I usually check Abe and Amazon when I buy.
As a buyer, I think its a good move by Amazon because many booksellers who were included in the Abe Amazon listings were slow to update their inventory, resulting in many out-of-stock items as witnessed by the comments in Abe's feedback on both Amazon (86% positive) and eBay/Half.com (93.6% positive).
Announcement from Abebooks Wrote:RE: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING RESELLER PROGRAMS
This afternoon Amazon confirmed to us that as part of their efforts for
improving the customer experience, they are officially moving away from what we call an aggregator business model. That means they will no longer be allowing sites like ours (which list multiple booksellers under one account) to sell on their website, since every seller must be responsible for their own account. We expect the closure to happen sometime in October.
While we understand that this will be disappointing news for many of you, as it is for us, we believe that in many ways this is also a new
opportunity for us all. Abebooks has grown rapidly over the years, and the reseller programs have become increasingly complex to maintain while at the same time less important to our overall growth. It is increasingly important for us to focus our resources internally, and so we have decided that the time has come to say good-bye to Half.com as well.
We recognize that our strength is in our booksellers, and in the vast inventory of unique, quality books that you list with us that are not available everywhere else. Moving away from a reseller model that actively encourages you to provide your unique books to our competition can further secure our position as the worlds largest online marketplace for books, but only if we are able to improve our own sites to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers. We are committed to doing this.
I had hoped to be able to make this announcement this morning, in time for our Roundtable discussion in the Bookseller Community Forums, and Im sorry we werent able to do so. If you didnt have a chance to participate in the Roundtable, please try and take a moment to review the questions and answers at your leisure:
http://forums.abebooks.com/n/mb/listsf.a...=abecomeng&ctx=1048576
It was a very productive discussion focused primarily on our recent product launch, and we hope that you will find the information helpful.
Sincerely,
Hannes
Hannes Blum
President & CEO
Abebooks, Inc.
The Amazon forums discussion on the removal of Abe is here:
http://forums.prospero.com/n/mb/message....ellconnect&msg=36454.1&ctx=0
http://forums.prospero.com/n/mb/message....ellconnect&msg=36453.1&maxT=2
EDITED to add this letter from Amazon. No word yet on whether Alibris listings on Amazon will also be affected by this policy move:
Quote:Subject: Your Amazon.com Inquiry
From: "Amazon.com"
Date: 21 Sep 2005 22:52:02 -0700
Greetings from Amazon.com.
As you know, as part of our continued focus to improve the customer experience at Amazon.com, we are making a change to our policies so that multiple sellers cannot be aggregated into a single account.
In other words, sellers currently using their Amazon.com account to allow multiple sellers to list their items on our web site will no longer be able to list in this way.
We are making this change to improve the customer experience and better ensure that every seller can be accountable for its own performance, rather than the performance of multiple sellers selling through a single account. This change will apply to any seller currently listing multiple sellers' offerings under a single account.
Auctionbytes story:
Amazon Policy Shakes Up Online-Bookselling Industry
http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y205/m10/abu0152/s04
Quote:October 6, 2005
Alibris and Amazon will end their alliance next month according to an email I received from Alibris seller services. "The current Amazon.com program will end in mid November. Alibris is committed to helping sellers through this transition and are developing free tools for sellers to simplify inventory and order management for their own Amazon accounts. We expect these new tools to launch in early November."
[quote author=mandy link=topic=484.msg2749#msg2749 date=1128874112]
Quote:October 6, 2005
Alibris and Amazon will end their alliance next month according to an email I received from Alibris seller services. "The current Amazon.com program will end in mid November. Alibris is committed to helping sellers through this transition and are developing free tools for sellers to simplify inventory and order management for their own Amazon accounts. We expect these new tools to launch in early November."
[/quote]
I didn't receive an email from Alibris, but then again I'm not enrolled in their Amazon listing program.
There haven't been any announcements in the Seller's section of the Alibris site of any changes in the relationship between Alibris and Amazon...
Wow. For once I had great timing. I've been selling on Alibris for a while. A few weeks ago, I signed up to sell on Amazon directly and dropped Amazon from my Alibris program.
I had really just planned on getting rid of some of my low dollar stuff through the holidays . . . but it looks like I'll be sticking with this arrangement now!
Beth
email sent out by Alibris today to all sellers:
Quote:Dear Alibris Seller,
Amazon.com informed Alibris in mid-September that they will no longer allow the aggregation of multiple sellers under one account on Amazon Marketplace. Alibris was unable to reach agreement on proposals to restrict the program to five star sellers and other measures to improve performance. Therefore, the current Amazon.com program will end on November 18.
Consequently, we are working on tools that will simplify inventory and order management of individual seller accounts on Amazon Marketplace. We understand the value and importance of this channel and will help transition sellers who can afford to pay Amazon.com fees. The new service will be available in early November and is free to current sellers at launch.
Alibris remains proud of our Amazon.com program. As aggregators, Alibris understood the increased responsibility and need for quality control. With 20 regional accounts and more then 4,000 sellers, we maintained an average 4.6 rating and 90% positive feedbacksomething other aggregators attempted but could not achieve.
Eight years ago Amazon.com became our very first partner. As they evolved, Alibris responded and made the investments necessary to help sellers take advantage of these changes. We helped launch booksellers on zShops in 1998 and were pioneers in Amazon Auctions and on Amazon Marketplace. In each instance, sellers sold more as a result.
We maintain partnerships with dozens of leading libraries, retailers, and distributors. We listen to our partners, we make the necessary investments, and through these efforts we help each other succeed. However, our most important partner remains youour valued seller network.
Alibris will continue to grow our distribution channels, seek other partnerships, and work on ways to help you sell more in an increasingly competitive bookselling world. We'll keep you informed about the launch of our new Amazon.com service and other advancements targeted to benefit booksellers.
Thank you for your patience and continuing patronage of Alibris.
Sincerely,
xxx
Alibris Seller Services
I am actually looking forward to the new tool. It's been a PITA to try to keep my inventory straight now that it's listed on Amazon directly as well as Alibris. I was going to stop adding new stock to Alibris ('cause I make MUCH more money on Amazon and I've gotta make *some* decisions based on $$ LOL!) but I'll wait and see if whatever they come up with helps me hold it all together!
Quote: It's been a PITA to try to keep my inventory straight now that it's listed on Amazon directly as well as Alibris.
I use
www.Fillz.com. It lists to Amazon, Alibris, Abe, eBay Stores, Gemm.com, Half.com, Valore, TextBookX, Chrislands, and up to 4 custom venues. It also provides inventory and order management, sends post sale emails to your buyers, and integrates with Endicia for shipping, plus if you sell an item on one venue it will automatically delete the item from your other venues so there is no chance of overselling. Now the bad news: they raised their rates earlier this year to a minimum of $50 monthly for new users (I'm grandfathered in at the old rate of $7.50 monthly minimum).
Filz sounds great. Except for the $50 part. But I'd need to have a LOT more books listed to justify $50 to them and $40 to Amazon each month, off the top, just for book sales.
Hopefully Alibris' new product *keeping my fingers crossed* will do the same thing for the two sites for free?