Amazon’s Charge When Ship program originally had gone over like a turd in a punchbowl.  All kinds of Amazon sellers were up in arms about how they weren’t going to get paid until they notified Amazon that the book that their buyer had purchased was marked as ‘shipped’.  I’ve been keeping an eye on the buzz and it’s looking to me that the initial uproar is done and sellers are slowly coming around.

If you’re not familiar with Amazon’s new Charge When Ship, I’m ashamed of you!  If you’re reading this blog at all you should be selling on Amazon right now and as a good online bookseller that sells on Amazon, you’re keeping up with the latest news about your highest sales marketplace, right?  Maybe you’re just waiting for me to tell you which I will forgive you for.   If you’d like to get more information about it you can always visit Amazon’s official Charge When Ship page.

Just like any new ‘feature’ or change in one of the marketplaces there is usually a few services that step up to fill a need.  Amazon’s CWS program is no exception.  I was recently emailed by the founder of a company called OglieOglie.  After an initial discussion, I found out that this is a company that is marketing a very small software application called Amazon’s Charge When Ship Made Easy.  This is a program that you install onto your computer that essentially confirms all your orders for you in one fail swoop.  Since I’m currently a subscriber to an all in one solution that does this already, I had no need for it so I thought I’d check it out for my readers.

This is a FREE, no strings attached application that anyone can download and use to confirm all of the orders that they currently have pending.  It also has a cool feature that will allow you to import your Endicia USPS delivery confirmation numbers if you use Endicia.  This is a program made for small booksellers that currently use Amazon’s seller account page to confirm orders one by one.  It will save you the hassle of confirming all of these orders manually.  It’s really as simple as inputting your Amazon username and password, selecting the option of importing your Endicia tracking information and hitting Submit.

Let me know if you decide to download and give it a try.  It seems to be a great solution to Amazon sellers that haven’t yet gotten to the point of subscribing to an all in one  service.

What is Amazon’s Charge When Ship program?

Amazon’s new Charge When Ship program is the new way that Amazon is charging buyers of 3rd party (you!) sellers on their marketplace.  It is a major change that does not affect buyers but affects sellers greatly.  Previously when a buyer purchased a book from a 3rd party seller, Amazon would charge the customer and place the money into your Amazon account.  You would then ship it out and the customer would receive it.  Transaction Done.

Now, with the Charge When Ship system in place, Amazon does not charge the buyer UNTIL you confirm that the item was shipped.

How will it affect me?

This change will affect the 3rd party seller in 3 ways.

1. Shipment Accountability – This will force you to be accountable for the time it takes you to ship out the book.  You will now know that the buyer will know exactly when you ship out the book thus holding you accountable for shipping out in a timely manner.
2. Shipment Due Diligence – This will force you to send “shipment confirmations” if you will if you have not done this before.  I have learned that some sellers simply rely on Amazon to send confirmations to the buyer.  This is bad practice!  The buyer wants to know exactly when his/her item is shipped out and now with this new system, Amazon is forcing you to be diligent and confirming each order you ship out.
3. Increased Customer Satisfaction – This will please the buyers because they now know that every single 3rd party seller has to send them a shipment confirmation.  Before, this was hit and miss with sellers.  Some good sellers would send shipment confirmation and some wouldn’t even notify the buyer of the order let alone the shipment!  I am going to assume that your feedback will raise now that you have to send a shipment confirmation with every order.

There are still a ton of questions that are stirring around in regards to this topic so if you’re interested in more information, you can visit the Amazon Charge When Ship FAQ or the official Amazon Charge When Ship page.