New Abe Shipping Fees Anger Booksellers
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/30/2008 10:33:00 AM
The decision by AbeBooks to place an 8% charge on seller shipping expenses has caused outrage among many of the online retailer’s booksellers, who called the move shortsighted and one that discriminates against international booksellers. Hannes Blum, Abe CEO, said that in order to cover rising costs and compete in a marketplace that includes Amazon and Alibris, Abe needed to find a way to boost revenue. The benefit of instituting a charge on shipping fees is that it has the dual affect of raising revenue while discouraging gouging on shipping costs by booksellers who sell books for (literally) pennies and make their profit on shipping charges.
Neil Williams, who uses Abe to sell books online from his home in Victoria, Canada, the headquarters of Abe, estimated that it’s less than 1% of booksellers who lure customers in with low prices only to hit them with higher shipping fees. “Why fine the entire Abe body for what a small number of people are doing,” Williams asked. He said the charge will give Abe an automatic price increase every time postal rates go up. Blum acknowledged that the vast majority of Abe sellers don’t overprice for shipping, but said that those that do create a negative buying experience for the entire Abe community.
Williams said the costs of the new charge will be borne the most by international booksellers who sell into the U.S. and incur higher rates than American booksellers who can use lower-priced shipping options. Blum didn’t dispute that that could be the case. He said Abe reviewed the charge after receiving a letter of complaint from the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA), but said the decision was made to stick to the charge. “We needed to make an adjustment and it was either raise the commission fee or add to the shipping component and we chose shipping because of the buying experience,” Blum said.
Chris Volk, who operates Bookfever.com and is a spokesperson for IOBA, said the move by Abe is particularly disappointing because up until now the company had been the best of the big three online retailers for independent booksellers to use. She praised the access Abe provides consumers to booksellers and the way it allows all books sold from its international sites to appear on the main Abe page. Blum said the cost of building an international business was expensive and the new charge would help cover the cost of expansion. Although she said it was against her own interest, Volk said it would be fairer if Abe devised a system that “spread the pain” across all booksellers rather than having it fall on the international booksellers, some of whom are IOBA members.
Williams said he has already raised his shipping charges, and that the net result of Abe’s actions will be that customers will be paying higher prices for books sold through Abe at a time when consumers are looking to cut costs.
