in emails, printed materials and other Web sites. You could be eligible to receive up to 75% credit on your Final Value Fees. To find out how you can take advantage of this offer, click ( http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/referral-credit-faq.html ) here.
[edit] Developer's Buzz
[edit] New Sales Channels:
We're almost ready to roll out PlayTrade. Stay tuned for an exciting promotion when the integration goes live!
FBA testing is going well and we hope to have this available in the next two months.
Improved Usability: We know that many of you are anxious to use the the new input features. The inventory input project is moving along well and we're getting close to setting our beta-testers loose on some of the new features. We'll be reporting on the progress as we get feedback from our test group.
[edit] New Seller Corner
Are you new to FillZ? Are you wondering why you're getting swamped with reports from Amazon? Why orders you've already shipped before you signed up with FillZ are showing up in your order history?
Visit our "TOP TEN THINGS FOR NEW SELLERS TO KNOW" wiki link to find answers to these questions and much more!
Click ( http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=cxp,xl00,2c9t,49k9,8xry,er68,c9a ) here.
[edit] Did You Know?
FillZ Has A Referral Program?
FillZ rewards clients who refer our business to their associates. Here's how it works:
- You spread the word about FillZ.
- A new client references your FillZ user name or store name at sign-up. **It is very important for the new seller to use either of these two identifiers.
- We credit your account in the amount that the new client pays to FillZ after the first full month of chargeable services.
It's that easy!
[edit] Newsletter Archive
Are you new to the monthly bulletin? Want to see our archived digests to get more tips on how to effectively use FillZ? Click ( http://www.uptilt.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=cxp,xl00,2c9t,l3pd,jhcz,er68,c9a ) here.
[edit] "How-to" Tip
Ever get frustrated trying to find a Title or a keyword on the Inventory Browse page? Click ( http://wiki.fillz.com/wiki/index.php/Browse ) here to see how you can use this page to find your listings easily. If you have suggestions for how you would like Browse to work, please feel free to contact us at ( mailto:suggestions@fillz.com ) suggestions@fillz.com
FillZ Newsletter Copyright © 2008 FillZ. All rights reserved.
