Here's the latest news from the IndieCommunication e-newsletter from the IndieCommerce team:

Selling Sidelines on IndieCommerce websites

Fall is the perfect time to get non-book merchandise onto your website in preparation for the holiday shopping season. Here are two options to consider.

• Ingram’s “T” category is currently available to IndieCommerce stores and includes 26,000 calendars, book-like bound items (such as blank books), and maps.
• The Ingram “M” category will be available this week and will include 25,000 gifts and games.
• You can enable one or both of these categories on your IndieCommerce website by going to: Store > Configuration > Account Information and Preferences > Configure Book Settings.
• For stores on the IndieLite platform we hope to have both “M” and “T” merchandise categories available for sale within the next two weeks.

Kobo Revenue Share for January to April 2020 Processed

View your Kobo sales for this period [7].

Join the IndieCommerce Team for a Virtual Education Session at the Fall Regional Shows

The American Booksellers Association is inviting booksellers to sign up to join an education session with IndieCommerce team members during the fall regional trade shows [8] to learn about new features on the IndieCommerce and IndieLite e-commerce platforms [9].

With the dramatic increase in online sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, bookstores have turned to the IndieCommerce team for assistance processing huge volumes of online orders. To help stores manage their online sales, the team developed several new features and upgrades. In preparation for the upcoming holiday shopping season, the IndieCommerce team will provide an overview of the new features, including Bulk Order Processing, Credit Card Processing, Custom Reports, POS integration, Sidelines, Wish Lists/Gift Registry, and more.

The education session will be held as follows:

Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance and New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association:

• Monday, September 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET
• Sign up with ABA [10].

New England Independent Booksellers Association

• Thursday, September 24, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
• Sign up through the regional association.

California Independent Booksellers Alliance

• Monday, October 5, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PT
•  Sign up with ABA [10].

Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association

• Saturday, October 10, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. MT
• Sign up through the regional association.

Please note that NO sessions will be held during the Heartland or Pacific Northwest bookseller association meetings.

Credit Card Merchant Account for IndieCommerce Stores

If your bookstore is currently on IndieCommerce (not IndieLite) and you use the ABA’s shared account for processing online credit card orders, the shared account is going to be shut down in the near future. In its place, we would like to help you set up your own credit card merchant account for your website as soon as possible.

ABA CFO PK Sindwani has negotiated discounted credit card processing rates for ABA members with Gravitypayments.com [11]. The rate for Visa/MC/Amex/Disc is 2.4 percent plus a transfer fee of $0.23. There is no monthly Authorize.net payment gateway fee with this offer from Gravity. The chargeback fee is $25 if it is not settled in your favor. For more information on this offer, see this online form. [12]