Power Sellers Unite

deal-seal · Joined: 27 Jun 2010 Posts: 4

I find it's much, much harder than on eBay. Any suggestions besides the obvious? Obvious would be selling more, at cheaper prices, with super fast delivery and great service, and reminding people to leave feedback.

portocall · Joined: 05 Jun 2009 Posts: 156

I always send an Amazon message about shipping the book, telling the buyer to contact me with questions or comments, and nicely telling them how much feedback would be appreciated if all went well with the purchase (I don't ask them directly to leave positive feedback) I think they like hearing that they can contact you if need be, and like to hear that the feedback is appreciated by the seller and that it means something. It seems to work, as I get a fair amount of positive feedback. I send it as a seperate Amazon message because I think buyers tend to ignore the notes section on the automatic "item shipped" message that Amazon sends.

It takes some time to do this, and isn't practical if you sell alot, but I think it helps. Sometimes I skip it if I'm too busy. If I have a doubt that the feedback will be positive, I just send a thank you note and don't mention feedback. You never can tell though. The two negatives I've had in a couple of years made no sense and the buyer didn't contact me at all. That always seems to be the way it goes.

You can work with the buyer to remove a negative feedback at Amazon (offer a full or partial refund etc) even after it's been left. And I've heard that Amazon customer service is much more helpful in this situation than ebay custserv.

Schistosomiasis · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 192

It seems to me that while Ebay calcuates feedback rating as (positive fb/total fb), Amazon calculates it as [(total sales-neg fb)/total sales].

Therefore, the equation assumes that if the buyer didn't leave feedback, then all is well, they give the seller the benefit of the doubt, and the seller performance metric refelcts that. No feedback is the same as a positive. Because of that, I have never felt the need to remind the buyer to leave fb, and maybe as a result of that less that 5% actually do so.

Of course, there is a benefit to showing a high and positive fb rating to those customers that look for it, but it seems that fb isn't so much a part of the Amazon buyer experience as it is in the Ebay world.

sanibel · Joined: 16 May 2007 Posts: 205

I am guilty of not leaving feedback on Amazon after making a purchase

I think from a buyer's prospective (at least with me) that it is hard to think of Amazon as a place that is like ebay where buyers leave feedback. When I go to Amazon I think of it more as an online retail store like say, Petedge, and I am making a purchase from the store and not an individual seller and I don't leave feedback when I shop at online retailers.

It's sad to admit this but I totally space leaving feedback until I get an automated email from Amazon reminding me to leave feedback.

deal-seal · Joined: 27 Jun 2010 Posts: 4

I don't agree about the feedback calculations, at least in my experience. I have more feedback now but I find that just one neutral (it wasn't even negative) was bringing it down majorly.

salesonamazon · Joined: 23 Jul 2010 Posts: 15

An important lesson for every amazon seller

Howmuch did you invest to start an amazon business? $100? $200?
Just invest another few bucks to the buyer, meaning that you give him a partial or full refund if he or she will remove the negative feedback, EVERY BUYER WILL TAKE THE OFFER, UNLESS THE BUYER IS YOUR COMPETITION...
and I'll tell you a secret after a buyer removes a feedback they are becoming restricted from amazon to resubmit it again, so you don't have to be worried if the buyer will resubmit the negative feedback