Oh wait that should be 4 cents!
The hot topic in the used book blogosphere is whether or not it is appropriate for a bookseller to contact a customer after a sale is completed to request additional monies for shipping.
I would start with looking at the Bookseller & Payment Information link for the seller, (this is what it is called on ABE but each sales channel has it’s own version)
This is what we say:
Shipping Terms: Orders usually ship within 2 business days. Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversize, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.
So of course we feel comfortable contacting a customer if we feel an extra shipping charge is in order. The caveat here is “we feel”, it is a judgment call on each sale, it is not a given that we will contact the customer for every quarto or folio book we sell on any of the various online channels. The bookseller should intuitively know when to raise this flag.
An interesting side note here-what will happen with Amazon now that zshops is closed? One was able to specify the exact shipping charge for each inventory item now every item is under the Marketplace umbrella.
The crux of this issue is the relationship of the bookseller with the sales channel not the relationship of the bookseller and the buyer. If these sales channels really gave a hoot about their sellers, or truly understood our business this would not be an issue. The respective venues would have the proper tools for the bookseller to use to provide accurate shipping information to the buyer.
I say buyer here and not customer because until that buyer comes and buys something directly from us he is not a customer. ABE, Alibris, Amazon they are our customers. Unfortunate but true.
It is our challenge to do everything in our power to turn that buyer into our customer. And here is where we get into “Are you really a bookseller?” territory. Our communication, packaging, marketing, and of course the item being as described! are some of the tools we use to turn these buyers into customers. A herculean task but a vital one for long term success as a bookseller.
The other ghost in the machine here is the prevailing trend toward free shipping. It won’t be long before one, some or all of these channels jumps on the free train. ABE has their free shipping promo, Amazon with free shipping over $25 and the whole Prime thing. The competition is too intense for shipping charges not to be squeezed down and eventually out.
Ebay is excluded from this discussion for now because too many of their sellers still use shipping charges as a profit center which is a topic for another time
One potential dangerous response to this issue is to build the extra shipping costs into the price of the item. I have noticed many booksellers have already raised their prices on ABE in response to ABE’s decision to cannibalize the credit card processing for each sale.
This continuious building in of these additional costs into the price of the book will eventually deem the book unsaleable!
Oh and by the way we always offer free shipping on our website 🙂