Anyone who has sold on Amazon understands a few things to consider before getting started. These choices could directly impact your sales and customer service success. One of these considerations is having a professional or individual seller account. Both solutions have advantages and disadvantages, and the choice is ultimately yours. We’ve broken out each choice below.
Amazon Account for Individual Sellers
The Individual seller amazon has a plan which is more of a pay-as-you-go arrangement. It gives individuals “testing the waters” and getting to know the marketplace a little more flexibility. It is perfect for small order volumes because you pay $.99 per item sold.
You will also be responsible for referral fees and variable closing fees, and you will have these with both types of accounts. You can sell numerous things already listed on the site, but you can only create one new product listing. You are also limited to fewer product categories and can’t sell in restricted or special authorization categories.
Amazon Professional Seller account
You can sell in the following categories with restricted or special permissions if you have an Amazon professional seller account. You will have access to a number of these categories, which may provide promising avenues for you to market your goods.
- Using third-party services: listing and managing several products can be time-consuming. Various services can assist you in completing this task more quickly. You won’t be able to use these with a single account.
- Winning the Buy Box: Winning the Buy Box will surely increase sales for any Amazon seller, but it is only feasible if you have a Professional plan. Winning the Buy Box might give you a significant advantage over other sellers in your category, which may be reason enough to upgrade to the Professional account.
- Creating new listings: You can only make one new listing per user account. You can undertake private labeling or offer new wholesale products to Amazon with a professional account. In addition, you will be able to produce these listings in batches by using spreadsheets, uploads, etc.
With so many alternatives, you must decide which best is for you. Although the Professional Seller Account has certain additional perks that may be too beneficial to pass up, it may be more than you require when you first start. In that scenario, you should open an Individual Seller Account.
Final thoughts
With an Individual account, you must list each product separately. When you upgrade to a Professional account, you gain access to the option to bulk upload products using spreadsheets, which can save you a lot of time if you have a lot of products in your inventory. This is unlikely to be a problem if you are a brand new seller, but it could be critical if you’re new to Amazon and have goods to list that you’ve already sold elsewhere.
