Library Staff- Technical Services WMS Training: Acquisitions Ordering from Alibris

Alibris is a book vendor/seller located in Las Vegas.

They  have a large warehouse of books they sell themselves but they also offer books for sale though 3rd party sellers.

• Try to use only 4 and 5 star sellers.
• Company is on Pacific Coast time.
• Sometimes these 3rd party sellers also list titles from other sellers. For example if one seller has 2 copies of a book and another seller has 3 copies of a book, there may or may not be 5 total copies available- many times there will only be 2 or  3 available because different sellers have listed copies from the same affiliated source and because some sellers don't keep an accurate count of their items in their warehouses/bookstores.  So it can be common to receive an unavailable or cancelled message.

Email messages are usually sent to Dr. Youmans, since the account is in her name. But keep watch on the Alibris website, from time to time to check on unfilled items.  If you wish to reorder , order these titles  as a separate order on the website.

• To reorder a substiute for the item that was cancelled by the seller,
  • order just the substitute item(s) don't add additional new titles to the order.
  • For shipping be sure and select UPS Ground (consolidated in our warehouse). (The company will delete the shipping cost upon receipt of your email)
• After submitting the order, immediately send an email to libraries@alibris.com.
  • For the  heading of the email add the new order number and indicate it is a substitute for a canceled item.
  • In the body list the new order number and item number and the order number and item number for the cancelled item
    • For example: "62331388-1 is the substitute for cancelled 62287898-11"
  • Alibris will then remove the shipping charges.

 

Alibris does not currently offer  ordering through EDIFACT or similar systems. Orders must be placed directly on the company's libraries webpage. Then replicate the order in WMS Acquisitions.

URL:  https://library.alibris.com/

Login and password information is stored on the library's shared drive.

Steps

1. Add books to the shopping cart.

Try to only select 4 or 5 star sellers.

2. Before you finalize the order, Create an Alibris order in WMS and add items (using ISBN) and price to the order.  (The ISBN is easier to see before you finalize the order, so you may want to add items to the WMS order as you add them to the Alibris cart.

Select an order name (helpful to include fiscal year and name of vendor and month . Unlike our other 2 vendors (who use EDIFACT ordering), after an Alibris is "placed" in WMS , more titles can be added to the same order  and then "reordered".  Usual practice is to have an Alibris order for each month an order is placed.

a. Acquisitions> Discover Items>search by ISBN

b. Review results- if we don't have a copy (or if more copies are needed) select MARC record of choice and click  ADD TO>Order

c. Click New Order or select the order you already created.

d. Here is an example of a book that has a list price of  $17.99 but an Alibris seller has it for  $8.95. (Use Amazon to find list price. If you can't easily find price then use current Alibris price as list price) then figure out discount rate.  If you are selecting more than 1 copy from the same Alibris seller, figure out discount rate for 1 copy, than add number of copies  you are ordering.

If you are ordering copies of the same book from different sellers and they have different prices from each other (for example  ordering 3 copies and two are  $11.95 and the other is $14.95) add the two on one line (with a quantity of 2) and the $14.95 as a separate title  -that's the only way to enter different price points.

Also select ISBN, budget/fund m location/collection and number of copies.

 

Keep adding items and periodically clicking SAVE ORDER.

 

When ready to order, review each title.  Then click PLACE Order. A dialog box appear similar to the one below. (Do not select  box for Notify Vendor about this order) click the blue PLACE ORDER button.

 

 

Alibris Order on Alibris website

1. After reviewing order,  add "fac request", "staff request" or student request" in Ref # box , to the left of the title, as needed.

 

Click CONTINUE button.

 

Check  PO number and add promo code if relevant.

Then click PLACE ORDER.