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 or to the continental USA, regardless of the seller's location. Booksellers may choose to offer free shipping to or within Canada to be included in the AbeBooks.ca Free Shipping Room, or to or within Australia and/or New Zealand to be included in the Australia and New Zealand Free Shipping Room. Booksellers can also choose to offer Free Worldwide Shipping, making their books searchable through all Free Shipping Rooms.  

 

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

 

1. In your shipping matrix, simply set your Standard shipping and extra item rates for the countries listed above, or for all countries if offering Free Worldwide, 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  your Standard shipping and extra item rates to 0.00 in the shipping matrix, as outlined above, 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.

For booksellers who are keeping only 1 account and converting it to Free Shipping, the policy is that: 

  • Booksellers can adjust their book prices (as they see fit) to participate in Free Shipping, but their new prices must represent a discounted price over their previous total of book price + shipping rate.

 

The key to the success of any promotion is good customer service, so we’ve established the following policies 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 charges is not permissible unless these are for tax purposes or the buyer has requested that the item be shipped with tracking or insurance.
  • First and second item rates for standard domestic shipping must be 0.
  • Any policy violations will result in a warning from AbeBooks. Repeat 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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