Selling on Amazon

Amazon is an online sales platform which is world renowned for providing quality products and service. Unbeknown to many online sellers, it is possible to use the Amazon platform as a third party vendor and increase your all around sales. The Amazon platform attract a customer demographic who are much more focused on quality and service, with price having much less impact on sales as with eBay.

Amazon platform

Amazon have three methods of producing sales:

Amazon auctions- The auction facility was launched as a direct equivalent of eBay, although the facility remains available the sales gained from this method will be negligible and may leave you a little disappointed if you apply effort to creating an account for this method of sales.

Amazon Zshop- Again this functionality was designed as an equivalent to an eBay shop, but again with eBay having the largest market share of this sort of selling method Amazon sales via this method may be a little disappointing.

Amazon marketplace- This is the main sales method for Amazon. This method attracts the amazon customers by browsing through categories and searching the site, this method also falls into the Amazon multi channel marketing strategy, giving rise to Google, Yahoo and MSN sponsored links and many affiliate site links.

Amazon accounts

Amazon have several levels of accounts available:

Standard account - A standard account allows you to buy and sell on Amazon but this account type is designed for individuals and not for any sort of bulk sales.

Pro merchant account - This account type is for any seller who is planning to sell around 30 items per month. The account gives access to Amazon secure payments and administration functions, with this account type you will could expect to sell around 2-5 items per 100 inventory items listed per day.

Enhance pro merchant - This type of account is by invite only, if you have a pro-merchant account and sell many items per day you may be invited to become an enhanced pro merchant. This account allows you to display your logo, have a buy box for you item inventory and have access to advance administration functions through the seller central interface. With an enhanced pro merchant account you can expect to see sales of 2-3 times that of a standard pro merchant account.

How to list items on Amazon

With a pro merchant account you may list items on Amazon Zshop and auction through the online administration functions, this will allow you to enter titles, descriptions and upload images, however it will not create listings within the Amazon marketplace. To create an item listing for Amazon marketplace you must first download the amazon flat files for each product type, then you must complete all the required fields and format all your data entries in the correct format. Once this is done you forward you files to the seller submission department who will review your items and create catalogue entries, this normally takes a few weeks. When complete seller submissions will return the files to you with ASIN IDs, you must then create your images to specified formats and name them with corresponding ASIN numbers, you then need to send all your images to seller submission who will validate and upload your images. The final step is to create an inventory file and upload this to you amazon account which will create the listings in you administration screen. This process generally takes around three weeks.

An enhanced pro merchant account allows you to create a catalogue listings without the need for sending files to seller submissions, waiting for replies and uploading image files before creating your inventory. With an enhanced pro merchant account you create and upload your combined catalogue and inventory file, telling amazon where your images are hosted and all the other inventory information required. An enhanced pro merchant account gives enhanced seller functions, like the display of a buy box, inclusion in the Amazon cross platform marketing and the display of your company logo, these additional functions give rise to a 200% increase in sales over a standard pro merchant account.

Unfortunately enhance pro merchant accounts are given by invite only and you may have to wait 12-18 months before becoming eligible. If you have a reputable sales performance on other online sales platform you may be able to get an enhanced pro merchant account through our third party account management.

Getting started

Any one can create a standard account by logging into Amazon.co.uk, giving their personal details and providing the security information, once created you can upgrade your account to a pro merchant account which will allow you to sell your items as a third party vendor on Amazon marketplace.

For standard and pro merchant accounts you can list against existing catalogue items easily, however if you wish to create catalogue pages you must contact customer services who will provide the necessary file templates and destination e-mail address for your page creation files. ( There are different format templates for different Amazon sectors and you must provide a minimum of ten items in each file)

If you want to receive the benefits of a enhanced pro merchant account, you can create a pro merchant account, use this account until being invited to sell as an enhance pro merchant or fill in this form to see if you are eligible for a Amazon managed account.

iSSS managed Amazon accounts

With an iSSS managed account we give you an enhanced pro merchant account, we deal with the technical complications of creating catalogue pages, we deal with your inventory management, we take care of the time consuming file compilation, we assist you with managing your orders and we liaise with amazon to ensure you get the maximum benefits from the Amazon platform. All you have to do is send us sample products (which are returned after processing), fulfill orders and deal with customer queries.

Free setup, no sales no fees, simplified processes, low maintenance.

To find how we can help you improve your online sales, complete the iSSS service form and we will contact you.