Abstract

This document shows how to use SellerForce software to perform common management tasks.

1.0 Run SellerForce

2.0 Start Page

3.0 Inventory Management
4.0 Orders Management
5.0 Customers Management
6.0 Messages Management
7.0 Templates
8.0 Options

1.0 Run SellerForce

Once you have installed the SellerForce software open the SellerForce Server first, there are no more operations required for the server. The SellerForce Server appears as an icon on your system tray waiting for SellerForce Desktops to establish connections.

Open the SellerForce Desktop to get the logon dialog. If the server and the desktop are installed on the same computer leave the Host blank, or enter the computer name of the system where the server software is installed. By default, master is the only account and the password is blank. Click "Connect" button to connect to the server, you will be presented with the SellerForce Desktop - your workspace.

2.0 Start Page

You can see a "Start Page" is displaying, and a little "Summary" panel where you can get a summary of your data.
Now, look at the top toolbar.

"Inventory", "Orders" and "Customers" are the three main buttons, click on one of these and a new management window will open for each one.
The "Orders (7)" indicates that you have 8 unprocessed orders.

3.0 Inventory Management

Click to open the "Inventory" window; there is some test data that will give you an idea of what SellerForce looks like. After looking around a bit you can delete the test data and import your own amazon.com open listings report. 

Download and import your amazon.com open listings report

Open "Options" dialog, look at the "Server" option, enter your amazon.com logon information, after that Click "Tools/Download and import my amazon open listings report"

Wait a moment, your amazon.com online data will be imported into SellerForce.
In your Amazon open listings report, there is only basal information like isbn, title, price, condition, etc. but you should know more details about the items you are selling, click "Start Lookup" button to get those details.

The returned lookup result includes much detail about your inventory items, including publisher/manufacturer, release date, author/director, media, language, pages number, edition, features, Amazon sales rank, list price and more, even the product weight, size dimension.

In addition to those details, SellerForce provides some assistant fields that let you manage your inventory more easily. Click "Edit" button to open item editor, look at the "Assistant" group.

• Item Type
  Item Type is an important field for UPC items, but if you list items by ISBN or ASIN, you can ignore the field.
• Location
  Manage your item location with this field, but you can use it for any purpose you wish to.
• Local Category
  It is a field that you can manage your items like folders, See FAQ
• Status
  Use this field to define your listing status, click "..." to define your own listing status.
• Notes
  Make notes for your items
• User Field 1-3

Price Check

SellerForce has a sophisticated repricing engine with many price check options. You can adjust various options to apply the engine to your repricing strategy.

Open "Options" dialog, look at "price check & lookup"

• My Amazon Nickname
  Enter your amazon.com nickname so that SellerForce will know your offer listings when doing price checks.
• Offers volume
  It specifys how many offers will be returned for each condition category "New", "Used", etc
• Check "New", "Used", "Collectible", "Refurbished" Offers
  If you are not interested in some conditions, you can turn off the search for those conditions. This will speed up price check.
• Search Amazon Site For Buyers Waiting
  If you want to get the "buyers waiting" information that is displayed on amazon.com turn on this option, but you will lose some performance because searching amazon.com is slow.
• Edit Excluded Sellers
  If you want to ignore some sellers, enter their amazon nickname  
• Price Check Scheme
  Price check scheme is the options that specifys how to compare your price to others, you can create many price check schemes and specify a scheme for individual items.

Click "Edit" to open the "Default" price check scheme.

• Ignore
  • Ignore sellers in excluded list
  • Ignore my list
  • Ignore sellers whose price is less than xxx
  • Ignore sellers whose price is less than xxx of my price
  • Ignore sellers whose price is more than xxx of my price
• Compare prices in
  • All condition categories
  • Only my condition category
  • Same or better condition
• Price range
  • Consider all prices
  • Consider only top x prices
• Price boundary
  • Low boundary
  • High boundary
  • Selling used item
  • Minimal price
  • Minimal and maximal price priority
• Allow SellerForce to change my price if need

After you set up your price check scheme, back to the inventory window, click "Start Price Check".

Look into the price check result

Click to enlarge

The price check result represents much of the information about the items you are selling.
Ignored offers are displayed with gray color, your price is displayed with blue color.

Columns related with price check

• PC
  The price check result flag
  

  	Checking
  	Waiting for checking
  	Your price is within a acceptable range, no need to adjust
  	Error, often it is your internet connection problem
  	The item is not found on Amazon.com
  	Your price is more than the maximal acceptable price
  	Your price is less than the minimal acceptable price
  	Nobody listed this item except you

• PC Changed
  Indicates if the offers listing has changed since the last price check
• Ignored Offers
  The number of offers that were ignored
• Condition Offers
  The number of offers in your item condition category
• Total Offers
  The total number of offers in all item condition categories
• List Pos
  The position of your price in your item condition category

Note: When you click the "Start Price Check" button, SellerForce runs price check for those unchecked items. If you want to run price check again for some items, select all those items, then right click to display the popup menu, then click "Run Price Check On Selected Items". If you wnat to run price check again for all items, click the little down arrow on the right of "Start Price Check" button, then click "Restart All".

Upload to amazon.com

Click "Tools/Export And Upload To Amazon"

Select an upload method, then click "OK" to upload

4.0 Orders Management

Open "Options" dialog, look at "Order & Shipping".

Notice the option "Update inventory quantity when enter new order item". If this is the first time that you have downloaded and imported your order report, consider turning this option off because your inventory quantities are already up to date. After that you can turn on the option again, so your inventory will get synchronous updates. If you turn this option on and later cancel some orders, remember to modify your item quantities.

Click to open the orders window, click the "Check Order Now", then SellerForce will download your amazon order report and import it.
You can always to enter orders by manually.

Print postage with integrated DAZzle interface

Select unprocessed orders, click "Print Postage with DAZzle".
*Please note, to fully utilize the integrated features of SellerForce and DAZzle you will need to subscribe to Endicia's Premium Service.*

Most of the data is filled out automatically, click "Addresses Verification" to launch DAZzle to verify shipping addresses and correct possible errors.
Print test labels to confirm all are right, then click "Print real Postage".
After you have successfully printed postage, click "Update Shipment History and Close", SellerForce will add a shipment history record to each printed order.
If you setup automatic tasks in the "Options" dialog, they will be executed. (print customized labels, send customized email messages, change order status)

5.0 Customers Management

Click to open the customers window.

Whenever you download new orders or manually add an order, a new customer entry will be created. In the customers' window you can see details about your customers such as how many orders they have placed and how much money the customer has spent with you. You can also browse the order history and the message history. You can import/export customer listings, print customized labels and send customized email messages in bulk.

6.0 Messages Management

Click to open the messages window.

Whenever you send an email message, a message entry will be created for log purposes. When you are navigating in the orders window or customers' window you can see the message history. In the messages window the only allowable operation is deleting.

7.0 Templates

Click to open the templates window. You can design various label/email templates with a powerful editor, it works just like a word processor.

8.0 Options

Click to open the options window.

• General
  • Prompt Delete
    If specified, SellerForce will prompt you before deleting items.
  • Data Row Cache
    SellerForce doesn't hold all your data in memory, data is loaded only when needed. Setting "Data Row Cache" to a higher number will consume more memory but display more quickly.
  • Batch Update Step
    Setting "Batch Update Step" to a higher number will speed up batch updates, for example: imports, batch edits, deletes, but there is more risk to losing data if the computer power is lost.
  • Display long text hint
    If a long text is displayed only partially, move the cursor over the text, SellerForce will popup a little hint window to display the completed text content.
  • Duing price check, synchronize local data updates
    With SellerForce, multiple-users can work together at the same time, after a user starts the price check function other users can see the price check results in real-time if this option is specified, or else you can always click "Refresh" to get the latest data.
  • Show gray color for filtered sellers
    If a seller's price is considered excluded, the offer will be displayed with gray color in the price check result view.
  • When browsing price check result, auto switch to my condition category
    For example: An item has USED_LIKENEW condition, when you browse the price check result of the item, SellerForce will automatically display USED offers.
• Server Options
  • Amazon Logon
    Enter email address and password of your amazon seller account in here.
• Price check & Lookup
  Consult Price Check
• Orders & Shipping
  Consult Order Management 
• DAZzle
  • DAZzle Directory
    Specify the installed directory of DAZzle software
  • Turning off Windows and Prompts
    The option will cause DAZzle to suppress all option and information windows (e.g. the "don't remind me again" windows) so that printing is fully automated
  • Closing DAZzle when Done
    The option will cause DAZzle to automatically close when the printing of the addresses in the file is complete.
  • Skipping addresses that do not verify
    Normally DAZzle will print every address in a list, even if the address can not be verified. When the address is not verified no postage is printed with the address. If you would like the unverified addresses to be skipped during printing, specify the option.
  • Printing of Customs Forms
    DAZzle normally does NOT automatically print customs forms because it requires printing to a second printer and requires prompting the user which disrupts the automated process. Use of this option will cause DAZzle to automatically (i.e., there is no user prompt to pick the printer) print the requested customs form to the default Windows printer. To make best use of this option when using two printers, the label printer should be set in the DAZzle layout and the default Windows printer should be set to a plain paper printer for the customs forms. Also keep in mind that the customs only print for items that request the customs form AND have all the customs information properly supplied.
  • Domestic Shipping
    • Standard
      • Default mail class
        Specify the default mail class for domestic standard shipping
      • Default layout
        Specify the default layout file for domestic standard shipping
    • Expedited
      For domestic expedited shipping, you can specify how SellerForce chooses a mail class and layout file according to the package size dimension.
    • Default hidden postage
      Don't print the postage value, hidden postage can only be use on items with either confirm or tracking.
  • International Shipping
    • Default mail class
      Specify the default mail class for international shipping
    • Default layout
      Specify the default layout file for international shipping
    • Default customs description
      Specify the default customs description for printing customs forms
  • Delivery Confirmation
    Specify the default Delivery Confirmation for mail classes
  • Automatic Tasks
    SellerForce can execute automatic tasks after printing postage with DAZzle, you can specify "Generate label with template", "Generate email with template", "Change order status", for example: print pick list, send shipping email to customers, change order status to Shipped.
  • As printing postage, plus the packaging materials weight (oz)
    SellerForce can receive the package weight automatically, but you may plus the packaging materials weight. 
• Email
  • SMTP
    • Host & Port
    • My server requires authentication
    • Account name & password
    • My email address
    • Interval of Sending (second)
      If you send many emails in a short time, your email server provider can block you, so you specify a interval between sending two emails.
• Account
  SellerForce is a multiple-user application, by default "master" is the only active account with a blank password. To protect your data you should always change the default password for "master" and create work accounts for your office staff. Use the master account only if you want to manage the other accounts.