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Conversations With Amazon04/12/05 07:58 AM |
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04/16/05 4:21 PM Thanks for contacting us. Please know, I am going to give you a few peices of information you may be interested in. I have included some information which may better suit your needs as a vendor. First, I am including information regarding uploads and the required fields. We recommend that you use Microsoft Excel and our pre-built Excel template to list your zShop and Marketplace items. Our Inventory Loader tool is optimized to work with Microsoft Excel, but it can be made to work with other database programs designed to export documents in a tab-delimited file format. If you would like to use a program other than Excel, you'll need to build your own listing template using the following data fields for zShops only templates or Marketplace and zShops templates. Required fields (for a zShops only template): item-name Optional fields (for a zShops only template): add-delete Required fields (for a Marketplace/zShops template): item-is-marketplace Optional fields (for a Marketplace/zShops template): image-url Please note that we're offering email and telephone support only for Microsoft Excel. You can find more details regarding Inventory Loader templates online at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1161312/ |
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Secondly, I do believe that we may have another platform better suited for you. We would be interested to hear more details about your business and products, so we can determine whether it would fit in with our marketing plans. If you are interested in adding products to the offerings on our web site, please write to us directly at: merchant-interestAtamazon.com Be sure to include the following information in your e-mail: - Company name - Brief description of your company - Web site address for your company - Other web sites you are currently selling with - Contact person - Contact e-mail address - Contact phone number - In which Amazon.com store tab would you like to sell your products? - How many different products would you like to sell on Amazon.com? - Also, include a brief description of the products. … If you have your own web site, you may be interested in the Amazon.com Associates Program. Specially formatted links allow you to connect your web site directly to Amazon.com. Best of all, our Associates are paid a percentage of the selling price of qualifying items that are sold through these links. You'll find a complete program description, including information on how to sign up, at this URL: http://www.amazon.com/associates I do hope you find this information useful. Thanks for selling with Amazon.com. Please visit the following link to provide the information we requested: http://www.amazon.com/rsvp-mi?c=hhwwddre3353936519&q=h3p2 Best regards, Brooke B. http://www.amazon.com/used ============================== 04/17/05 01:08 AM Your department appears to be http://www.amazon.com/used. Our products are new; not used. I am still concerned about what to use for product-id for alternate tape colors and the crepe finish. Also sku. - Company name: Grafstick, Inc. - Etc… - In which Amazon.com store tab would you like to sell your products: Office Products - How many different products would you like to sell on Amazon.com: If you distinguish between colors and sizes, then aprx 94. Later much more. - Also, include a brief description of the products: Chart tapes: glossy, matte and crepe: 1/64", 1/32", 1/16", 1/8", 1/4" Singles: black, white, red, blue, yellow: all sizes 5-pack: 1 each color: 1/8", 1/4" Later: Gold & silver metallic; Printed news borders; Holographs; Fluorescents and other products. 04/22/05 12:23 PM Thanks for choosing to sell your products on Amazon.com! This message contains instructions on how to create your Amazon.com seller account. First, please have the following information handy: . Your business name as you would like it displayed on Amazon.com . Your business credit card number and expiration date . The address where you receive the credit card statement . Your business's physical address . Your business's U.S. bank account information (to enable us to deposit your sales proceeds directly into your account) Next, click the link below and follow the instructions to create your account. The entire process takes just a few minutes--but please create your account promptly, since this link will expire. http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/sr.html?tokenID=A3V8CCR06GXB0 … John Irvine Business DevelopmentAtAmazon Services 04/22/05 3:00 PM Congratulations from Amazon Services! Grafstick Tape & Label, you've successfully created an Amazon Marketplace account, and now you're ready to start selling at Amazon.com. >From now on, you can access your new account using Seller Central, our site-management system, at the following URL: http://sellercentral.amazon.com If you haven't already, please go to Seller Central to finish setting up your account and start listing items for sale. As a seller, you can use Seller Central to: o set your own shipping rates o provide gift messaging and gift-wrap services o use bulk upload and download tools o access sample scripts for automating data transfer o add additional users to an account o view metrics to help you manage your business … Sincerely, The Amazon Marketplace staff 04/21/05 2:49 PM Please contact me to discuss listing your products. Thanks, John Irvine Business DevelopmentAtAmazon Services Phone | 206.266.1985 BR> 04/21/05 3:26 PM Did you mean by email or by phone? Have you read my emails thus far? I also left a question in the Help for New Sellers Discussion Board: "Where do I go from here". Thanks for contacting me, Van Blakeman 04/21/05 3:55 PM We should talk on the phone because what I think you are trying to do could be better suited for our more robust selling platform, Merchants@. Thanks, John Irvine Business DevelopmentAtAmazon Services 04/23/05 9:30 AM Hi John, It was good speaking with you on the phone. This new Merchants platform sounds more like something that should work for me since the general Marketplace platform does not seem to handle alternate colors and other items not already in their database. It did appear as though the zShop platform might work but I gather from comments in the Discussion Forum that potential customers are less likely to find their way to the zShops unless they already know their way around. Thanks for forwarding the new material to me. I have completed the re-enrollment using merchantamazonAtblakeman.net and a new password as you suggested. The confirmation email did say that I should visit the Seller Central Help Center for assistance but I believe you told me to contact you directly. If that is incorrect, let me know. If that is correct, then I do have some questions for you: I have downloaded the Office Products Inventory File Template and the ICG. (The former did not come easy and took some unusual tricks to download. If you want to know more, let me know.) I was thinking of the tapes as an office supply product, but I can see where Arts & Crafts might be more appropriate (especially since our own web site says as much - duh). Though the product is generally referred to as Chart Tape (as in the Amazon Marketplace) or Border Tape, the closest match I can find is arts-and-crafts-tapes - drafting-tapes. I'm wondering if the model airplane hobbyist and the newspaper layout technician would think of looking there. A search on Amazon for drafting-tape turns up all the wrong results until at the very bottom you get a Decorative Tape. On the other hand, a search for Chart Tape does turn up the correct results. Can you arrange for Amazon to add Chart Tape to the Office Products ICG list? If so, when would that happen? Van 04/25/05 1:00 PM Go ahead and list in Office products. Arts & Crafts is not really a store...just a catalog thing. Pick the closest match in the ICG. Also, keep in mind that most people find products through search instead of browse anyway, so being the exact match is not critical. To that point, you can send an e-mail to tam at tamAtamazon.com and request the additional browse node, though it will likely not happen soon. Thanks, John Business Development At Amazon Services 04/25/05 3:52 PM It seems that the best I can find in Office products is: office-supplies / fastening-supplies / office-adhesives-and-accessories / clear-tapes Are you saying that I should just go with that? Van 04/25/05 3:55 PM Yes. Remember too, the search will look at product title, manufacturer, and the key words you designate. So, make the title as descriptive as possible, because each word is a search word, then choose different ones for the search words you designate. John 04/26/05 9:12 AM In parent/child relationships, everything I read online indicates that color and size hybrid relationships are not available in Office Products. You indicated otherwise, so I assume the web site info is not up to date. In the Office Inventory File, which columns define the parent/child relationships? What terminology do I use? The relationship-type column says "Select one of the following options: Accessory". That doesn't work. Where is variation or hybrid or whatever? Van 04/26/05 9:17 AM Hhhhmmm...I might have made a mistake. I hardly ever work with the Office Products category so I was pretty much assuming the template allowed parent/child. Maybe it does not. One more e-mail alias for you: merchants-questions-proAtamazon.com handles all issues specifically related to the inventory file. Please ask them this question about parent/child. I apologize for all this confusion for you. I know you are trying your best and we keep making it more difficult. John Business DevelopmentAtAmazon Services 04/26/05 11:27 AM Van, You are correct that the Office Supplies category does not support variation (parent-child) relationships. The reason for this is that either the UPC or Manufacturer's part number is required for each product. This requirement is in place to prevent duplicate listings on Amazon.com. Uploading a UPC will simply match to an existing product (should it exist) as opposed to creating a new listing. Creating variation relationships requires the creation of a non-saleable Parent SKU. By definition, this item is an imaginary product created simply to tie the actual product variations together and thus would never have a UPC code or Manufacturer's Part Number. Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 04/26/05 9:44 PM So exactly how do I list the different colored tapes and the different sizes such that the customer can select what they want? 04/27/05 You will need to list each of your items as an individual entry. You might use the Bullet Points or Product Description to point out that the item is available in multiple colors and sizes. In addition, you can create Accessory Relationships for your products. Accessory Relationships will create a link to similar items. Complete instructions for creating them are located here: Help > Learn More About... > Creating Product Relationships > Creating Accessory Relationships Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 04/26/05 9:41 AM [To the Amazon Technical Account Management Team] I have a merchant account and my email address is merchantamazonAtblakeman.net. My contact is John Irvine. I do hope that he is well paid and will never be promoted because I do need his invaluable assistance. I am developing an initial Office Products Template for my client Grafstick Tape & Label. Their primary products are variations of Chart Tapes, but also other (designer?) tapes, custom labels and tags. You can see what I'm referring to at http://www.grafstick.com An Amazon search under "Office Products" for "Chart Tape" brings up the correct results. However, there is no way to browse for these products. Likewise, there are no appropriate selections in the Office ICG list - none that are even close. I am hoping that you will be able to add some sort of Product Design category to the ICQ and Browse feature. Thank you, Van Blakeman 04/26/05 3:05 PM Thank you for contacting the Amazon Technical Account Management Team. We have received your email correspondence and are working to address the issue you have presented. We have opened a tracking ticket so a team member may follow up with you as soon as possible. The ticket number has been included below to be used as your reference in all future communication with our team. As soon as we have additional information we will provide an update. Please address all correspondence to tamAtamazon.com referencing ticket 0001455494 Kind Regards, Josh Page Technical Account Management, Amazon.com 04/27/05 Greetings Van, The ICG for Office provides many different kinds of tape, as well as a wide range of other drafting and organizational supplies. We recommend that you choose the term that most closely fits the product, and be sure to include good search terms and images to make your products easier to find. Looking through the ICG, you may want to use the term non-decorative-stickers. I have passed on your suggestion for a new ICG term to the team responsible for adding new ICG terms. They will review the submission and may include it in future releases of the ICG. Until then, please use the term that you feel is most appropriate. Thank You, Brett Huntsman Technical Account Management, Amazon.com 04/28/05 I am not sure now who I am supposed to be talking to. John, you definitely should have been up to speed on the Office Products category. Regarding the info supplied by Eric Webb, it does not make sense; my potential customers absolutely should be able to select their options from simple intuitive drop-down menus. Their having to wade through a long list of color and size alternatives is counter-productive for me and for Amazon. Amazon should remedy that situation fast. Anyhow, the directions say that I should submit my images to you for your analysis. Examples can be found at http://www.grafstick.com/images/ Van 04/28/05 9:58 AM Van, Please consider merchants-questions-proAtamazon.com your contact for text file integration support. John will be able to answer any business related questions that may arise, but questions stemming from integration issues should be directed to us. Amazon is currently developing the software needed to allow both variations and matching in a storefront. However, given the size of this project, there is presently no frame for its release. In the meantime, you will need to upload the products individually and use the Product Detail and Accessory Relationships to alert customers to the variation options. We understand that this is less than ideal, but it is currently the only option for listing in the Office Supplies storefront. The image links you provided are sufficient. For complete image guidelines, please visit: Help > Manage My Inventory > Prepare Product Images Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 04/28/05 1:11 PM Re "developing the software needed to allow both variations and matching in a storefront.", please work nights and weekends. My client has discovered that the "council wants a lot of money to set up with upc #. Can we do it without them?" Do we have to use UPC numbers to identify the products, or can I simply create my own SKUs? 04/28/05 1:50 PM Van, If you do not have UPC codes for the products, you can list the Manufacturer's Part Number instead. The Office Supplies template requires either the UPC information or the Manufacturer's Part Number, but not both. If you are the manufacturer of the product and do not have a Part Number, you can create and assign them to your products simply for uploading purposes. The SKUs for your products are completely dependant on your business's method of monitoring inventory. These SKUs will be listed in our system, but all meaning to them is assigned by your company. Amazon assigns an ASIN to each newly created product so the SKU you provide can be anything you want. Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 04/29/05 3:13 PM (Note to myself re email times: 3:13 PM EST = 19:13 UTC - Time zones are expressed as positive or negative offsets from the UTC) Hi Eric, I have uploaded a few samples and you can look at them at http://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ezdpc-gui/inventory-status/status.html/1 03-3388527-9293452 though dated a year from now. Is there any way I can see what the end product would look like - the screen that potential customers would see? 04/29/05 4:12 PM Trying to catch you before you are gone for the weekend. I've uploaded everything and it all looks good in the Inventory list. I want to go ahead and change the launch date to now, but the directions say I should talk to you about that first. 05/02/05 9:13 AM Van, You can update the launch date at any point. You are ready to go live. Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 05/02/05 9:06 AM Van, You can view your products at the Amazon.com Staging Site. This site is not viewable by the general public and is used for viewing purposes only. Log into the staging site at mt.amazon.com using "merchant" for your username and "C0*****" for your password. Be sure to use the word merchant as your user name (not your business name) and notice that the password contains the number zero (as opposed to the uppercase letter "O"). Also, be sure there are no spaces before or after the user name or password. Once you are on the staging site, you will be able to search using any of the ASINs assigned to your products. It looks like your products could use more detailed bullet points and descriptions. More information on these fields is located here: Seller Central > Help > Learn More About... > Increasing Sales > Using Product Details Best regards, Eric Webb Merchant Integration, Amazon.com 05/06/05 Thank you for selling your products on Amazon.com. We continuously strive to make the selling process as easy and flexible as possible. Please help us improve our technical and customer service performance by completing our Merchant Satisfaction Survey. The entire survey can be finished in about five to ten minutes, depending on how much feedback you leave. The survey is fully anonymous. We will not collect any personal information. Please access the Merchant Satisfaction Survey here: http://merchants-feedback.amazon.com/survey0505.html Thank you. Amazon Services |
Note: To avoid dectection by automated spam harvesters, I have replaced the @ in each email address with At. |
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