Customer Support Tip:
The Importance of Tracking
By Jessica

Tracking information means that both you and the buyer know where your books are, whether it’s when you ship the order or the buyer returns it.

We recommend that all of our booksellers ship their books using a trackable method. Make sure that you also update the order online with the tracking number! A buyer can initiate a return for the reason “Item Did Not Arrive” fifteen days past the estimated delivery date, but if you’ve entered tracking info, we won’t complete the return. Using tracking prevents you from receiving fraudulent claims, and it provides good customer service for the buyer. [Learn how to update tracking on your orders.]

When you accept a return for any other reason, we ask the buyer to use tracking as well. If you don’t receive the book back, just report it from the Members Menu, and we’ll ask the buyer for tracking information. If they can’t provide it, we’ll cancel the return. [Learn how to report a missing shipment.]

LA Times Festival of Books - Order Collateral

Abebooks is exhibiting at the LA Times Festival of Books on April 29-30. If you are a bookseller in LA or Southern California you can order free Abebooks collateral. The bookmarks will list all participating booksellers in the area and our staff will hand them out at the event. If you are exhibiting at the Festival we will also include your booth number. Please e-mail us (toolbox04@abebooks.com) with you store name, full address and festival booth # (if applicable). The bookmarks will be shipped out to you in April.

Share Your Story

Abebooks.com will celebrate its 10th anniversary in May and we will be creating an online gallery of real-life stories from our booksellers. So if you’ve got a story about how bookselling has changed your life, let us know and you could be featured in our celebrations. Just e-mail us at features@abebooks.com. (Don't forget to include your bookstore name and Client ID.)

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Dawn Glasson, from Missouri, has been an Abebooks’ bookseller since 1999 – this is her story.

Becoming an online bookseller didn’t just change Dawn Glasson’s lifestyle for the better, it changed her sleeping habits too. Today, Dawn runs Sleepygirl’s Used Books, a bricks and mortar store that also sells furniture, in Joplin, Missouri. She began online bookselling in 1998 while still a nurse – a nurse suffering from a stressful job and sleep deprivation.

“I found nursing very stressful,” said Dawn. “Money and paperwork had become more important than the patients.

“That’s where my ‘Sleepygirl’ handle comes from – I’d come home and not be able to sleep. I started selling on eBay as a hobby and it was hit and miss, then I ran into someone who sold on Abebooks and that’s when I joined Abebooks. I put the nursing on hold and became a full-time online bookseller in 1999.

“I sold books for about three and a half years out of my home. I learned the business by reading and doing research. When I couldn’t sleep, I would often go online and learn more about the business. I started by offering young adult books like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, and I picked up books at garage sales and auctions. I heard about a local library that was dumping lots of unsold books after a sale and I bought those cheaply and there were many gems.

“In February 2003, we moved the books to a small house and opened my first brick and mortar store, and then, a year later, I moved into a larger store along with my fiancé who wanted to start selling furniture out of the same location. Then in August 2005, the building next door to our store caught fire and we were forced to relocate to another, larger building just seven blocks away because the walls were no longer safe after the blaze. We had a bit of smoke damage to a few books but moving was the best thing we ever did.

“Online bookselling helped me to leave nursing and eventually become a bookstore owner. I love my job, I love going to work in the morning. When I started online bookselling, I was always amazed to receive orders from places like India and Russia. Those orders no longer surprise me but our online business accounts for about half of my book sales so it’s a very important part of what I do.”