In the eyes of many people, Amazon is a “high-end” platform, so its operation is not quite the same as the platforms that everyone is familiar with. In other words, the operating mode of cross-border e-commerce on other platforms may not work on Amazon. On Taobao, as long as you register an account and bind your real name, you can become a seller, but if you want to open a store on Amazon, you need to go through five levels and cut six generals before you can really have a seller account.
The first step to becoming a global seller on Amazon is to choose where to start your sales? At present, Amazon is mainly divided into three platforms, arranged as follows: North American platform > European platform > Asian platform.
Among the three platforms, it is recommended to choose the US site first, that is, to sell to the United States, Canada and other places, and have more mature solutions in logistics, taxation and customs. The European market, as the largest e-commerce environment outside the United States, still gives people hope in terms of transaction quality and quantity, so while operating the US site, you can also carry out sales on the UK site at the same time because of the same language. The following introduction is also based on the US site.
Preparation before registering a store
A good general should not fight an unprepared battle. Similarly, before registering a store, we also need to make some preparations.
(1) Dual-currency credit card.
Requirements: A personal dual-currency credit card with overseas payment function. When opening an Amazon account, a verification fee of $1 is charged, and the monthly rental fee (US$39.99/month) must be deducted from the professional seller account by the Amazon platform. Individual sellers can choose to deduct US$0.99 from each sale. Another point to note: Amazon is also relatively humane to sellers. It will first deduct from the sales amount until it is full. If it is not enough, it will be deducted from the credit card.
(2) US bank card (tax number for payment (needed for later orders).
There are three ways to obtain a US bank card.
①US personal bank card/personal tax number. This is a personal bank card owned by US citizens, which can be ignored for domestic sellers.
②US company bank card/US company federal tax number. US company bank cards need to be completed by registering a US company. After registering a US company, you can apply for a US company bank card from the bank (you can apply for multiple secondary cards). The bank card is used for Amazon’s payment. At the same time, the registered US company will be equipped with a unique US company federal tax number. It is used to solve the “tax number” problem of your Amazon account.
(3) Logistics.
The seller chooses the shipping location in China. The standard delivery time is 17~28 days. Depending on the situation, you can choose postal parcels, EMS, express delivery, etc. However, here we should focus on the first-leg transportation of Amazon FBA (Fullfll by Amazon).
Amazon FBA First-leg transportation refers to the process of storing the goods to be sold in the warehouse at the place of sale in advance and providing product packaging, storage and delivery services to the seller.
Amazon FBA first-leg transportation can help sellers solve many problems: saving management costs, FBA will handle delivery and customer service completely; increasing sales speed, some buyers are reluctant to buy goods from third-party sellers, they are very interested in FBA products; fast listing, the system can return the returned goods to the seller in time, and repackage them before selling them again.