How to start selling on Amazon in 8 Steps (US Guide)

Panna Kemenes

26.05.23 (last updated)

8 minute read

When searching for a product online, 60% of consumers begin on Amazon. In June 2021 alone, Amazon received 2.7 billion visits.¹

Becoming an Amazon seller in the US gives your products unmatched visibility. It can also allow you to expand internationally, supporting you with global shipping.

Let’s look at how to start selling on Amazon in the US.

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How to start selling on Amazon US: 8 steps

Do some market research before you get started - choose your product and understand your competition
Choose a selling plan - decide between the Individual versus the Professional seller plan
Decide on which fulfillment method to use - decide if you want to use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)
Create an Amazon seller account - provide your business details, personal information and verify your account
Upload your items for sale - provide product details to create a new product listing
Make your items stand out - take advantage of seller’s tools such as advertising to gain a competitive edge
Ship your products - either with FBA or FBM
Get reviews - customer reviews can control your success as a seller

The next sections will look at these points in detail, so you can have a thorough overview of how to start selling products on Amazon.

Do some market research before you get started

The first step in selling on Amazon is researching your market.

This begins with finding out what you can and cannot sell on Amazon. Amazon restricts certain products such as tobacco, alcohol and certain electronics.² You can check out Amazon’s restricted product list to be sure what you’re selling is allowed.

If what you want to sell is permitted, it may still need approval. Products that fall into the Fine Art or Services categories, for example, require approval.³

You’re responsible for ensuring your product meets local legal requirements. If you’re selling abroad, you need to check the different laws. And even in the US, states like California have extra regulations on certain products.⁴

Once you know what you can sell, you can then decide what you want to sell. The Amazon Best Seller (ABS) Rank can help you out here. The ABS rank rates how much a product is selling in a certain category. You can check out the ABS rank of products to get an overview of their popularity.⁵

You should look at your competition. The best strategy is to find a product that’s in high demand with few competitors or at least low barriers to entry. A reliable supplier is also important. Broken products will lead to bad reviews and reduce your sales volume.

Then, once you’ve decided on your product, you’ll need to calculate your costs. You need to see if your profit margin is high enough to justify selling.

Choose a selling plan

After choosing your product, the next step is selecting a selling plan.

You can choose between the Individual selling plan and the Professional selling plan.

With the Individual plan, you’ll pay $0.99 USD per product sold. The Individual plan is best suited to you if you sell under 40 products per month. If you don’t plan on advertising and have no interest in Amazon’s advanced selling tools, then this plan is for you.⁶

With the Professional plan, you’ll pay $39.99 USD per month. If you’re selling more than 40 products a month and want access to advanced selling tools, this is the plan for you. The Professional plan enables you to advertise, manage inventory and qualify for top placement on product detail pages.⁶

Decide on which fulfillment method to use

When it comes to shipping your products, you have two choices: FBA or FBM.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) enables you to outsource the order fulfillment process to Amazon. You simply send your products to an Amazon fulfillment center and they take care of the rest. From packing and shipping your product, to dealing with customer service issues and processing returns, FBA handles it all. According to Amazon, shipping with FBA costs 32% less per unit compared with other major low-cost US shipping services.⁷

FBA has the benefit of saving you time. Amazon handles the customer support and shipping process, while you can focus on other aspects of growing your business.

When using FBA, your products will be eligible for free shipping and Prime free two-day shipping.⁷ This gives your products a competitive edge, increasing your sales volume.

FBA is best if you're selling small, lightweight products frequently. You can also expand into 100+ international markets through FBA, simplifying international business.⁷

That said, there are some extra fees involved with FBA:

Inventory storage fees
Long term storage fees
Unplanned services fees
Fulfillment fees
Removal order fees
Returns processing fees⁷

So if you don’t have a high inventory turnover, then FBA might not be worth the extra costs involved.

Read the full guide to what FBA is

The other option is Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). This is simply where you’re responsible for storing, packing and shipping your inventory. You’ll also be responsible for customer support, returns and any other issues relating to order fulfillment.⁸

When using the FBM method, you’ll save on FBA fees, such as inventory and long term storage fees. But, you’ll have a lot of extra responsibility. This extra responsibility will come with extra costs.

FBM works best if your product is heavier, with a lower sales volume. Products that don’t often sell will cost you more with FBA due to Amazon long term storage fees.

If you’re subscribed to Amazon’s Individual seller plan, then you’ll pay fixed rates for shipping. But, as a Professional seller, you’ll be able to set your own rates. You can customize your shipping rates per country, product and weight.⁸ This is something to consider when using FBM.

As your business grows, you can always change your order fulfillment method. If FBA gets your business running in the beginning, you can always change to FBM as you scale.⁸

Create an Amazon seller account

After choosing a seller plan, you can go ahead and create an Amazon seller account.

You’ll need to check if you’re eligible to create an account. You can see if your country of residence is listed on the eligible Amazon seller registration countries list.⁹

Once you’ve confirmed your eligibility, you can go to Amazon Seller Central. Here, you can enter your email address and create a password. Your email will be verified with a verification code.¹⁰

After this, you’ll log into your new account, where you’ll need to enter some additional information. Make sure you have these documents ready:

Government issued ID
Tax information
Internationally chargeable credit card
Phone number
A bank account to receive sales income from Amazon¹¹

You’ll be asked for your business’ location and type, as well as personal information. You’ll also need to supply billing information so that you can receive income from Amazon and pay the seller plan fees.

Amazon will then ask you for information about your store and product.

The final step is verifying your identity. To do this, you’ll need to upload ID documents and a bank statement.

After this is complete, your account is ready to be used for selling.¹² ¹³

Upload your items for sale

To begin selling your products, you’ll need to create a product listing.

To create a product listing, you’ll have to supply:

A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU), which is the ID of your product. With this you can track your own inventory
A product identifier, for example: UPC, EAN, GTIN or ISBN. This identifies the exact product you’re selling.
Product details such as price, quantity, condition and shipping methods available. Also, you’ll need to provide the product brand, description, category, name, as well as high quality images

If you’re selling a product that another Amazon seller already offers, then you don’t need to fill out all the product details. Certain details, like the product identifier, will already be filled out when you match with an existing listing.¹¹

Make your items stand out

It’s wise to optimize your product listing for SEO purposes. Search engines prioritise and favor keywords and terms, giving you greater visibility. You should make a product listing that includes these keywords. You can use Amazon’s Search Term Optimizer tool in the Brand Dashboard to do this.¹⁴

You should focus on price competitiveness when selling with Amazon.¹¹ You can take advantage of Amazon seller tools, such as automated repricing and bulk pricing, to stand out from your competitors.¹⁴

Amazon also has a range of marketing tools to get your products visibility. If you have a Professional seller account, you can run Pay Per Click (PPC) adverts as well as retargeting ads to attract customers. You can use Amazon sponsored ads to rank high in product search results, giving your product greater exposure.¹⁴ Amazon also lets you target your advertising campaign for specific countries, so your product gets visibility in international markets.¹⁵

With Amazon, you can create a customized loyalty program for your previous customers. You could do this through a points-based program, enabling customers to gain credit for future purchases. Or, you could use a tiered or fee-based loyalty program.¹⁵

You can also create product bundles by combining your product with related products.¹⁵ This can also help to increase sales.

Ship your products

Customers look at the speed and cost of shipping when choosing between competing products.

With FBA, you can offer speedy delivery and free returns.

Amazon is trusted. Their customer support team is fast and their shipping rates are cost-effective. This gives you a competitive edge as a seller.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ship your own products with FBM. But if you do, make sure your customer support team is slick, shipping rates are competitive and the entire fulfillment process is smooth.

Get reviews

Getting reviews for your products is key to your success as an Amazon seller.

That said, you need to be careful when getting customer reviews. Amazon has strict rules about the review process, which could get your seller account removed if you don’t follow them.

For example, you’re forbidden from offering discounts or any sort of reimbursements in return for positive reviews. Likewise, creating a customer account to write positive reviews for your products and negative reviews for your competitors is also a violation of Amazon’s policies.¹⁶

Common Questions:

Here are the answers to some common questions about how to start selling on Amazon.

Is selling on Amazon free?

The short answer is no - selling on Amazon is not free.

In addition to your seller plan fees, there are some extra fees you’re going to run into when selling on Amazon.

Amazon charges referral fees on every product you sell. These are either a percentage of the total price, including shipping, or a fixed minimum amount. Different product categories have different referral fees.⁶

For example, products in footwear have a referral fee of 15% or a minimum of $0.30 USD per item sold. In contrast, clothing and accessories have a referral fee of 17% or a minimum of $0.30 USD. You can find a complete list of Amazon category referral fees here.⁶

Also, as already said, if you use FBA, there are some extra fees involved such as inventory and long term storage fees.

In special circumstances, you might have to pay high volume listing fees or refund administration fees.⁶

Is it worth it to start selling on Amazon?

Whether selling on Amazon is worth it or not depends on many factors. As with starting any business venture, it's important to do thorough research and have a business plan. These steps will help to calculate if it can be profitable before getting started.

If you pick your product carefully and come up with a profitable strategy, you may become a successful Amazon seller.

Amazon gives your products worldwide exposure and enables you to expand your business internationally. In 2022, more than 27,000 American sellers were earning $500,000 USD in annual sales.¹⁷

7,400 products are sold per minute on Amazon. In 2021, the global marketplace had a total revenue of $386.16 billion USD.¹⁷

How much do beginner Amazon sellers make?

According to research by JungleScout, beginner sellers on Amazon earn approximately $30,000 USD in profits per year.

On top of this, about 45% of Amazon sellers are earning between $1,000 to $25,000 USD per month. And, only 17% of sellers earn less than $500 USD per month.¹⁸

Withdraw Amazon payments from around the world with Wise

Amazon allows you to sell on different marketplaces with different currencies. But, if you have to exchange your revenue to USD every time you withdraw it, you may end up spending a lot in conversion fees.

With Wise Business, you can open a multi-currency account for free in the US and connect Wise to Amazon.

You can withdraw directly into your multi-currency account, avoiding conversion fees. And, if you do need to convert your earnings to USD, then you’ll have access to the mid-market exchange rate.

Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

Wise account details are currently compatible with Amazon UK, US, Europe and Australia.

Sources:

All sources checked March 29, 2023.

*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.

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