What Do You Need to Get Started if You Want to Sell on Amazon?

Selling on Amazon is one of the most lucrative side hustles and business to start. Millions of sellers have joined the Amazon platform and many are making full-time incomes. You might already be familiar with the earnings and potential earnings of Amazon sellers and you might be wondering what you need to get started on the Amazon seller platform. This blog post will cover the basics that you should have so that you can get your seller account started and approved as soon as possible. Below are some of the main requirements you will need in your seller application, gathering this information quickly can help speed up the approval process. 

Mindset: You might have not been expecting the first requirement to be a right mindset, but this is the most important prerequisite you will need to start selling on Amazon. If you have a weak mindset and a whimsical approach to selling on Amazon, you will quit whenever things become hard and problems are almost guaranteed when selling on Amazon. You should approach selling on Amazon like a business owner. Dedicate some of your time every day to the progress of your business and you will definitely see the growth you are looking for. You might be working a job currently, but there are many sellers that have built six figure Amazon businesses with part-time hours. What you will need to do is be intentional and set aside hours every day to work on your business; if you do this consistently over a year or two, you will definitely succeed. Set attainable goals and keep going one foot in front of the other and soon you will see you’ll have made amazing progress. 

Ability to adapt: If there’s one thing you’ll come across selling on Amazon, it’s difficulties. Your seller account may get banned or you may make an honest mistake and lose money. The important thing is that you adapt to your circumstances and make the most of it. If your account is banned for a few days or a week, spend that time doing product research or something beneficial for your business. If you keep applying pressure by taking action on your business, you’ll eventually succeed. Take time to learn the ins and outs of Amazon, join a group of like-minded sellers and continuously improve. This sounds like vague advice, but it’s the truth. To succeed on Amazon, you will have to pivot multiple times. If something doesn’t work, that’s fine. Just pivot and double down on what works and you’ll succeed. 

Many sellers were impacted by COVID this year, instead of using that as an excuse, many sellers doubled down on finding products, sourcing products and sending them into Amazon. This led to Amazon sellers hitting record sales in mid-2020. This is a learning lesson for all sellers and aspiring sellers to keep taking consistent daily action on their business and success will come. 

Logistics

Selling plan: Amazon offers two selling plans for sellers: the individual and professional selling plan. The individual one is free, but you will have to pay $0.99 after each sale. The professional selling plan is $39.99 per month and there is no additional fee after each sale. The individual plan is probably best for sellers that are looking to just see what selling on Amazon looks like and maybe send a few products into a warehouse to see how it works. I would recommend the professional selling plan because if you sell over 40 products in a month (which is very doable), you won’t get charged $0.99 per item sold. Also, the professional plan is required to sell in additional categories; when you start off selling on Amazon, you’ll be restricted from selling in certain categories like shoes, toys, etc. You can only sell in the restricted categories with approval from Amazon and that requires a professional selling account. Many sellers view the professional selling plan as a cost of doing business and you can quickly make it up with the profits sold from your first products. 

Seller application: Now that you have selected a selling plan, it’s time for Amazon to verify your identity. This can be a frustrating process for many new sellers because Amazon is very strict with the requirements they need to verify your identity. Amazon will require you the following information from you: bank account number and bank routing number, credit card, government issued national identification, phone number and tax information. These are the first few identification requirements that Amazon requires. Amazon will likely also ask for utility bills and bank statements to verify your name and address; these documents will have to be recent for Amazon to accept them. The approval process is already stringent (may take days to a few weeks to get approved), so it’s important to have up to date and correct information prior to submitting your application. This will prevent more time wasted in the application cycle and will help you get approved quicker. 

Capital: One of the most asked questions is how much money do you need to get started with selling on Amazon. The answer depends on how quickly you want to succeed and what business model you want to use. The majority of Amazon sellers do either retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, wholesale or private label. For retail and online arbitrage, you can get started with a few hundred dollars and use the money from those sales to continue growing the business. For wholesale and private label, you will likely need at least a few thousand dollars to get started and make your first order. What you can do as a seller is start with whatever you have now and continue reinvesting the time and money you have and you’ll see growth. There’s not a one size fits all answer for this, just get started today and you’ll be in a better position tomorrow. 

Check local requirements: Depending on the country you live in, Amazon has different requirements for sellers. Most of the application information provided above is for North American sellers. If you live in Europe or Asia, there might be different requirements for identification verification before your seller application is approved. Once your seller application is approved and you start selling products, you can be eligible to sell in different markets. A quick Google search on “Amazon seller requirements in (your country)” should give you the information you’re looking for. 

This covers the basics required for aspiring sellers to start selling on Amazon. It’s important to hit the ground running and start doing this administrative work as soon as possible, so your seller account can be approved. Focus on one task at a time and take it step by step. You can start by starting the application, seeing what documents are needed, uploading them and submitting your application. It will likely take several days to a week for your account to get approved. If your seller account is not approved, Amazon seller support will send you an email telling you what they require for your application. If you enjoyed reading this blog post, feel free to read the following ones for more guides on selling on Amazon.