I am very happy today to announce the general availability of FeedbackGenius.com. This tool allows Amazon sellers to automate messages to their buyers based on a number of criteria including SKU, ASIN, Item Condition, and Fulfillment Channel. Sellers can create custom messages to buyers using any combination of those attributes, or you can just use a generic message that is sent to everybody. Messages are composed using a free-form email editor where you can write your message with any structure that you’d like. The email editor allows you to use over 25 variables in your messages as well so that you can include things like the product name, shipping carrier, tracking number, and links to various pages on Amazon that are specific to the buyer’s order.

In addition to the flexible order selection criteria and email editor, the service allows greater customization of when the message is sent than any other tool available. You can choose to send the message immediately or up to 12 weeks after the order was placed, shipped, or delivered. We use actual tracking information from the various carriers in order to ensure that messages are sent to the buyer on the same day the order is delivered. This means that you can politely ask your buyers to leave you seller feedback in a message where you provide useful information to them as well.

I’ve been using this tool internally for months now and have seen our own feedback rates increase from around 6% of all orders to the 10-12% range, effectively doubling the amount of positive feedback we receive. That means that any negative feedback left only has half the negative impact on your overall seller score.

The site helps you to proactively manage those occasional negative feedbacks as well. You can choose to receive SMS and detailed email notifications within minutes of a buyer leaving negative or neutral feedback on Amazon. This allows you to respond to the buyer’s problem right away, leaving them with a better experience and being more willing to remove that negative feedback.

We are happy with this new feedback management service and are excited to make it available now to any Amazon.com seller. It’s free to try out for an entire month, and it’s free for small sellers who send fewer than 50 messages per month. Pricing plans are reasonable and based on usage so you don’t end up paying a high monthly rate.

As always, please Contact Us over at SellerLabs.com if you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback. Your responses help us to continue to develop the highest quality tools for e-Commerce sellers.

Visit http://www.feedbackgenius.com/ for more specific information, a short product tour, and to sign up for your free trial.

We’ve just done some minor upgrades on the BookScouter Mobile Site. In addition to a few behind-the-scenes changes, we’ve made a couple upgrades that you’ll notice:

• The screen should “fit” better on mobile devices now
• Bigger buttons and input fields for easier clicking
• The ability to use Pic2Shop to scan a barcode from the website

In order to use the Pic2Shop functionality, you’ll need to install the free Pic2Shop application.

We are happy to announce the initial launch of DineroBooks.com.
This new website harnesses the power and data from BookScouter.com and makes that available for individuals or small businesses who want to purchase books from college students on or near campus. As an owner, you can configure how much you’d like to pay for books using a simple formula. Set up access for multiple users to allow them to see only the data that they should be able to see, and track the activity of each user.

This basic functionality is currently available, and there is no charge to sign up and try it out. Our hope is that we’ll get feedback over the next several months and implement new features as requested over that time to have a more robust product available by the next textbook buyback season.

I’ve been approached by a reporter who is looking for somebody who uses BookScouter.com to earn extra income. Preferably a stay-at-home parent or someone who is unemployed. If you are interested in speaking with this reporter, please send us a message.

The past couple of weeks have started the winter buyback season for textbooks.

There are three main spikes in the year for buying back textbooks. First, the entire month of May as the Spring semester ends for most students. It actually starts the last week of April and goes through the first week of June.

The next, smaller peak occurs as the summer semester ends and fall begins. It lasts from about the last week of July, the entire month of August, and the first couple weeks of September.

Finally, the last peak of the largest, and longest peak of the year occurs as fall semester ends. It starts the day after Thanksgiving, and hits the largest peak the second week of December when many schools have their finals. It takes a big dip the week of Christmas, picks back up after New Years, and stays strong throughout most the month of January.

These peaks match up pretty nicely to the excellent article on Extrabux regarding the best time to buy and sell your textbooks.

We’ve just added the ability to log in to BookScouter with your Facebook, Twitter, and Google accounts. This makes it much easier to register and log into the site with just a couple of clicks. If you are logged in via a social network, you can also easily share the site with your friends or followers to let them know how to get the best prices for their used books.

As with anything on the site, we welcome feedback regarding these new features. Feel free to post comments here or email us using the Contact Us form.