Currently, Chinese sellers who want to settle in Amazon can complete the registration and settlement through three methods: self-registration, company global store plan and site local company registration.
Self-registration is to complete the registration by yourself as an individual or company through the “Register” button on the homepage of the Amazon platform. The registration process of the self-registered account is simple. During the registration process, you need to provide your personal ID card and your personal dual-currency credit card (with VISA or MasterCard logo on the card). Currently, only Canada, Mexico and Japan can settle in through self-registration. Other sites need to register through the company global store plan.
The company global store plan is a seller recruitment plan launched by Amazon for Chinese sellers. Chinese sellers can apply for registration under the names of mainland China companies and Hong Kong companies. During the application phase, Amazon China’s investment promotion team will provide guidance and assist in completing information preparation, account application and basic operation guidance in the early stage. The information required for application includes company business license, dual-currency credit card (preferably legal person’s), passport (required for registration in European site, if not, can be replaced by household register and ID card), address proof (statements of public utilities such as water, electricity, gas, etc., one of which is sufficient), and bank statement of company’s public account (required for registration in European site, generally not required for registration in US and Japan sites).
Site local company registration is a registration method based on local companies of each site, and the registration process is similar to the self-registration process.
After registration, there are only two account levels for sellers: individual level (Individual) and professional level (Professional). Individual-level accounts do not have the function of batch operation, cannot download order data reports, and cannot use various promotional tools in the site. The published products do not have the shopping cart (Buy Box) function, and orders cannot be delivered by Amazon Logistics (FBA), and sellers need to ship by themselves.
Personal-level accounts do not have monthly store fees, but Amazon will charge a $0.99 listing fee for each product information posted.
Professional-level accounts can perform batch operations on products and orders in the store, and can download order data payment details, store traffic data and other reports, which is convenient for sellers to conduct operational analysis based on relevant data. They can also use the platform’s in-site advertising, promotions, flash sales and other operational tools to facilitate sellers to take the initiative and promote store sales growth.
In addition, the system will automatically match shopping carts for well-performing listings based on the seller’s listing (product) performance, and the sales volume of a listing depends to a certain extent on whether it has a shopping cart. According to platform rules, listings without shopping carts cannot place in-site advertising. Data shows that about 87% of orders on the Amazon platform are generated on listings with shopping carts. For a professional Amazon seller, the importance of the shopping cart is self-evident. For professional-level accounts, whether they are operating or not, the Amazon platform will charge a monthly store rental fee of $39.99.
After the account registration is completed, the seller can switch between the personal level account and the professional level account according to the actual operation needs. However, from the perspective of actual operation, it is simple and easy to downgrade the professional level account to a personal level account, and it can be switched with one click. When upgrading from a personal level account to a professional level account, the system may require the seller to re-provide valid account registration related information for a second review. If the information is incomplete, it may result in failure to pass the review. Therefore, unless the Amazon store is no longer operated, it is not recommended for sellers to lower the account level.
Through the above comparison, it is not difficult to find that the biggest difference between personal level accounts and professional level accounts is that their permissions are different. Professional level accounts have greater permissions. For sellers who intend to “dig for gold” on the Amazon platform, professional level accounts are an inevitable choice.
During the account registration process, the Amazon platform’s review of the seller’s information is relatively strict. If the information is incomplete or falsified, it may result in failure to pass the registration. Therefore, it is recommended that sellers prepare relevant information before registering an account.