Dear Booksellers, This was a long week for everyone . . . I hope you’re all taking good care. Shipping and Order Fulfillment Both UPS and FedEx have started reporting that they are running one day behind in some areas of the country. Shipments scheduled for or expected in two days are taking three, and so on. Plan and communicate with your customers accordingly. Stores with large event orders or pre-orders may consider using Transport Specialties International, the warehouse ABA works with, to ship a large number of orders for one title or other bulk orders directly to customers’ homes. TSI receives the books from the publisher; booksellers send TSI the recipient list; and TSI wraps, packs, and ships the books using the most secure and economical service. Mailing projects can be tracked in real time and shipping alerts can go directly to the customer. This is an added expense but it can be helpful for stores experiencing time or space issues due to a high volume of orders. TSI can be reached at (732) 698-0988 or info@tsipost.com. Many stores that have announced to their customers that they are struggling have received an overwhelming response. Stores challenged to keep up with orders may want to consider options like: Using Ingram Consumer Direct Fulfillment (CDF) to fulfill orders through IndieCommerce. This could be a temporary measure or stores could alternate between using CDF and fulfilling their own orders to help alleviate bottlenecks for in-store fulfillment. Another way to buy time while you catch up on orders is by directing customers to a Bookshop affiliate page for your store temporarily. Making purchases non-returnable and/or non-refundable. Customers who are eager to support their local bookstore may grow impatient with delays and later want to cancel their orders, contributing to a store’s workload. Even indies that would normally be very accommodating about returns may want to temporarily consider this option. Another option is to ask for support in the form of patience by adding a statement to your shopping cart. Here’s an example from a store: “Thank you so much for all of your amazing support! We’re receiving a large volume of online orders and our small, social-distanced crew is overwhelmed (but in a good way!). As a result, we are experiencing order processing delays and your online order may take up to X weeks to fulfill, depending upon the item being in stock. We will communicate to you as things progress and appreciate your patience and encourage you to visit us in store if you are local and able.”
IndieCommerce Help With Processing Online Credit Card Orders
If you are processing credit card orders with your own credit card merchant account for the first time, the IndieCommerce team has put together this instruction page. This tutorial will help if your store: If you need additional assistance after reviewing the tutorial, email staff@bookweb.org. Review Your Website Shopping Cart
Now is a good time to look at your shopping cart from a customer point of view; place an order on your site to test your checkout!
Deadlines Upcoming Events Coffee Break: Tuesday, November 10, at 3:00 p.m. ET
Join us for an opportunity to share support, ask questions, and trade best practices. All booksellers are welcome. If you’ve never attended this event before, it’s a great way to hear what’s working well at other stores and crowdsource solutions to any challenges you’re facing at your store. Email info@bookweb.org for Zoom login details.
Technology Meetup: Thursday, November 12, at 1:00 p.m. ET: Open Conversation
This session will not have any specific guest speakers. Instead, booksellers are invited to talk about technologies that improved their business operations or made work life easier this year, what technology they might be looking into for next year, Technology Meetup topics that stores benefited from over the past year, and what booksellers might like to see covered during meetups in 2021. Advance registration is required.
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