Welcome to part 4 of our 4 part series about Selling on Amazon. We want to give you additional information that is key to selling successfully on Amazon looking at customer orders and customer service.

Customer orders

Things to know

• When you set up your seller account, you will find information about shipping expectations that you should integrate into your order and fulfillment processes. You are also required to confirm to Amazon after shipping your orders. This enables us to inform customers about their order progress and charge their payment method for the purchase.
• You must confirm to Amazon that you have shipped the product to be able to receive payment. This confirmation will also trigger Amazon's shipment confirmation email to the customer and will set the expectation for the estimated delivery date.
• You are required to ship media products (books, music, DVD, and video) within 2 business days. Non-media products must be shipped by the shipping availability date you specify.
• Ship product(s) only described by the Product Detail Page. Inclusion of any additional product or items in shipment to buyer that is not described in the Product Detail Page is prohibited and may lead to deactivation of your Seller account.

Things to do

• Review your default shipping settings and customize them to fit your fulfillment model.
• Check your seller account daily for new orders.
• Schedule order reports to track orders and order information.
• Things to avoid
• Including any marketing or promotional materials within the packing materials.
• Relying only on email notification — emails can get lost or be deleted.

Customer service

Things to know

• Amazon's refund policies allow for the return of new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. You are required to accept those returns and provide a refund, in accordance with Amazon Returns Policy.
• Amazon will provide all the order and shipping emails to customers; you must not send order or shipment confirmation emails. This is to avoid conflicting messaging or confusion for the customer. Remember that selling on Amazon requires less communication by you to customers, since much of the process communication is handled by Amazon.
• You must not market or advertise to Amazon customers, nor divert them in any way from the Amazon sales process. Follow this even during permitted communications, such as when responding to buyer inquiries about your products or their orders.

Things to do

• Fulfill all orders within the promised lead time and shipping windows and ship exactly what you listed for sale.
• Clearly explain your shipping, return and refund policies and processes, along with other pertinent information.
• Do not send communications to customers other than as necessary for order fulfillment and related customer service.
• Respond promptly to buyer questions about the status of their order.
• Note that customers have come to expect the same level of customer service from sellers that they receive from Amazon. If you don't meet that standard, you might have to deal with some unsatisfied customers.
• Be courteous and patient with customers when they request information, returns, or refunds.

Things to avoid

• Bribing customers for positive feedback.
• Using customer communications for marketing purposes, or directing buyers to your own website or a third-party website in your emails.

We would love to hear feedback in regards to managing customer orders customer service. Please post comments below.

In case you missed it, please checkout part 3 of our 4 part series HERE.