Amazon, the originator of e-commerce, is the earliest company to engage in e-commerce and the largest cross-border e-commerce company in the United States. After more than 20 years of vigorous development, it has successively expanded Kindle, network services, Project Aria, Prime Music, Amazon Fresh, street convenience stores, housekeeping services, physical bookstores, grocery stores, drone express delivery and other businesses.
Amazon’s success is worthy of in-depth study by major cross-border e-commerce companies. This chapter will conduct an in-depth discussion of Amazon’s cross-border e-commerce model and experience from several aspects.
2.1 Three ways to register and open a store on Amazon
Amazon’s reputation and popularity created over the years have always been at the top of the world’s e-commerce websites. In the list of the world’s top 500 brands in 2019, Amazon ranked first. There is a saying in e-commerce: “If you don’t know Amazon, don’t say you are playing e-commerce.” So, how to register Amazon to run a store?
2.1.1 Self-registration: conditions + process
At present, in China, you can register and open a store on Amazon as an individual or as a company.
To register as an individual, you need to prepare the following materials:
(1) Dual-currency credit card (to deduct the monthly rent of the store, it is recommended to use a VISA or MasterCard dual-currency credit card).
(2) Independent computer and network (clean, and have not logged into the Amazon seller account or the buyer account).
(3) Email (Note: It is recommended that the computer, network, and email are dedicated to a dedicated number and line, and the email should not be mixed with other channels such as eBay).
If you apply through an Amazon investment manager, you also need to prepare the following materials in advance (mainly for enterprises):
(1) Scanned copy of the business license of the enterprise. Additional information is required to register on Amazon Europe.
(2) Personal bills (bank bills, communication bills, water, electricity, gas bills, etc., which must include the individual’s name and address, and must be from the last three months).
(3) Corporate bills (bank bills, communication bills, water, electricity, gas bills, etc., which must include the company’s name and address from the last three months).
(4) Scanned copies of passport or ID card + household registration page.
(5) Other information required by Amazon, such as VAT number for European overseas warehouse or FBA.
What is the process of applying for an account on the Amazon website?
(1) Enter the Amazon website and select Free Registration in the upper right corner.
(2) Fill in the registration information according to the instructions and verify the email address. After success, the account is successfully created.
The above is the registration of Amazon buyer account. Let’s talk about the issues that sellers need to pay attention to when registering.
If sellers want to register an account on the Amazon website, they first need an Internet cable with an independent IP address and a computer for independent use. Because Amazon has certain monitoring behaviors for seller accounts, if sellers have multiple accounts, it is easy for Amazon to discover and cause one of the accounts to be closed.
Secondly, the seller needs to provide a VISA or MasterCard credit card and a valid billing address. The main purpose of this credit card is to activate the seller’s Amazon account.
In addition, sellers need a mobile phone or landline, because when registering an account, Amazon will send verification information to the seller. Because some mobile phones have problems, when receiving verification information, the verification code may be entered but displayed as invalid. At this time, the seller needs to immediately change other phones or landlines for verification. Amazon’s registration verification has only four opportunities. If the seller verifies more than four times, it will be frozen for 12 hours and can be verified again after 12 hours.
When registering, Amazon has some restricted product categories, such as car or motorcycle accessories, clothing accessories, collectibles, books, jewelry, toys, games, etc.
The third is the sales problem after successful registration. Amazon follows the concept of “focusing on goods and light on stores”, and it is also implemented in accordance with this standard in actual operation, so sellers do not need to spend a lot of energy on store design.
The last is the seller’s management of the supply chain. If the product is small in size, you can consider choosing a Chinese warehouse. If it is a large product, you need to consider an overseas warehouse, because the assessment criteria for freight include the volume and weight of the product. For products with larger volumes, Amazon FBA can be selected for warehousing and distribution, because the price of FBA is much lower than other couriers.
In April 2019, Amazon announced that it would stop providing services to third parties and withdraw its e-commerce business from China, which greatly streamlined the registration process. It should be noted that once the registration is successful, you can no longer connect with the corresponding investment manager and convert it into an Amazon Global Store account, and you cannot enjoy the Amazon Global Store program.