Online booksellers still have a long way to go in order to earn their fair market share of holiday and textbook sales. One of the biggest hurdles facing those booksellers only listing on Amazon or other listings services with fixed shipping rates is the inability to offer shipping deals and promises. Both customers (the holiday shopper and the student) are on very fine schedules for when they need to receive their book(s). The sites themselves (like Amazon and Alibris) maintain an acute competitive advantage over their marketplace sellers because they can offer promises of free shipping and/or shipping guaranteed by a certain time.
Despite these inherent disadvantages built into many independent online booksellers business, we can all work to improve the perception and assuage fears of buying from our cohort during these peak times. Here is a list of ten small things you can do to improve the customer’s independent seller buying experience.
1) Ship twice a day, at least. If a bevy of orders come in at 4 pm, make an extra run to a drop-off or post office you know collects at 5 pm or after.
2) Add a small holiday bookmark to your package. It sounds silly but people like these extras in their packages. With a nice printer and some card stock, you could easily produce professional bookmarks at a small cost.
3) Add a holiday message or hand written note to your package. Maybe you don’t have time for hand written notes, but a sincere message from a small business owner will certainly mean something to your receipient.
4) Ask for ambassadors. If your confident your customers receive top-quality service ask them to tell others.
5) Include holiday gift tags. Maybe it’s just me, but I always end up short or missing gift tags when I really need them. Again, a decent printer and some card stock could produce some nice customs tags for your customer.
6) Reprice wisely. If this industry has anything going for it, it is the competitive pricing of online booksellers. That said, take the time to set-up repricing plans that target specific inventory. For the holidays, maybe it’s gift quality books. For textbook season, maybe its your academic selection.
7) Ship with care. New books should arrive in new condition. No matter how many times your postal employee drop-kicks your media mail package (yup, seen it happen). Tape well (please, don’t use Scotch tape people!), seal tight.
8) Add an info sheet. Have a hot seller? If you are selling multiple copies of a big seller, why not add a nice little one page info sheet on the book. Give the customer/gift recipient a little extra information on the topic, author, reviews, etc.
9) Offer Priority re-ships. If a book comes back at the end of the buying season or never arrives. Offer to resend the book, Priority, at your cost to the customer. The loss of $4.05 will end up paying dividends in the long run if handled correctly.
10) Take time to enjoy books for books sake. Don’t forget to enjoy a good book during the holiday season. Read up on what’s going on in the book world. The renewed interest in what got most of us started will show through in your customer service.
