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AbeBooks Online Glossary of Book-Related Terms

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Offering Free Shipping

 

The Free Shipping Room is an effective way to bring new buyers to AbeBooks, and to show our customers that AbeBooks booksellers have a competitive selection while offering exceptional deals on shipping. We understand that free shipping may not work for every bookseller’s business, but the feature is optional to anyone who wishes to participate.

At this time, the Free Shipping Room/Search on AbeBooks.com is applicable to standard shipping within the continental USA only. Booksellers may choose to offer free shipping to or within other countries but at this time, these are not featured in the Free Shipping Room.

 

 

There are two ways to be included in the Free Shipping Room:

 

1. In your shipping matrix, simply set your US Standard shipping and extra item rates to 0.00.  (Note: Your entire inventory will be offered with free shipping.)

2. Open a second account to offer free shipping on specific inventory. You will need to set US Standard shipping and extra item rates to 0.00 in the shipping matrix for this account. (Note: Subscription fees are applicable to the second account.)  In this case, books listed in your free shipping account may not be sold through your other account. You may offer one title in both accounts only if you have multiple copies of this item.

If you have multiple copies of your books, you may list them in each account with separate inventory numbers and different descriptions. The combined price for shipping and book price must be at least $1 higher on the non-Free Shipping account.

 

The key to the success of any promotion is good customer service, so we’ve established the following guidelines for our Free Shipping Room:

 

  • Booksellers participating in the Free Shipping Promotion must maintain a completion rate of 90% or higher.
  • If you participate in the Free Shipping program and your completion falls below 90% for a given month, we will send you a warning email.
  • A completion rate below 90% for two consecutive months will result in removal from the program for three months.  (After three months, you may re-apply for the program.)
  • All Bookseller Policies are applicable to Free Shipping accounts.
  • Where a second AbeBooks account is used to offer free shipping, the inventory must be different within the two accounts.  You may offer the same books only if you have multiple copies available.  (i.e. If you have only one copy of a book, you may not offer it through both AbeBooks accounts.)
  • If you have multiple copies of individual titles, you must ensure that books offered in the free shipping account are priced at least US$1.00 lower than those in the non-free shipping account (including shipping).  
  • Requesting extra shipping charges is not permissible unless these are for tax purposes or the buyer has requested insurance or a shipping upgrade.
  • First and second item rates for standard domestic shipping must be 0.
  • Any policy violations will result in a warning from AbeBooks.  Second offenses will result in removal from the promotion, with the option to re-apply in 3 months.

 

Adjusting Your Shipping Matrix

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