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People in Australia and Canada, please advise

2K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  The one with all the big dresses on the covers 
#1 ·
As you know, frustratingly, Amazon only allows countdown deals in the US and UK. This always makes me a bit wary of sending out a newsletter in case those subscribers in other countries get niggly and unsubscribe. What I wanted to know from people in Australia particularly, is if they can buy from the .com store and still get the discount.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
I'm not from Australia, but New Zealand (as far as Amazon are concerned, AU is our 'local' store, anyway.)

We can't see the discount at all. When we look at the .com store, the price is the full, normal price.
 
#3 ·
Speaking as an Aussie, we can buy from the .com store if our account is registered with .com (they are continuously pushing us to switch across to .com.au, but many of us continue to resist :) ). However, unfortunately, they can still see our location, so we don't see countdown deals at all (makes it hard to know if your own countdown deal kicked in and is running correctly!). We just see the regular page with the regular price. I have often clicked through from promo sites to be faced with disappointment. In fact, I generally see very strange pricing. (Books that I know are 99c often appear as either 75c or $1.01 for example.)

I guess if someone had their location disguised through a VPN or whatnot, this wouldn't happen.
 
#5 ·
SugarBear57 said:
We can get Countdown deals if we're double-registered for .com and .com.au. I personally use a VPN, which probably helps. You can set your mailing list segments up so the newsletter only goes to people in the US and UK if it bothers you.
Well, that's the problem. I don't ask for an address when they sign up. I used to but I found I got a lot of new subs who didn't do the click through because they didn't want to give their address. I get more stickers by not asking.

I find it very annoying that Amazon only allow countdowns on those two countries. I see no reason for it.
 
#6 ·
Doglover said:
Well, that's the problem. I don't ask for an address when they sign up. I used to but I found I got a lot of new subs who didn't do the click through because they didn't want to give their address. I get more stickers by not asking.

I find it very annoying that Amazon only allow countdowns on those two countries. I see no reason for it.
I've often wondered why they don't offer it in other countries as well. It's one of the main reasons I don't really use countdown deals anymore. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to implement!

Your mailing list provider might have the country info (the same way Amazon knows not to show me the countdown deals, I suppose, so I'm guessing it's not 100% accurate).
 
#7 ·
I originally had a .com account long before the Canadian store came along, so I can see everything going on in the .com store. However, because I now have a .ca account, it often spits me over to it making it impossible to take advantage of the .com deals and perks.

I've had items shipped to the US so maybe that's why I'm able to see and take advantage of some deals.
 
#8 ·
Anna_ said:
I originally had a .com account long before the Canadian store came along, so I can see everything going on in the .com store. However, because I now have a .ca account, it often spits me over to it making it impossible to take advantage of the .com deals and perks.

I've had items shipped to the US so maybe that's why I'm able to see and take advantage of some deals.
I'm in the UK and I have a .com account as well, but I still don't see the price in the US. I'll see if Mailchimp knows the countries; that's a good idea.
 
#9 ·
I see the US price because if I switch over to Canada the price jumps.
 
#11 ·
Canadian who buys her Kindle books on the US store here. If the pricing is changed only for the US and not Canada, as is always the case with Countdown deals, I see the Canadian price (converted to US $$) even if I'm in the US store. For example, this is what the current Amazon.com Countdown Deals page looks like to me (clearly none of those prices are in the actual Countdown range):



Similarly I often run into books on Amazon.com that are supposedly permafree but still show up as $0.99, because the price-matching has gone through on the US site but not in Canada yet.
 
#12 ·
I'm a Canuck who buys from the .com store, and I never get the countdown price. And I have to be honest, seeing something advertised for sale, and then going to the store and having it not be on sale for me, really peeves me off. I know it isn't the author who makes the rules, but despite knowing that, it still *feels* kind of like a bait & switch.
 
#13 ·
Thanks everyone. There seems to be no way round it. Someone in a group I belong to asked kdp if it was allowed to change the price on the other sites for the duration and got a 'yes'. Obviously, if you start fiddling with the price, you can't do a countdown deal.

 
#15 ·
I have just run a Countdown promo for each of the first 3 books in my Apollo Program series.  In my promotional newsletter to my subscribers, I pointed out that the deal was only available to customers using the U.S. or U.K. stores.

I then had 3 emails (one from New Zealand, two from Canada) expressing disappointment that the deal was unavailable to them.  So I sent each of those subscribers a free PDF of one of the books.  Hopefully, that will maintain their interest in the books.

Philip
 
#16 ·
Philip Gibson said:
I have just run a Countdown promo for each of the first 3 books in my Apollo Program series. In my promotional newsletter to my subscribers, I pointed out that the deal was only available to customers using the U.S. or U.K. stores.

I then had 3 emails (one from New Zealand, two from Canada) expressing disappointment that the deal was unavailable to them. So I sent each of those subscribers a free PDF of one of the books. Hopefully, that will maintain their interest in the books.

Philip
Just to clarify (as someone who lives in Australia and uses the US store), it's not about which store you use but where you are physically located (presumably unless you're using a VPN or something to obscure your location). So, an Australian with an account on amazon.com cannot take advantage of, or even see, countdown deals.
 
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