I just spent way too much time trying to figure out the best international shipping options for book sellers on Amazon, and thought I’d redeem that time by sharing the results with you. Selling books on Amazon is great for making a little money on the side at home, but it’s become increasingly difficult to make it profitable enough for a full time business. The increase in shipping rates over the last few years is partially to blame.
For those of you not familiar with how it works on Amazon for sellers, here’s the lowdown on their fees:
Amazon Fees as of August 2010
Upon sale of a book, Amazon credits the seller the amount of the book sold and the shipping fee the customer paid-which varies by type of shipping. The most common are: Standard-$3.99; Expedited-$5.99; International-$12.49.
THEN, Amazon charges the seller: (hold on…)
Referral fee: 15% of the cost of the book.
Variable Closing Fee: $1.35
*Fixed Closing Fee: $ 0.99
(If you have a “Pro Merchant Account”, the *Fixed Closing Fee of .99 is waived. So if you sell over 40 books a month, the $39.99 Pro Merchant Account is worthwhile for you.)
Makes you wonder why anyone sells books on Amazon, doesn’t it? Some sellers prefer selling their books on Ebay, but I did the math about a year ago and the bottom line wasn’t much different. Free listing is the biggest advantage that Amazon has in addition to the massive exposure it provides for every seller. However, prices and policies change on both vendors quickly (depending on how you are set up), so do your own research if it’s important to you.
Over the last 10 years we have sold books online on a small scale. In that time, Amazon’s shipping credits always seemed to be more than enough to cover postage unless it was a very heavy book. It was a no-brainer to simply add a little to the price to books like that, usually textbooks. However, we have had several ordinary books ordered lately that needed to be shipped internationally and we have lost money on the shipping on every single one. As you can see from the fees that Amazon collects that a bookseller’s profit margin isn’t very big to begin with, let alone losing money on the shipping each time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that to continue to ship books at a loss wasn’t smart! Every book I shipped out this way included grumbling, complaining and a resolve to take the time to research a better solution. Surely others were having the same problem, right? Was missing something?
It turns out that I was missing several things. A little searching online and RE-examining the ever-changing fee structures of both Amazon and USPS, a few details came to light.
Watch your weight
If a book doesn’t fit into the International Flat Rate Envelope, the alternative is International First Class, which is charged both by weight and the country it’s going to. The rate chart for First Class International is calculated by the ounce up to 8 ounces, then it’s by 4 ounce increments. Case in point: we had one book that was just over 20 ounces, so we replaced the original packing of 2 pieces of cardboard with bubble wrap and it lost enough weight it to qualify for the under 20 oz rate. This brought the postage from $13.45 to $11.78. That’s the difference between having postage left over ($ 1.67!) and losing almost a dollar on shipping. Don’t sell books online without a reliable postal scale. (can be found for under $20)
Check your options BEFORE you take it to the post office
We usually just take our books to the US Post Office and let them post the packages because you can’t print Media Mail postage online-which is how the majority of books are sent. Priority (expedited) packages and International Priority Flat Rate Envelopes are always cheaper to print online. It’s easy (and free) to set up a “ClickN-Ship” account with the US Post Office, and by printing the postage yourself it’s $12.78. If USPS does it for you, it’s $13.45. Hey, 67 cents is 67 cents.
Be choosier on what books will list with the international shipping option
First Class International rates are divided into 4 different Country Groups, depending on where it’s going. Amazon’s international shipping credit is a flat $12.49 regardless of where it goes, so I decided that I would only ship books internationally weighing under one pound, unless it fit into the Flat Rate Envelope. Since the Country Group 6-9 is the most expensive, and costs $11.78 to ship 20 ounces (I allowed for packing materials), I figured that was a good rule of thumb. As for losing $ 0.29 on the Flat Rate Envelope shipping cost (and that’s by printing it myself), I figure I’ll compromise – after all, USPS did provide the envelope….
Weighing your books as you list them might take a little extra time, but you will know the feel of a book over a pound fairly quickly. We realized the reason for the surge of overweight international book sales were a result of our helpers over the summer. We had two college students listing books and we didn’t think to tell them not to check certain shipping options on heavier books. Live and learn.
Change your Amazon Store default settings
Although we still offer shipping overseas, we changed our international shipping default settings to “NO”. If you aren’t sure how to do this, simply go to your Seller Account Page. Under “Settings” (the last heading in the list) click on “Store Settings”. Once there, click on the ‘Edit’ button on the Shipping Settings header. Change “Will Ship Internationally” to “No”; hit “Submit” on the bottom of the page and you’re done. You can still choose to ship a book internationally when you list it, this just prevents you from automatically listing it as such.
Why not eliminate the international shipping option on ALL of our books?
Actually, eliminating the international option is where I was headed, until I read the seller forums on Amazon Services. Reading the different scenerios of other sellers made me realize that it would be a foolish act of frustration to never offer the international option. Many sellers reported that a large percentage of their business
was international and actually made money on the shipping of lighter weight books and DVDs. So, until rates change again, hopefully some of the details we have adopted will keep us out of the red.
I hope that some of this comes in handy for you, too. I did read that some of the postal services like Stamps.com and Endicia offer a discounted international parcel rate. These services are typically good for high volume sellers, and I couldn’t find evidence to support that. If you have experience with any of these services, we would love your comments! Share your knowledge and leave us a link we can visit your site. Thanks!
Compare international shipping rates on USPS.com
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