Selling on Amazon is the best way to build a passive income stream. The first step to starting a successful Amazon business is to create your Amazon seller account. Amazon requires all its sellers to create, verify, and maintain an individual or professional account to sell products. Over the years, Amazon has tightened up its policies, especially personal verification; if you know the process and have all the details beforehand, you will not face any issues while signing up with Amazon.
Read on to learn about the types of seller accounts, signup requirements, and steps for setting up an Amazon Seller Account.
Types of Amazon Seller Accounts
There are two types of Amazon seller accounts, the first one is a free Individual Account, and the second is a monthly subscription-based Professional Seller Account.
- Individual Account: There is no subscription fee, but you pay $0.99 every time you sell an item. We do not recommend this account type for anyone who intends to build a profitable business on the Amazon marketplace. This account is only meant for those who have not yet decided what product to sell on Amazon.
- Professional Account: Professional Account costs $39.99 per month; it does not have a $0.99 fee, so if you sell more than 40 items per month, then the savings on per item fee make up for the subscription cost. We always recommend our clients to go for a Professional account as it offers advanced selling tools, advertising, and broader access to Amazon marketplace categories.
What are the requirements to create an Amazon seller account?
For an Amazon seller account, you need to be resident in one of the eligible countries, have a valid phone number, and have an internationally chargeable credit card.
The complete list of all requirements to set up a fully functional Amazon seller account is as follows:
- Email address or Amazon customer account
- Internationally chargeable credit card
- Government ID (for identity verification)
- Tax Information
- Phone number
- A bank account to receive sales proceed
Sign up with Amazon as a seller
If all the required documents are in order, the next step is to begin the sign-up process. There will be multiple steps where you will have to fill in the details about your identity, business, and products as I shall guide you further:-
Step 1: Visit Amazon Seller Central
Visit the Amazon Seller Central login page at https://sellercentral.amazon.com/ and click “Create your Amazon Account,” as highlighted below in the image.
Step 2: Create Amazon Account
If you have an existing Amazon customer account, you will be prompted to sign into it; otherwise, complete the new account setup procedure by filling in your name and email address and setting up the password. Complete the email verification.
Step 3: Complete Seller Account Setup
Next is the multi-step form to provide all the details to Amazon, as depicted in the image below. If you are not signing up as a registered business, then in business type, select the ‘I am an individual option.
Fill in all the details and ensure that your address and ID details are correct, as Amazon will verify these details. Fill in your credit card and bank account details.
Step 4: Provide Store & Product Information
Product & Store information does not impact your ability to register for a selling account, but you will be required to answer these questions as shown in the image below.
- Store Name: Give a name to your store. Do not overthink the name. You can change it anytime, even after signing up.
- Universal Product Codes: If you have already decided about the product to sell on Amazon, select this field accordingly. Otherwise, select ‘Yes.’
- Diversity Certification: Select Yes, if your business has diversity certification; otherwise, select No. You can add the certifications to your Amazon seller account anytime.
- Manufacturer or Brand Owner: If you plan to sell products under your brand name, select ‘Yes’; otherwise, select ‘No.’
Step 5: Verification
The last step will be the verification screen, as displayed below:
Amazon has two types of verification in place. ID verification is done by uploading a picture of a Government issued ID. In some cases, Amazon also asks for address verification.
- ID Verification: Take a clear picture of your ID’s back and front sides and upload them.
- Address Verification: You will be asked to upload a bank statement, credit card statement, or utility bill to verify your business address. Sometimes, Amazon sends a postcard to your provided address with a code for verification purposes.
Hooray! The process is complete now. Upon completing the process, you will be redirected to Amazon Seller Central Dashboard. From here on, you can list products, monitor sales, and manage your seller account.
How can residents of non-eligible countries become Amazon sellers?
Amazon constantly expands the list of eligible countries for becoming sellers; however, If you happen to live in a country that is not eligible for a seller account yet, you have the following options:-
- Register a company in an eligible country and use the company details.
- Have a partner in the company from one of the eligible countries for personal verification.
- Use the company details to set up your bank account and get a credit card. Alternatively, you can also get virtual bank account details like the ones provided by Payoneer.
- Buy a virtual phone number for the company. Use the phone number during registration with Amazon and customer support for your product buyers.
As per Amazon’s quarterly results, third-party sellers’ accounts had a 58% share during the 3rd quarter of 2022, translating to more than $30 Billion in sales. Selling on Amazon offers the best opportunity to build a passive income stream, so what is stopping you from launching your own Amazon store? Though Amazon marketplace provides a very profitable option; however, at the same time, competition requires a very well-planned brand strategy and professional execution of store launch to ensure that the business is booming from the start. Good luck!