Can This Be? A Decrease in Shipping Rates?

Ingram has adjusted how it calculates shipping rates for orders it fulfills from IndieCommerce sites. You may now see a substantial decrease in shipping based on the customer’s “ship to” location and the quantity of books purchased. The new schedule is above.  These rates are the same regardless of the customer’s location within the continental U.S. The per item rate will change based on the quantity of books purchased. If you need assistance adjusting shipping rates on your website, please go to http://bookweb.org/indiecommerce/shipping-rate-overview or contact [email protected].

Give Us 30 Seconds and We Will Ask You Two Quick Questions

We are working on ways to more easily integrate point of sale (POS) software with IndieCommerce and need to know which POS systems IndieCommerce members are using. We also researching whether stores use third party event/ticket management services like Eventbrite, Flowh, Brown Paper Tickets, etc.

Please take the survey before end of day, Friday, June 2.

reCaptcha Is reTurning

As most of you know, computer “bots” are software applications that run automated tasks to millions of websites. For example, Google sends bots to IndieCommerce sites to to gather information to feed their search algorithms.

Some bots are a bit more nefarious and can be destructive, completing customer registration and “contact us” forms with fake information and generating spam emails. Bot spam coming from IndieCommerce servers naturally does not reflect well on the network, and can result in email from our system getting blacklisted by Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL.

To stop bots from sending spam, on June 6th we will begin enabling reCaptcha on all login pages. The reCaptcha test determines if a form is being completed by a bot or a human. If you also have custom forms on your site, please contact us after June 6th so that we can work with you to enable reCaptcha on those pages as well. If you have any questions about this change please contact [email protected].

Come Talk To Us At BookExpo

If you are attending BookExpo 2017 (May 31 to June 2, at the Javits Center in NYC) and have questions about selling books or marketing your business online, please visit ABA's IndieCommerce staff in the ABA Member Lounge (booth 721) during lounge hours. Learn about the premier e-commerce and online marketing solution for independent bookstores, IndieCommerce, and the new IndieLite, designed for stores just starting with e-commerce or with limited time and resources.

Sign up for a One-on-One appointment at BookExpo

Time slots are limited so choose multiple options; we will try to accommodate your first request. You will receive an email confirmation prior to BookExpo with your appointment date and time. (Please email [email protected] if you need to change your appointment.)

See this page for all ABA programming, including hours, at BookExpo 2017.

Not signed up for Book Expo? Register here to receive your complimentary badges as part of your ABA membership. If you don't know your ABA # for your registration, email Nathan Halter.

We look forward to seeing you at Book Expo

Tips and Tricks

When creating your email newsletters, make sure the backlinks to your website point to specific topic related pages, and not just to the home page. As an example, if the newsletter is promoting an author signing, the backlink would lead to the details on the website about that event, and not to the homepage.

Make it easy for customers to find exactly what you want them to know; they don’t want to search for information on your website. Always direct them from a newsletter story to a page that gives them more detailed info about that particular story. The more specific the landing page, the better!

For past editions of IndieCommunication, visit this page.