2020 Amazon Online Store Operation Guide: Detailed explanation of rules and start-up capital planning

As one of the world’s largest cross-border e-commerce platforms, Amazon not only provides sellers with a vast market, but also sets strict rules to ensure platform fairness and buyer experience. This article will combine the basic rules, operating details, and start-up capital requirements of Amazon’s online store to help sellers who are interested in getting involved have a comprehensive understanding of Amazon.

Amazon online store rules

Rules for sellers

Sellers entering the platform must ensure the consistency of their identity information and can only have one account in the same market. In order to avoid account association problems, sellers need to pay attention to the following points:

• IP address: Using the same IP address to log in to different accounts in the same market may lead to correlation;
• Phone number: Mobile phone numbers tied to other Amazon accounts also pose associated risks;
• Collection account number: Sharing of payment account numbers also needs to be avoided;
• Image: Using the same product image may also lead to association;
• Virtual machine association: Logging in to two different accounts on the same ECS or ECS with a similar IP address will be considered a violation;
• FBA shipping address: The same FBA shipping address may also be a correlation factor.

In order to maintain a good seller image, Amazon has also set performance indicators:

• ODR (negative review rate): <1%;
• Cancellation rate: <2.5%;
• Late onset rate: <4%.

Violation of any of the above provisions may result in account closure.

Operation rules

In addition to strict account management rules, Amazon also requires sellers to pay attention to buyer experience, which is reflected in multiple aspects such as product quality, brand protection, and respect for intellectual property rights. For the creation of product listings, Amazon has the following requirements:

• Title: no more than 200 characters, capitalize the first letter except conjunctions, and prohibit special symbols;
• Main image: It must have a pure white background, without logo, text or watermark.

At the same time, it is crucial to avoid any form of infringement.

Start-up capital planning

For new sellers who want to enter Amazon in 2020, reasonable financial preparation is the key to success.

Fixed costs

• Company registration: including seal engraving fee and bank account opening fee;
• Agency accounting: about 2K per year;
• Venue rental: determined according to different regional policies and personal needs;
• Computer and Network: New equipment recommended;
• Payment tools: It is recommended to use third-party payment solutions;
• UPC/EAN code: used for product launch;
• Platform monthly rental: Varies depending on the region.

Floating costs

• Sample procurement: Depends on product selection strategy;
• Product purchasing: based on sales forecast;
• Logistics costs: including FBA first leg and last leg;
• Marketing promotion: Combination of on-site promotion and off-site promotion;
• Personnel costs: Adjust based on scale of operation.

Conclusion

Although competition on Amazon is becoming increasingly fierce, as long as you abide by the platform rules and plan your start-up capital reasonably, there is still a great chance of success. The field of cross-border e-commerce is in a period of rapid development, and governments of various countries are also actively supporting the development of this industry, which provides sellers with a good external environment.