The condition: As you would expect, books with less wear and tear should go for more, and vice versa.
Amazon’s price: Compare the price Amazon is charging versus your competitors and look at their customer ratings. The ratings are a trust signal for customers – if you have less, you need to earn their interest and trust another way. Make sure your pricing makes sense for your presence on the platform.
Your goal: Would you rather sell the book to the lowest bidder or hold out longer for a potentially higher pay out?
Multiples: Do you have more than one copy of the same title?
Amazon fees: Amazon has numerous fees; listing fees, FBA fees, variable closing fees, referrals, per-item fees, sellers taxes & more. All those applicable to your sale will be taken after it closes, which will impact your margin. You need to stay on top of these to ensure you make any profit. Amazon statements don’t make that easy, which is where A2X for Amazon comes in (we’ll explore that later).
The Buy Box: The winner of the Buy Box earns that all important “Add to Cart” spot that most shoppers select when they shop on Amazon. Around 82% of sales are made through the Buy Box, so it’s worth the elbow grease to be in the running.
If you do your research, position yourself carefully amongst your competition and adjust your strategy as you learn, you’ll be making sales in no time!
Fulfilment by Amazon for used books
Next up after listing and pricing? Well, hopefully sales – and then comes fulfilment.
You can either manage this yourself or sign up for Amazon’s industry-leading FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) program.
By partnering with FBA, all you need to do is pack and send your books to Amazon’s fulfilment centers across the US where they are stored, picked, packaged and shipped to your customers whenever a sale comes through.
You are charged for this service, but it automates your distribution which takes a huge task off your plate. Your customers can take advantage of those famous Amazon quick shipping timeframes, and as books are heavy, sending them individually yourself might be expensive anyway.
Getting your books to an Amazon FBA warehouse
When you sign up for FBA, Amazon will send you a list of fulfilment centers. Select the one nearest to you, and follow the shipping instructions.
Amazon will generate shipping labels for you to attach to your packages, then it’s your responsibility to get the books to the warehouse and to package them according to Amazon’s requirements. Once they arrive with Amazon and are processed, the rest will be taken care of for you.
The beauty of Amazon FBA is that your customers can benefit from super fast Amazon shipping without the strain on your business. You can focus on other things knowing your distribution is handled by the experts.
Make Your Business One for the Books
No matter your reason for getting into the bookselling business, you need to do a few fundamental things in the beginning to set yourself up for success. Your backend needs to be robust in order to support and expand.
