Amazon.com is moving to a system for sellers where they must confirm a shipment of a product before they will get paid. The details are below, pasted from a seller email I recently received.
This is not a huge change for amazon sellers, in my mind; just another hoop to jump through. But as recently reported in USA Today, buyers like to track shipments of everything from shoes to pizzas these days, so the new criteria are in keeping with what consumers want.
Details are below, pasted from an email to amazon sellers:
Hello from Amazon Services.
Charge When Ship will be enabled within a week in your Seller Account, and you will then be required to confirm shipment of all new orders you receive. With Charge When Ship, if you do not confirm shipment of an order through Manage Orders or a feed within 30 days of the date the order was placed, you will not be paid for the order.
Once your Seller Account is enabled for Charge When Ship, you will see "Confirm shipment" and "Cancel order" buttons for new orders; the "Refund order" button will only appear after you confirm shipment of an order. (Just as now, there will be no "Cancel order" button for orders you received before your account is enabled for Charge When Ship.)
Charge When Ship follows the current industry standard for processing buyer payments and will also help keep buyers informed about the status of their shipments. Though Charge When Ship is new for some sellers, other sellers have been using it for quite a while. We are bringing this functionality to you because of Amazon's commitment to providing the best customer experience possible.
We strongly encourage you to start using Charge When Ship today: On your Seller Account home page or in Manage Orders, click the "Learn more" link in the yellow Charge When Ship sign-up notice.
Here is how Charge When Ship works:
* When you ship an order, you confirm the shipment and provide shipping information in Manage Orders. If you have a Pro Merchant Subscription you can also use text-file feeds for this.
* We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments account. Amazon assumes the risk of buyer non-payment for every order in your Unshipped Orders Reports or that has confirm and cancel buttons in Manage Orders. As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. Of course, just as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded, for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as described.
* To keep buyers informed about their shipments, we display the shipping information in the buyer's Amazon account, and we also send the buyer an e-mail notification with all the shipping information.
* You can easily tell which orders you have not yet confirmed as shipped, in Manage Orders or on the Unshipped Orders Report (available to Pro Merchant subscribers). We will also send you an e-mail reminder if an order remains unshipped past the promised ship date.
* You can cancel an order, if necessary, instead of confirming the shipment, and then we will not charge the buyer at all and you will not have to issue a refund.
See our Charge When Ship video, FAQ, and recorded webinars:
Video
http://s3.amazonaws.com/MerchantTutorials/cws_for_mp/cws_for_mp.html
FAQ
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200351100
Recorded
webinars
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200340860#related_topics
We think you will find managing your orders is easier and more efficient with Charge When Ship. To get started, click the "Learn more" link in the yellow Charge When Ship sign-up notice in Manage Orders or on your Seller Account home page.
If you have questions, contact us using the "By e-mail" or "By phone" button in the Seller Support box found on the right side of seller Help pages.
Best regards,
Amazon Services
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HOW TO CONFIRM
SHIPMENTS
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You can confirm shipments easily in Manage Orders:
1. In your Seller Account, under the "Manage Your Orders" heading, click "View your orders" to find the order you want to confirm.
2. Click the "Confirm shipment" button next to the order (or below the order if you are looking at an order detail page).
3. Select the Ship Date and Carrier (such as USPS) from the drop-down lists.
4. Enter the Shipping Service (such as Ground) and the Tracking ID, if any (supplied by the carrier).
5. Click the "Confirm shipment" button.
For information on using a Shipping Confirmation feed to confirm shipment of multiple orders at once, follow this path in Amazon.com Help:
Selling at Amazon.com > Confirming Shipment > How to Confirm Shipment of Multiple Orders at the Same Time
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HOW TO CANCEL ORDERS
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If you are unable to ship an order, you can cancel it easily in Manage Orders:
1. In your Seller Account, under the "Manage Your Orders" heading, click "View your orders" to find the order you want to cancel.
2. Click the "Cancel order" button next to the order (or below the order if you are looking at an order detail page).
3. Select the appropriate reason, and then click Submit.
For information on cancelling orders using an Order Cancellation feed, follow this path in Amazon.com Help:
Selling at Amazon.com > Confirming Shipment > How to Cancel Orders
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