How To Register As A Free Individual Account Seller On Amazon

The first thing to do if you want to start selling on Amazon is to register a seller account. There are 2 types of account, the Individual Account is free but there is an additional Item Fee of US$0.99 for each product sold. The Professional Seller account has a monthly fee of US$39.99 but the Item Fee is waived. You can sign up as a free Individual Seller first and then upgrade to Professional Account when your products start to sell, which maybe a few weeks later. Also only a Professional seller can advertise on Amazon. 

You will also need a bank account in countries like Singapore, USA, Hong Kong to receive money as Amazon cannot pay to a Malaysian bank for now. If you do not have a foreign bank account you may register an account with payoneer.com as a receiving account. You can register online with the above link to receive a one time US$25 bonus when you receive payment of over US$1000. 

The required documents to register your seller accounts are: 

• A jpeg copy of your national ID card, front and back
• Your debit or credit card
• Your bank account statement
• Utility bill
• A foreign bank account or Payoneer account

To register go to amazon.com, scroll down to the bottom and click Sell on Amazon.

Scroll down and click Sign up to become an individual seller, and complete the process.

You should be approved within 3 days if everything is in order. Once approved you can login to your seller central page to manage your seller account. 

Under the Performance Tab > Seller University there are many video tutorials that you can learn how to master the various parts of the Seller Central page.

A few settings that you need to do are:

1. Register as FBA Seller:- Go to Settings > Account Info > Your Services
2. Enable Distribution Placement Service so that you only need to send to one FC:- Go to Settings > Fulfillment by Amazon > Inbound Settings
3. Enable Export so that non-US customers can buy from you:- Go to Settings > Fulfillment by Amazon > Export Settings
   

Now you can start to list your product and send your first shipment. I recommend sending only 10 to 30 units of any new products to try out the market and to avoid costly mistakes.

If you have any questions about Amazon FBA you may contact me. I will try my best to answer them. (WhatsApp +60164165599)

How To Find Products For Sale On Amazon FBA

So you have registered as an Amazon FBA seller, what's next? Finding suitable products to sell of course! Having the right products to sell on Amazon will determine your success or failure in your eCommerce venture.

As an non US citizen selling on Amazon, I have to ship my products from Malaysia by air courier like FedEx or DHL to Amazon's fulfillment centers in US which can be expensive. One cartoon of 20 kg can cost as much as RM 700. Shipping fee from China to US is cheaper by around 50%. So I mostly sell products that are light and small of less than 300 gm and can be sold for US$ 10 and above. My shipment can reach Amazon in 3 to 4 days so I only have to keep about one month's stock in my inventory.

China is by far the best place to source for products, because of vast range and low prices. Most people use Alibaba.com to source products online. But the problem with Alibaba is that they usually require high minimum order quantity like 1000 units, and you have to negotiate with a number of sellers to get a good price. This takes time, high capital and huge risk. You may have to invest as much as US$2000 to US$5000 just to try one products. Typically only 1 in 5 product will do well on Amazon marketplace due to intense competition.

1688.com is a wholesale site under the Alibaba group. It is mainly for China manufacturers and wholesalers selling to retailers in China. Although the site is in Chinese, by using Google translate you can still navigate even if you don't know any Chinese. The great thing about the site is that most sellers keep ready stock and sell with no or low minimum order and at a fixed price with quantity discount. By listing their products on 1688, a manufacturer in China can reach the whole China market. There are at least 200 million products listed at any one time so the price competition among the sellers are very intense.

With 1688.com, you can easily source for China products without leaving your home. I use a China agent service where they will purchase products and prepare them and ship direct to Amazon FC for me. This saves me time and a great deal of shipping cost. 

My business model is that I only send 10 to 20 units of any new products to Amazon to try out how well they will perform in the marketplace. It takes usually less than RM 1500 to try out 10 products of 10 units each. This will minimize the capital outlay and risk. 

Contact me if you have any questions on how to start your own Amazon FBA business and sell to direct to US consumers, the richest and biggest market in the world. This is a great eCommerce opportunity many in Malaysia are not even aware of. 

Amazon Australia FBA- A New And Promising Marketplace

Amazon Australia just started their FBA program recently. I have just sent my first shipment by FedEx and everything went smoothly and my products are on sale now. See:

https://www.amazon.com.au/s/?ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yosogo&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ayosogo 

The registration is straight forward and similar to the USA site. This is a chance to be one of the first FBA sellers in a promising marketplace. The competition is not as keen as in other Amazon market and I found that I can price my products at a much higher price than in USA. 

The population of Australia is slightly less than Malaysia but have much higher income. As Australia is a huge country and it can be hard to purchase many items especially in rural area so eCommerce will likely grow exponentially in the near future. 

To attract more sellers to the site, they are offering much lower seller fees for now. I found that the total fees are around 15 to 20% compare with 35 to 45% in America. So sellers can expect to earn double the profit selling there.

If you have any questions about Amazon FBA please contact me. I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. Thank you.

Product Bundling - A Powerful Strategy On Amazon FBA

Amazon Marketplace is becoming very competitive nowadays with over 300 millions products listed and millions more everyday. A very good way to make your product standout is to do product bundling. You can bundle the same product like pack of 12 or different but compatible products. Example you can bundle mouse with mouse pad.   

Above is my one of bundles on Amazon. If I were to sell the pencil set alone, I can only sell them for less than US$8.00 as there are quite a number of sellers for this product. By adding a sharpener and eraser which cost less than $1, I can sell the pack for $16.99 as I am the only seller.

If a product is a low priced item you should consider selling them in multiple units like pack of 6 and so on. I am selling 6 inch plastic ruler in a pack of 12 for US$9.99. If I were to sell them individually or lesser quantity it will not be profitable at all. You will be surprised that many people will buy in bulk as unit price will be much lower.

You can offer a lower price for bundle and still be making higher margin because of savings in fees. It also makes the buyer happy as they do not have to make multiple purchases.

Not many sellers are employing bundling strategy, by bundling your products sensibly you can also avoid direct price competition with other sellers and achieve higher sales and margin.

Below are more examples of my bundles:

Color Rubber Band Ball (135 gm x 2) - Pack of 2

Max Stapler HD-10D With 2 Boxes 10-1M Staples- Made In Japan

Set of 3 Aluminum Rulers Of 6”, 8”, 12” in Inch and CM Scale

48 mm / 1.9 inch X 6 yards Self Adhesive Cloth Gum Tape for Book Binding - Pack of 5 Rolls

Mini Sized Dry-Erase Whiteboard Eraser- pack of 12

Create your bundles now be pleasently surprised.