More Extra Shipping

Ouch. I seem to have hit a nerve with my post about extra shipping charges. In short, I wrote that it seems unprofessional for booksellers to hit customers up for extra shipping charges after they've checked out on Abebooks. Some dealers have taken umbrage at the term "unprofessional."

I should note that I did say "look" unprofessional and that such charges "feel" like bait and switch. I also allowed that there were good reasons for it, but from the customers' point of view, looking, feeling, and being are pretty much the same.

I was out last night at an event and I started asking people what they would think if they bought something online and, after the transaction was complete, the seller came back and asked for more money. Everyone thought that was nuts.

I have great respect, admiration, and even affection for the booksellers who have disagreed with me on this in the comments (at least the ones brave enough to sign their names; see also the Lux Mentis blog, where Ian generously called my post "interesting" when he was really thinking something else...). I especially appreciate the bind Massachussets dealers find themselves in if they are legally required to add sales tax and are prevented from doing so by online marketplaces.

All the comments I have received, both public and private, have been about the bookseller's perspective. My post was about CUSTOMERS. I've heard that customers "don't mind" paying extra or that a request for extra charges has "seldom" resulted in a lost sale. But be honest. What would you think if you placed an order from Dell and a day or two later, they sent you an email saying they wouldn't be able to send you the computer unless you agreed to pay an additional amount. Or if Netflix stopped sending movies for the same reason or if your iTunes downloads were delayed until you paid a bandwidth surcharge. Customers don't like that sort of thing and frankly, they don't care much about shipping matrixes and sales tax calculations. They expect online orders to be processed quickly and painlessly, with a minimum of mouse clicks.

I would be perfectly happy as a customer if the ABAA, IOBA, and all the other bookselling groups got together and started working with the book marketplaces to implement sales tax calculations and more sophisticated shipping matrixes. Ebay has done it, so it's not impossible.

**The response to this post is neatly summarized by Anirvan's BookFinder.com blog.

Those who more or less agree with my position include Anirvan and Bookselling Online.

The other side is vigorously represented by Lux Mentis, Book Patrol,

Using Books and looks at the broader issues of shipping. Tech Ramblings suggests that there's a lot of smoke but not much fire. I tend to agree with that position. As I told Ian at Lux Mentis, I didn't expect my post about extra shipping to cause such a fervor. But I think the core issue, well put by Hugh's Blog, is that customers who don't like a service simply never return. They don't complain or cancel their orders. Tech Ramblings is right that book collectors will put up with a lot, but almost everyone wants the book-buying public to increase. The further you move away from the die-hard collectors, the more customer-friendly you have to be.
 

Comments

[Ian]

First off, it *is* an interesting post *g*. I am, in fact, pleased that the folks at Fine Books are thinking so broadly and "big picture" about our industry. I am *very* pleased to be involved with an organization willing to take such a roll and ask the hard questions that most prefer to ignore.

That said, there are intricacies within this issue that are hard to understand unless you are immersed in it. Scott's point that customers don't honestly understand (or care) about these issues is well taken. The crux of the issue is that booksellers (and customers) have a need that ABE is not addressing well (or at all).

First off, it is worth noting that when a customer on ABE (or any other aggregator) puts something in a cart and "checks out", contrary to the impression of what ABE gives the customer, the transaction is *not* "complete". The dealer gets an email and goes to the site and reviews it, determines if the book is in stock (granted, this is an entirely different issue/problem), if there is a cost adjustment required (either up *or* down) or can, at this point, "accept" or "reject" the order. One of the great misnomers for the aggregators is presenting the checkout as something "real". They *want* people to think that checking out there is the same as checking out at Dell or BestBuy or *whispering* Amazon. The fact is, however, that it is much closer to making an offer on a house, where there are subtle contingencies that may or may not be acceptable to the seller, regardless of the listed price. This "flux" could be dealt with if ABE (and others) spent more time/effort in building in such functionality into their website(s)...that is, this vagueness could be avoided.

I suggest that any "unprofessionalism" rests at the feet and responsibility of the site builders/managers. Suggesting that the fault rests with the dealers for not just rolling over and absorbing the "costs" of design failures/oversights on the part of the aggregators is simply not fair. Of course Dell does not do such things, because they control the *entire* supply chain and most importantly, they control the functionality of the website. If and when shipping costs vary from one item to the next, they can allow shipping charges to vary, same with geographic region. They control the business rules that make a significant difference in their business. ABE does NOT allow sellers to make such distinctions.

Again, Scott and Co. make a very important point that from the customers' standpoint, they don't know or care about the intricacies of ABE's and/or the booksellers' back office operations. The fact is that they *feel* like their order is "completed transaction" when they check out when, in fact, it is not. This is a problem for everyone involved because of the confusion and added work for both the customer and the seller. Yes, booksellers could just all agree to absorb the cost of these failures in design *or* they could pass along the added cost of a few to all (and this ignores those with open shops, etc.). Personally, I do not think this is fair to dealers.

This entire discussion avoids, of course, the other *very* interesting discussion that has arisen as a result of ABE's mandatory assumption of credit card processing for certain cards at above market rates. This has resulted in cases of multi-tiered pricing where a number of dealers have raised their prices at ABE, but not at other aggregators (a few quick searches at AddAll or Bookfinder shows this quite clearly). Should the customer be "punished" for not knowing about "lower priced" aggregators...or should the book sellers simply absorb whatever fee increases a given aggregator wishes to dish out.

All these issues come down to that delicate balance between serving a customer well, doing right by the industry and staying in business for the long term. Unfortunately, book sellers are often working on such narrow margins that minor issues can have a major impact on the bottom line...and what works for one dealer might well harm another. We are, obviously, still an industry in transition. It really is import for all of us to continue to talk about these big picture issues. It is probably time for the ABAA and/or IOBA to step up and begin addressing some of these issues. Personally, it is late Sunday evening and I am going to go have a nice cup of tea and a big slice of fresh blueberry pie.

very best,
/ijk
--
Ian J. Kahn
Lux Mentis, Booksellers
Antiquarian & Fine First Editions
211 Marginal Way, #777
Portland, ME, 04101
207-329-1469
http://www.luxmentis.com

[NA]

Maybe the way Abebooks does the shipping isn't the best but booksellers need to be able to charge extra shipping. We never add shipping except when the book is a huge book or a is a set. As a customer I would expect to be charged more shipping if I order a set or a very large book, such as a elephant folio, but I do have to say that most customers do not know that the shipping can be changed\.