Space… and storing your books to sell on Amazon

By Sharon Fussell, July 13, 2011

The subject of storing your books to sell on Amazon might sound boring, but it’s actually a very important one. If you allow lack of space to interfere with your listing activity it’s easy to become de-motivated and let your inventory can go stale.

It is always imperative that you list on a consistent basis. Or if you are happy with the income that your current inventory brings in and you do not have more space, ensure that you maintain your listings by ‘culling’ stock that has low value and not sold within a certain time frame (your choice) and replace with new listings.

Storing books for when you’re ready to sell them on Amazon

In my case, with a little persistence I managed to find a unit that is perfect for our venture with 3 large rooms that should enable us to triple our listings if we wish. There’s even a small room suitable for an office and dispatching area. It is not quite as near to us as we hoped but is the right size and only a few pounds per week more than our current unit.

The extra cost will be more than offset by the lower petrol costs through less travelling and of course the extra time gain. Time, as they say, is money and it can be used to list more books, resulting in more sales and more sales increase feedback ratings.

Higher feedback ratings leads to more sales and a higher raking when selling 1p books – leading to more sales and so it goes on…

Our aim is to see how many orders the two of us can cope with easily on any given day (with weekends off) bringing in the kind of income we desire without having to employ helpers.

Our main stumbling block so far has been with BT, trying to move our telephone line. As a company they appear so incompetent. They promised that I would have a response from the ‘moving team’ within 4 hours of application. 24 hours later I telephoned to enquire about what was happening and spoke to a different person in the call centre. She was dismayed at the less than professional way I had been assisted regarding my requirements, took lots more information, tried to sell me lost of new initiatives and seemed to be right on the ball. She said we would be up and running within 5 working days. Two working days later still no joy from the ‘moving team regarding confirmation of my order. So I set to ring them once again, once I managed to get through to the right department after being redirected to the wrong department twice, they gave me a date for the 6th October. Now I know my mathematical ability is quite poor, but the 18th of September to the 6th October does not amount to 5 working days!

I’m now waiting for the manger of the moving team to contact me after a helpful call centre assistant did get back to me within an hour of promising to do so, stating she had informed the key member of staff of my issues and that the manager would ring back by the end of the afternoon. (Needless to say by 5.30 last night she had not contacted me.) Ho hum it looks as though I will have to spend another two hours sorting it out again today.

Oh joy.

I have to say I’m not really looking forward to moving our entire inventory and all other paraphernalia associated with our business. It will involve lots of physical work, (most of which Clive will do). Shelf fixing, van hiring/driving, lugging boxes of books, dismantling office equipment and then setting it all up again. Still we are sure it will be worth it and are looking forward to a warmer unit this winter and please god, a profitable one!

Watch the postage rates

Steve sent me this tip to share with you:

“Hi Sharon,

Regarding watching postage rates when listing – I always keep a browser tab open with the Royal Mail price finder when listing which, in conjunction with my kitchen scales, allows me to check the exact (and current) postage costs for both UK and worldwide.

The Royal Mail price finder can be found here:

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinder

Regards, Steve”.

Thanks Steve. Don’t forget – if you have a tip you would like to share write to me via the BPC ezine.

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