Step by Step Guide Selling on Amazon

How to become an Amazon Seller

Ultimately, Signing up for an Amazon Seller Account is quite simple.

You can start signing up here, or by simply going to any page on Amazon and finding the link to become a seller.

To do this, head to Amazon and find the “Make money with us” option.

Underneath it will have a link to “Sell products on Amazon.”

From there, you’ll want to sign up for an Individual Seller Account.

Essentially, this allows you to sell your products without paying a monthly subscription (as opposed to the Pro Seller Account.)

Once you’ve started to make a decent income from selling on Amazon you can always upgrade.

Individual Amazon Seller Central Account Limitations (vs Pro)

1. Can sell up to 40 products a month. More will require you to upgrade to a Pro Seller Account.
2. You’re limited to specific categories. (Amazon will let you know when searching the UPC of your product in the Amazon Seller App)
3. Gift wrap option for your customers isn’t available
4. Listings are created manually in the Amazon Seller Central dashboard. (We will go over this shortly.)
5. Bulk uploads aren’t supported.

After you’ve finished signing up on the website, download the app to your phone and sign in.

Now you’ll want to learn how to list your products.

Below, you’ll find an overview of how to do this.

How to manually list a product on Amazon

If your product is not already listed on Amazon, you’ll have to add products manually.

To do this, you’ll want to follow the steps under the Add products in the catalog section as shown below.

You will simply click on the Add products tab, and enter the information.

If you’re a beginner, it’s best to use an item that is already selling.

Furthermore, you can get used to adding new products after you’ve gotten a good feel of how it works.

If the product is already available on Amazon, you’ll first want to find the product in your Amazon Seller Central app.

You can do this by either searching it by it’s UPC by number, scanning its barcode if you already have it, or typing the product name in the search bar to find it manually.

Once you’ve found the product, you’ll see an option at the bottom that says “Sell” and click on it.

It will then ask you some questions.

The Seller SKU is optional, you can add something to this field if you want to.

Your price is going to be how much you’re selling the product for.

Essentially, a general rule of thumb is to sell just a tad lower than what others are selling it for.

However, this will likely change over time depending on demand.

Next, check “Amazon will ship and provide customer service (FBA aka Fulfilled by Amazon)”.

That way you won’t have to ship the items to the customers yourself (just to Amazon).

Once checked, click the Save and Finish button.

Typically, this usually only takes around 30 seconds.

Next, log into Amazon Seller Central on your computer.

Once in Seller Central on your computer, click the drop-down menu and hover over Inventory, and select “Manage FBA Inventory”.

This will bring you to your listing.

The next step is entering the information to get your shipping label.

To do this, go to the dropdown menu next to the edit button and select Send/Replenish Inventory.

If you’re sending in bulk items that you’ll be separating, you’ll want to check “labeling and prep required”.

Otherwise, keep this box unchecked and verify the number of units you’re sending.

Once you’ve finished this step, the “ready to pack” option will pop up. Click it, scroll down, and continue to packing your individual units.

Now check and see if your units will all fit into one box or if you’ll need multiple.

Check the option that is appropriate for you, and continue.

Amazon will now ask you for the dimensions and weight of the box and have you enter them in.

After completing this step, input the date on which you will be sending the products.

Amazon does have a preferred carrier recommendation that usually provides faster shipping.

However, you can choose the carrier most convenient for you.

At this point, if you have a Rollo printer your label may automatically print.

3 Best Printers for label printing

Otherwise, if you’re using a regular printer, you’ll want to select the “letter” printing option on the screen.

Then print your label, tape it onto your box, and you’re ready to drop it off at a UPS location.

Next, head to Seller central and confirm your shipped items.

And that’s it!

After that, it’s all hands-off from there until you need to replenish your inventory.

Tips to increase your sales

When it comes to selling on Amazon, it can be somewhat competitive.

It’s important to know some of the ways to be able to market your product to lower your competition.

Improving your listing quality is one of those ways.

To do this, simply go back to the drop-down menu and again, hover over inventory. You’ll see an option that says “Improve Listing Quality”.

Next, you will answer some specifics about the items.

Typically, these will come in the form of multiple-choice or a drop-down menu.

You’ll mark the choices, and then click Save.

Your products will arrive at the warehouse and Amazon will change them to “active” and keep track of your inventory.

Getting Paid

Once someone buys your product, Amazon will let you know.

You’ll be able to see this when you log into your Amazon Seller Central App.

This will be on the right at the top of the dashboard.

However, Amazon will have to take out its fees before you get your payment amount.

Amazon pays out every 2 weeks. Your payment (current balance), as well as the payment date, will be available in Amazon Seller Central App.

It will typically take 4 days max to deposit into your bank account.

In addition to selling products, there are other ways of making money with them as well, including Affiliate Marketing, designing merchandise for Merch by Amazon, and Dropshipping.

Merch by Amazon allows you to sell apparel/merchandise on Amazon by creating your own designs on an app such as Canva or 99 Designs and uploading them onto the site.

Keep in mind that selling merchandise on Amazon has its requirements for approval, including having a website of your own. If you’re looking for sites that allow you to start selling right now, check out the “Digital Products” post.

Dropshipping is somewhat similar to Arbitrage, which is what we discussed in this post.

However, instead of you shipping the products, another company does that part for you and you essentially take care of the marketing.

There are several ways to drop ship, some with a website and some without. For more information on this topic check out our post “Dropshipping 101“