HOW TO SET UP AN AMAZON SELLER ACCOUNT

STEP 1 - Creating An Amazon Account

Create an account with Amazon.com if you do not already have one. Your login for Amazon.com will be your email address and you will need to create a password.

STEP 2 - Visit The My Account Page

Make sure you are signed in on your Amazon account and click on my account in the upper right hand corner. This will open a page full of links for your personal account.

STEP 3 - Go To Your Seller Account

Click on "Your Seller Account" in the right sidebar toward the top of the page. You will then be prompted to sign in again with your Amazon login information.

STEP 4 - Your Amazon Seller Account Settings

Using the navigation tabs at the top left, click on the "Settings" tab. This will bring you to the page where you will all of the different account settings that are required to be an active seller on Amazon. These settings include: - Selling Plan - Listings Status - Seller Information - Business Address - Legal Entity - Deposit Method - Charge Method - Return Information

STEP 5 - Choosing a Selling Plan

The first choice you will need to make is what type of selling plan you need. Your choices are "Individual" or "Professional". The "Individual" plan is free and can be used for selling products that already have another listing or for many simple listings. Creating a new product in some categories may require you to have a "Professional" plan. Individuals who reach a high rate of sales will often choose to go on the "Professional" plan to have a lower fee rate. Like other venues such as Ebay, there are selling fees that are deducted from your revenue for sales on Amazon. The "Professional" plan requires a monthly fee of $39.99. You can get more information at Amazon's Website

STEP 6 - Listings Status

This "Listings Status" section keeps you informed on whether your listings are active, inactive, blocked, and more. This information can also be viewed in your inventory where you can choose to view all inventory, active inventory or inactive inventory.

STEP 7 - Seller Information

"Seller Information" should be edited for you to create a name for your store. Once you start selling on Amazon and list products, you will find a link to your Amazon store in this section as well.

STEP 8 - Business Address

Normally individual Amazon Sellers will simply have their home address listed here. When you purchase shipping on Amazon after selling a product, this is the address that will be used for your label.

STEP 9 - Legal Entity

The next item you will need to fill out to have an active seller account is the "Legal Entity" information. This is your tax identification information. You will be required to provide information that you use to file your taxes such as name, address, social security ID, and more. The information that you enter in this section must match the information that you use that is on file with the IRS. If any of the information is not entered correctly or is not complete, then you may need to repeat this process to correct it. If all information is correct and you still have any issues, you will need to contact Amazon Seller Support for assistance.

STEP 10 - Deposit Method

Scroll down to "Deposit Method" and click on "Edit". You will be taken through a step-by-step wizard where you will fill in all of your important information such as routing number, bank account number and bank ID information.

STEP 11 - Charge Method

Return the the "Settings" tab as before and edit the "Charge Method". This section will ask you for your credit card information for any time that you have any fees. For instance if you choose the "Professional" seller plan there will be a monthly fee of $39.99.

STEP 12 - Return Information

The final Settings section is the Return Information". This is important if you ever have a customer who needs to return an item. Whether they decide they do not want the item, if there was damage during shipping, or for whatever reason is chosen. Information gathered in this step will be your name or the business name you choose to use, the return address for shipping, and your phone number for customer service reasons.

STEP 13 - Start Selling

Once you have completed setting up your seller account with Amazon, you are ready to start selling products. This will be completed from the "Seller Account" dashboard. If you need help returning to this page you can follow Steps 1 through 3 shown above. On the Seller home page at the top are several links that you will need to use regularly. These include: - Inventory - Where you will list products and keep track of your active and inactive listings - Orders - Where you will view Open Orders, Processed Orders, Pending Orders - Reports - Where you can view your financial statements, revenue and more - Performance - Where you can view Customer Satisfaction, Feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee Claims, Chargeback Claims, Performance Notifications

STEP 14 - Creating a Listing

To create a listing you will click on Inventory on your Seller dashboard at the top. This page shows you all of your current inventory. Click on the button that says "Add a product". From here you can choose to look up a product that is already on Amazon or Create a new product. To choose a product that is already available, type the name of the product you wish to sell in the search box and hit "Enter". If you see a listing that matches your product, you can choose to "Sell Yours". This will open up the listing wizard with options for you to enter. When you use this option, you will only be able to submit information such as when you would like to start selling the item, the items condition and your price. You will not be able to change the name of the product, its description or UPC code. When choosing to "Create a New Product", you will need to fill out all the available information for the product by filling in the blanks in the step- by-step process. You will need to name your product, add an sku# or model number, a UPC code (if you do not have a UPC code, you can purchase these online through venues like Cheap-UPC-BarCode.com), date product will be available, detailed description, keyword search terms and more. It is important to fill in as much information as possible for each product that you list for better selling results. The information in your listings can be edited at any time through your Inventory page. New listings can take up to 15 minutes to become active. I have received questions that sometimes the image(s) did not save when the listing was first created. If you should encounter this issue, it is easily resolved. Within a minute of saving your listing you can edit the listing and click on the images tab to upload an image. When you add images a pop-up window will appear. If you do not see this window, you may need to turn off your Pop-Up Blocker temporarily. In this window you can choose images one at a time adding up to nine images. Once you have chosen all the images that you wish to add, you will need to click the "Upload Images" button. You will see the images process. Once this is done, simply close the pop-up window and click "Save" on your listing editing page. Your changes will take effect within 15 minutes.

STEP 15 - View Orders

So now you have your products listed and you are ready to process orders. When a customer completes an order, Amazon will send you an email notification. It is still good to visit your Amazon account each day and check for orders to ensure that you do not miss an order by mistake or if you accidentally delete the order information from your email. Response times are critical as late shipments can leave a bad note on your record with Amazon. Click on an order that is waiting to be shipped to view all of the needed information. You can purchase your own shipping at the US Post Office, UPS or Fed-Ex and then simply add that information here to confirm the order, or you can purchase shipping through your Amazon account and print the label at home to attach to your package.

STEP 16 - Getting Paid

After you have completed your orders you can click on "Reports" to view your account balance and see when you will receive your payment. New accounts will receive payment from Amazon every two weeks. This revenue will be paid directly transferred to your bank account that you set up in your account settings. After you have started to receive payments from your account, you will be eligible to transfer your revenue balance once every 24 hours. To do this, you will visit the "Reports" page. Beside your balance there will be a button that says "Request Transfer". When you click this button you will be taken to a confirmation page that shows the account that the money will be transferred into. Click "Confirm" and your transfer will begin to process. It may take a minute or two for this to show on your transactions in the "Reports" section, and then your balance will appear as $0.00. The transfer of funds can take several days depending on your banks processing times.

STEP 17 - Monitoring Performance

Monitoring your Amazon Seller Account Performance is extremely important for keeping your account in good standing with Amazon policies and Customer Service. Important links for this include: - Messages - Found in the top right corner of your Seller Account dashboard - Customer Satisfaction - Found under the "Performance" link at the top of the Seller Account dashboard - Feedback - Found under the "Performance" link at the top of the Seller Account dashboard - A-to-Z Guarantee Claims - Found under the "Performance" link at the top of the Seller Account dashboard - Chargeback Claims - Found under the "Performance" link at the top of the Seller Account dashboard - Performance Notifications - Found under the "Performance" link at the top of the Seller Account dashboard

STEP 18 - Messages

Checking your Messages everyday is very important. You should also receive these in your email, but responding to them through your Amazon dashboard helps you not only with organization, but also helps keep a record that is readily available if you ever need to refer to a message with Amazon Seller Support staff. Fast response times to messages helps your account health to stay in good standing with Amazon.

STEP 19 - Customer Satisfaction

The Customer Satisfaction dashboard is an analytics page that lets you review the metrics for your seller account including: - An overall summary - Account Health - Seller Rating - Customer Feedback - Reports - Order Quality Report, Performance Over Time, and Performance by Product Line

STEP 20 - Feedback

The Feedback section helps you to review your feedback from your customers and respond to each feedback as you see fit.

STEP 21 - A-to-z Guarnatee Claims

Amazon has an A-to-z Guarantee system which decides between disputes where a seller and buyer can have their sides heard. In some instances the A-to-Z Guarantee Claims support can even decide that neither party is at fault and they will cover the refund to the requesting party without penalizing either side.

STEP 22 - Chargeback Claims

Chargeback Claims are related to orders where a customer does a chargeback with their credit card to dispute a charge on their account. The credit card then cancels the transaction creating a chargeback against the account.

STEP 23 - Performance Notifications

This section contains messages from Amazon to the Seller in regards to any issues that they have concerning a Seller's account. These Performance Notifications can include information regarding policy violations, suspensions, general notices and more.

FINAL NOTES

The Amazon Seller Marketplace is a useful tool that when used properly can provide individuals and businesses alike a unique opportunity to increase sales and build revenue. By following the steps listed above you will build the skills you need to open up new doors of opportunity to increase your income and add to your successes.