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Help Centre - Selling - Back Issues - The Order Process



Selling Back Issues Guide - Table of Contents

  • Introduction to Selling (Quick Start Guide)
  • Accessing Account (inc. password recovery)
  • Listing items for sale
  • Advice on Pricing
  • Packaging Contribution & Selling Fees
  • The Order Process (as viewed by Sellers)
  • Processing Orders
  • Cancelling / Refunding Orders
  • Packaging Advice
  • Despatching Orders
  • Your Shopfront
  • Account Profile / Suspending / Closing
  • Extra ways to promote your items (coming soon)
  • (Click links above to jump to that page)


    The Order Process

    This section explains how the order process works from the perspective of a Seller - in other words, what exactly happens when a customer buys magazines from the website, and where the Seller fits into the process.

    Overview of the Order Process:




    How Sellers fit into the process



    More Information on each of the steps shown in the illustration above



    STEP 1 - Customer adds items to their shopping basket


    Customers purchase items from the Magazine Exchange website using the familiar Shopping Basket / Checkout system used by almost all on-line shops - but unlike most the items for sale on the Magazine Exchange site are being offered by many different Sellers, so if the customer buys several items in a single purchase it's possible that several different Sellers will be involved.

    Details of the Seller of each item are visible to the customer as they browse the site, and in some cases customers will actively choose to purchase items from Sellers from whom they have previously received a good service.



    STEP 2 - Website calculates shipping cost for whole order

    Unlike Ebay (for example), when selling items on the Magazine Exchange site the Seller doesn't have to laboriously calculate the correct shipping cost for each of their items. The Magazine Exchange website already knows the shipping weight of every magazine shown on the site and uses this to automatically calculate the correct shipping cost for every order, regardless of where in the world it is to be dispatched to, and what delivery service the customer selects.

    When calculating shipping costs the website also takes into account whether an order contains items from more than one Seller, which of course will necessitate several separate deliveries to the customer.

    Lastly, the shipping cost paid by the customer includes a 'quantity' element as well as the 'weight' element. The quantity element is a charge of £0.40 for each item on the order, of which £0.20* is paid to the Seller over-and-above the actual cost of posting the parcel to the customer, with the remaining £0.20* being retained by Magazine Exchange as their sole commission on the sale.

    For more information about how shipping costs are calculated see these two pages:

    Delivery Rates & Information (Shipping costs paid by customers)
    Despatching Orders (Shipping cost payment received by Seller)

    *The £0.20 / £0.20 split applies to private Seller accounts - trade accounts may use different rates



    STEP 3 - Customer completes order

    The customer complete their order by passing through the website checkout and payment stages in the usual way. The payment is processed by Magazine Exchange on behalf of the Seller(s) involved, who receive the whole amount of the payment except part of the 'quantity' element of the shipping charge as described above.

    Also - where the customer chooses to pay by Paypal, a small additional fee is added to the order total which covers the fee that Paypal themselves charge for processing the payment. This fee is obviously not passed-on to the Seller but will be visible to the Seller on the order invoice.



    STEP 4 - Magazine Exchange notifies Seller(s) of order

    Once an order has been confirmed (ie, the payment has been received), the order details are immediately passed-on to the Seller of the items which have been purchased. Where multiple Sellers are involved Magazine Exchange will automatically split the order into a series of smaller orders, each comprising of the items being supplied by one Seller.

    For the Seller(s) involved, the order details appear within the 'Orders Received' area of their Seller Account, and they also receive a notification email.



    STEP 5 - Seller(s) pack and despatch items to customer

    The most important step of all! See these detailed help pages:

    Processing Orders (Understanding the order and invoice details)
    Packaging Advice (Recommendations for packaging magazines)
    Despatching Orders (Postal services, costs and options)



    STEP 6 - Payment made to Seller(s)

    The last step in the 'despatching' process for the Seller is to re-visit the 'Orders Received' area of their Seller Account and update the 'Shipping Status' for the order to show it as dispatched. This triggers the payment for the order to be sent to the Seller.

    Payments to Sellers may be made by either Paypal or electronic bank transfer (BACS), with the Seller providing their payment details using the 'My Payment Info.' form in the 'Tools' section of their Seller account. Note that, to avoid possible delays with payments, we recommend that Sellers submit this form when they first start listing items for sale rather than waiting until orders have been received. Payment details are kept on file so the Seller does not need to submit the form again at any point, unless their payment details have changed.

    Payments to Sellers are made in batches approximately every three weeks - in other words, approximately every three weeks Sellers receive a single combined payment for all orders they have marked as 'dispatched' during that time, with an accompanying payment statement email giving an itemized breakdown of the payment.




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