Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account Your Questions Answered

1. Dependable Outsourcing Since 1999 interview Q&A Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account: Your Questions Answered Here's an Interview with Ravi Kant, V.P., eCommerce Division, SunTec India, and an Amazon Seller Central Consultant and Expert, focused on accurately listing and managing your products on Amazon, merchandising your product pages – photos, descriptions, etc., Amazon Sponsored Ads and product promotions management, competitor analysis, account health optimization, building Amazon store inventory, FBA services, and overall improving your conversion rates on Amazon. Answer Question If you are planning on getting registered as a seller on Amazon there are various self-service options available: Could you please tell us a little about the Amazon Seller Central account signing up process? Visit services.amazon.com. Click on sell on Amazon or selling on Amazon link on this page Visit sellercentral.amazon.com. Click on the bottom left on ‘Selling on Amazon’ Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. Click on sell button located at the top of Amazon home page It won’t really matter, which of these options you choose, since the process is all the same once you begin with your registration process. The next step would be to decide upon what kind of seller you wish to be – a professional seller or an individual seller. Professional sellers are regular sellers who wish to list a large volume of products, whereas individual sellers only have a small quantity of goods to sell. After one of the service options is selected, what should be the next step? SunTecIndia.com 01

2. Interview Q&A Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account: Your Questions Answered The benefits and consequences of selecting professional or an individual seller account are: Please shed some light on the major trade offs between professional and individual seller account? Monthly fee – Individual sellers do not have to pay any monthly fees whereas professional sellers are required to pay $39.99 as monthly fees to keep their accounts active on Amazon even if they are not selling or listing any of their products. Fee for listing – Both individual and professional sellers are required to pay equal amount of referral fees on product sales. However, $.99 is charged as fee on every sales from individual sellers and no such fee is charged from professional sellers. So, if you are planning to sell products in excess of 40 units, professional seller account will be most suited considering the monthly fee of $39.99. Sellers are allowed to move back and forth from professional to individual sellers, and vice versa. Shipping charges – Only professional sellers are allowed to set shipping rates for their products. So, if you have any intentions of making shipping charges a profit center, you need to opt for professional seller account. However, my personal advice is not to think of shipping as a profit center. Your customers will be put off, if you overcharge shipping. Also, remember that Amazon will charge referral fee on product price and shipping rate combined together. New product listing – Except for few minor exceptions available to individual sellers, only professional sellers are allowed to create new product listings for products they wish to introduce, afresh. Individual sellers are allowed to only make additions to their existing product listings on Amazon. Gated categories – Only professional sellers are allowed to list in 10 or more categories that are at present gated on Amazon. These include shoes, jewelry, and beauty, to name a few. Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. The registration process can be completed in less than an hour. However you must collect all the information that will be required while registering so as to have a smooth registration process. How much time does it take for the registration process to complete? SunTecIndia.com 02

3. Interview Q&A Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account: Your Questions Answered Signing up rules differ from country to country, so let’s take a look at all the information that will be required and the process to get registered in the US marketplace (Amazon.com). Remember, the registration process can be paused at any point and it can be proceeded with later on. However, it is best to have all these information before you begin with the registration process. What all information will be required at the time of registration? Legal business name, contact details, address Email address( for company accounts) Credit card that is internationally chargeable along with valid mailing address Phone number Tax identity information Once all the information is provided, you will become a registered seller on Amazon. Amazon will almost immediately encourage you to begin with product listing process. Listing even a single product would amount to you becoming a launched seller, from earlier being a registered, not launched seller. Before you actually begin listing your products on Amazon, there are a few crucial administrative issues that you should not overlook. These include: Can we start listing products on Amazon as soon as the registration is complete? Selling products in categories requiring approval or gated categories – There are over 10 categories that are gated and sellers require special permission to sell these products. If you are a seller wanting to sell gated products you can begin by placing un-gating request soon after getting registered. By doing so, you can avail the first 30 days free program that is available to all newly registered professional sellers. In case your un-gating request is turned down, you will still be left with enough time to decide on whether you wish to continue as a professional seller before you are charged a monthly fee. Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. SunTecIndia.com 03

4. Interview Q&A Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account: Your Questions Answered Setting up your profile – Once you have successfully registered as a seller on Amazon, click on the home page http://sellercentral.amazon.com. Since, you are a new seller you need to go through a number of settings by clicking on settings on the top right corner of Seller Central home page. How long will it take for Amazon’s seller performance team to respond to seller’s emails? Feedback – Amazon keeps an eye on your performance metrics, which includes customer feedback. While sellers can always ask customers to leave their feedback, it is always encouraged to make use of effective tools such as feedbackgenius, feedbackfive, etc., to have a successful feedback process in place. It is always best to automate the feedback collection process so that you can better focus on other core activities of your business. The most recommended settings include: What are the most recommended settings on the Seller central home page for a new seller? Account information – Check whether all the contact information mentioned is accurate. The information displayed can be edited by clicking on edit button available on the right hand site. If you wish to use a different display name and not your legal name, you can enter the information there. Make sure that all the return information is accurate, especially if you are planning on using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) services. If you thinking about changing credit card in Charge method, you need to be aware that your account might be put on hold for as long as 24 hours till the credit card number is updated in Amazon system. So, it is advisable in such cases to talk to seller support team and get things sorted out to reduce the time taken for verification and updating your card. Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. Notification preferences – If you have dedicated staff members in your team addressing distinct issues, you would perhaps want to set email preferences in such a way so that you don’t miss out on any important emails generated for every single order. Listing and report notifications are crucial, since they notify you about your listings being changed by a seller, or when your listings are merged by Amazon. Competitors changing descriptions of listings can be very disappointing, as well as can make you lose money. SunTecIndia.com 04

5. Interview Q&A Getting Started with Amazon Seller Central Account: Your Questions Answered Login Settings – When you wish to make changes to your username or password to login to your Seller Central account. Returns Settings – Decide how you wish your product returns from your customers to be handled. Amazon handles FBA returns. However, if you are an individual seller, you have the following choices for your default return request authorization rules: You can manually authorize each request You can automatically authorize Amazon to all requests, stipulating your chosen length of time from the order date (maximum 30 days) for automatic authorizations You can automatically authorize Amazon to all requests that meet Amazon Policy assigning a particular length of time Instructions that have been set up by you will facilitate communication between you, Amazon and your customer. Shipping settings – Professional sellers are allowed to set their own shipping rates for orders that they fulfill themselves. Whatever rates you choose, make sure that you offer competitive rates to your customers. Tax Settings – It is common for new sellers to not collect tax on Amazon transactions, which forces them to pay for it from out of their pockets. Sales tax costs are not considered while calculating buybox algorithm, so you won’t be penalized if your customer belongs to the state where you have to pay state tax. User Permissions – You can allow people to have access to certain sections of Seller Central account. This can be useful if you have many people as part of your team, and you do not wish all of them to have access to all the information available on your Amazon account. Copyright © 2016 SunTecIndia.com. All rights reserved. Your Info & Policies – Describe about your company in “about seller” section to help customers get acquainted with your company, and its procedures and guidelines. If you have your company logo, upload it on product detail page next to your company name. If you are selling products having unusual features or characteristics you can address those in FAQs. Fulfilled by Amazon – If you will be using FBA, you need to fill in all the required information to ensure that returns are correctly sent to your postal address. SunTecIndia.com 05