How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners – Step by step Guide
Amazon is the largest e-commerce site and online retailer in the world. In this post, you will learn how to sell on Amazon for beginners, how to register on Amazon, how much Amazon charges for each sale and many more.
What is Amazon and How Does it Work?
Amazon, Inc is an American multinational technology company that majors in e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
One of the products of this company is Amazon, the largest and most successful retail website on this planet.
Amazon is a very big eCommerce website that sells books, music, movies, housewares, electronics, toys, etc to its customers. The Amazon website also connects other sellers with millions of users, through its website and mobile applications.
Business owners, as well as individuals, can create an Amazon seller account and sell on Amazon.
Here, you will learn how to sell on Amazon, and we will explain the requirements needed to sell on Amazon, how to start selling on Amazon, what FBA Amazon means, how to sell on FBA Amazon for beginners and lots more.
What Are the Requirements to Sell on Amazon?
Before you can sell on Amazon, you have to provide some necessary details. Here they are.
- Your phone number
- Tax information
- Your bank account number
- A chargeable credit card
- Your bank routing number
- A government-issued national ID
If you have the requirements, kindly proceed with creating your Amazon seller account to start selling on Amazon.
Amazon Seller Pricing Plans
Before you register on Amazon, you should know and understand the different seller pricing plans available on Amazon, and which one is best for you. There are two selling plans on Amazon.
- Individual or Standard
- Professional or Premium
Individual Amazon Seller Account
The Individual plan (also known as the standard plan) is free to use. It’s the default Amazon seller account.
However, it charges a flat fee of $0.99 per sale, regardless of the price of the item sold.
Professional Amazon Seller Account
The Professional plan (also known as the Premium Plan) costs $39.99 per month, regardless of the number of items they sell.
Amazon Professional Seller vs Amazon Individual Seller: Which Is Better?
If you will sell more than 40 items per month, then wisdom demands that you go for the premium plan. Here’s why.
A premium plan costs $40. Remember that Amazon charges $1 per sale on the free plan. If you sell 50 goods in a month, you will be charged a fee of $50.
Whereas, you will have to pay only $40 in the Premium plan, and sell as much quantity as you want without paying any commission.
How to Register your Amazon Seller Account
- Create an account
To register, visit Amazon Seller Central on a browser. You must fill in every detail, including your name, email, and password.
On the next page, provide your business details, tax info and details about your products.
- Apply for approval (depending on your category)
Depending on your category, you may need approval from Amazon before you can become a seller on the eCommerce site.
Popular categories such as Clothing & Accessories, Shoes, Handbags & Sunglasses, and Jewellery usually need approval before taking in new sellers.
What is the Amazon Seller Central?
After your Amazon seller account has been approved, you will have access to your Amazon Seller Central account.
An Amazon Seller Central is similar to a dashboard. From this dashboard, you can manage your selling account and do many things.
- You can track your inventory and update your product listings.
- You can download business reports and also save templates that you use often.
- From your Amazon Seller Central, you can monitor your sales performance.
- You can also get in touch with the Selling Partner Support from your seller central.
Listing your Products on Amazon: Key Things to Note
- Title
The title of each product you list has a character limit of 200 max. Also, you must capitalize the first letter of every word.
- Images
Remember, most of your customers are not using the same device as yours. You should upload images with the dimensions of “500 x 500” or “1,000 x 1,000” pixels.
The aim is to maintain the quality across various devices.
- Variations
If a particular product doesn’t have a natural colour, make sure to indicate the colour you have in stock. The same applies to scents and sizes.
- Bullet points
Use bullet points to describe your products and highlight key benefits.
- Description
Make use of keywords in your description. If it’s a cloth, it includes keywords that any normal person will search for whenever they want to buy cloth.
Keywords increase the chances that potential customers will find your product listing on Amazon and buy from you.
See Also – How to Start Selling on Jumia in Nigeria
How to Deliver a Customer Order on Amazon
There are two ways you can deliver your products to customers on Amazon.
Fulfilment by Merchant
Merchant-fulfilled means that you are solely responsible for the storage and shipping of your products to your customers.
Note that the user will choose a shipment service. Amazon will notify you of the shipping rates based on the product category and shipping service selected by the customer. The total amount will be sent to you.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)
You must have been hearing about Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), but don’t know the meaning. Well, you will now.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a paid feature that lets Amazon take charge of your product packaging, labelling and shipping to customers.
Amazon will also take care of customer questions, returns, and refunds.
You can learn more about Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) here.
How to Get Paid on Amazon
Amazon pays its sellers every two weeks. Note that Amazon will deduct all its fees, and the remainder is what you’ll get.
The reason why Amazon pays sellers 7 days after the estimated delivery date is that some customers may want to return the products they bought and also expect refunds.
You can learn more about getting paid on Amazon here.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell on Amazon? Amazon Service Charges
There are 4 different fees you can incur while selling products on Amazon.
- Subscription fees
We talked about this earlier on. The Individual Plan is free but attracts a few of approximately $1 per sale. The Professional Plan costs a flat fee of $40 per month.
- Selling fees
These fees are calculated per item sold. They also include referral fees.
- Shipping fees
If you don’t have an Amazon FBA account, it means you will deliver/fulfil orders yourself. In that case, Amazon shipping fees will apply.
This fee depends on the product category and shipping service chosen by the buyer.
- (Fulfilment by Amazon) FBA fees
If you want Amazon to fulfil products on your behalf, a few fees will be charged for your order fulfilment, storage, and some other services.
Conclusion
By now, you have everything you need to sell on Amazon as a beginner. We have explained how to create an account and start selling on Amazon from any country in the world.
We also talked about Amazon Seller Central, how to deliver your order on Amazon, how to get payments for your products, what Amazon FBA means and lots more.
You can visit Amazon Seller Central to start selling on Amazon as a beginner.
