Amazon for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know to Start Selling on Amazon

Posted 2 months ago by Max Komonov

You’ve probably heard of Amazon, the global ecommerce giant you see all over the internet. They sell everything from consumer goods and electronics to digital content and services across the globe.

If you want your ecommerce business to thrive, getting your products on Amazon is a must. This article has all you need to know to get started!

Amazon by the Numbers

Amazon’s dominant position is not a matter of opinion but is grounded in undeniable, concrete data:

It ranks first among the leading large-cap ecommerce companies worldwide
It is the most visited marketplace in Europe
The US accounted for over 80% of desktop visits to Amazon, the highest traffic to the marketplace
About 35% of global consumers prefer marketplaces over other online channels for product search. Preferences vary by region, but consumers in Europe, the US, and the UK commonly choose Amazon.

Amazon is one of the top online marketplaces where global shoppers recently made their latest cross-border purchase (Source: Statista)

Top Reasons to Sell on Amazon

At first sight, large marketplaces like Amazon can seem like the enemy of small ecommerce websites. Trusted reputation, mind-boggling variety, aggressive prices and service, and fast and free shipping. For small businesses trying to make it on the outside, that sounds like an impossible match-up.

But aikido wisdom says that the best battle is the one that didn’t happen. Ecwid makes Amazon your ally by enabling you to integrate your existing online store with Amazon’s platform to help you get the most out of both.

Build your brand on a separate ecommerce website while simultaneously making the most of the opportunities afforded by Amazon’s gigantic scale.

Amazon is unbelievably big. In 2023, it hit nearly $576 billion in net sales revenue worldwide. Amazon owns 228 million square feet of warehouses, offices, and other facilities — the size of nearly 100 Amsterdams!
It’s an additional revenue stream. Amazon provides its top-tier service to almost 278 million visitors in the US alone. Even if you sell to only 0.01% of them, that means 27,800 sales. Not too bad, right?
It’s easy to start selling on Amazon if you already have an online store. All major platforms, including Ecwid, provide synchronization with Amazon that imports your inventory from your ecommerce site to the marketplace.
Customers love shopping on Amazon. Amazon excels as a brand discovery tool, with 55% of all product searches beginning on the platform. It offers everything from clothes and smart home gadgets to fresh produce and paper towels.
Customers trust Amazon. The marketplace was recognized as the most trusted brand in the US. If customers don’t find your products there, they are unlikely to buy from you on other platforms. But if they do, your chances for a sale will double. Why? Because customers trust Amazon. And if you’re there, they’ll trust you too.
Amazon supports small- and medium-sized businesses. Over 60% of Amazon store sales come from independent sellers, primarily small and medium-sized businesses. Successful Amazon sellers wish they started selling on Amazon sooner.

Setting Up Your Store on Amazon

Let’s get your awesome products to the Amazon marketplace, stat!

Choose Your Plan

Amazon offers two plans: Individual and Professional. The Individual plan costs only $0.99 per sold unit + additional selling fees that depend on your product category. This means that every time someone buys from you, you pay $0.99 and some fees. Simple, cheap, but limited in its features.

The Professional plan costs $39.99/month + additional selling fees, but extends your promotions and inventory features to the max. For example, you’ll be able to list your products in additional categories, advertise on Amazon, and manage products in bulk. In short, it costs more but gives more.

Compare selling plans.

Learn additional fees.

Create an Amazon Seller Account

You can convert your customer account into a seller account, or create a new one (recommended). Either way, to sell on Amazon, you will need the following:

A bank account number and bank routing number.
A chargeable credit card.
Government-issued national ID.
Your tax information.
A working phone number.

Once you register as a seller, you’ll have access to Seller Central — the home of your Amazon business and a control panel for managing your selling account, editing and adding product information, updating inventory, and managing payments. You will also list all your products here.

From here, you’ll have to decide how you will sell — as an individual or as a company.

	Selling as an Individual	Selling as a Company
Seller information	ID is enough	Legal docs required: Bank account statement, AIN
Contact person	This can be you	A resident of an accepted country with ID to verify
Billing	Can be your personal debit/credit card	Must be your company’s credit/debit card

Billing Information

To transfer your earnings to you, Amazon will ask you to verify your credit or debit card information. Amazon accepts Amex, Visa, and Mastercard. Make sure you have one of these accounts because Amazon won’t accept prepaid credit cards, checks, or online payment systems like PayPal.

Confirming Your Information

The last step in creating an Amazon account is verification. If you did everything right — spelled your name, company name, address, billing information etc., correctly, you shouldn’t have any problems with approval. This review may take around the week. The Amazon verification team may still contact you by email to ask questions, so make sure to keep an eye on your mailbox.

While you wait, you don’t have to sit in front of the window counting birds. Instead, learn about some best selling practices on Amazon, watch videos, and read blogs to get a better sense of the Amazon landscape.

Listing Products on Amazon

Hey, you’re approved to sell. Now what?

At this stage, you’ll see some major differences between the types of Amazon selling plans. Individual plan sellers have to create a listing for each product one by one, while Professional plan sellers can upload their product feed and have access to API that unlocks syncing and automation.

Another critical thing to know about listing your products is Amazon Restricted products. Make sure you are not violating the product restriction policies in place, or you run the risk of getting your selling ability taken away.

What You’ll Need to List Products

All your products must have a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN): a UPC, an ISBN, or an EAN to identify the exact item you’re selling.

If you’re creating a new product on Amazon, you may need to purchase UPCs or request an exemption. For ordering UPCs, you can visit GS1 US. If you are a private-label and want to save money on barcodes, you can ask for Amazon’s exemption.

In addition to a product ID, each of your products will have a:

SKU. A product ID you create to track your inventory.
Product title.
Product description and bullet points.
Product image (or, better yet, multiple!).
Search terms and relevant keywords.

Product Detail Page Guidelines

Title. Maximum of 200 characters. Capitalize the first letter of every word.

Images. Images of 500 x 500 or 1,000 x 1,000 pixels are recommended to increase listing quality.

Bullet points. Highlight key features and benefits in short form. Catch customer’s eyes to captivate them and persuade them to buy.

Description. Appeal to emotions, tell the story, create a connection. Don’t forget the keywords. They increase the chances that people will find your listing.

Shipping Options on Amazon

You have two options for delivering products sold on Amazon — by yourself or with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

Fulfilling your own orders means you store and ship products directly to customers yourself. Amazon will charge shipping rates based on the product category and shipping service you select and passes that money to you as a shipping credit. If you sell as an individual, make sure your prices stay profitable in this light.

Amazon’s Buy Shipping tool can help you with shipping calculations and to find a good deal from Amazon’s trusted partners.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) allows you to benefit from 175 Amazon fulfillment centers and store your products in their warehouses (as opposed to in your living room) for faster and more convenient shipping. With FBA, you will almost entirely skip the packaging, shipping, customer service (related to delivery), and return issues. However, FBA is not free, so sellers beware.

There are two types of FBA fees that depend on your business model:

Fulfillment fees per unit sold. It includes picking, packaging, shipping, returns, and customer service.
Inventory storage fees. Monthly fees are based on the amount of inventory stored at the center.

FBA is a great option for cross-border merchants who want to sell on Amazon because it erases the cultural borders, speeds up delivery, and allows merchants to avoid the headache of returns.

Setting Up a Store on Amazon with Ecwid

Ecwid by Lightspeed is an ecommerce platform that not only provides you with an online store but also allows you to connect it to marketplaces, including Amazon.

You can seamlessly integrate your online store with Amazon using one of the apps in the Ecwid App Market. It takes a few clicks to sync your online store with one of the largest e-tailers in the world.

Before You Start

You can connect your Ecwid store and sell on Amazon only if your store meets these criteria:

You have an Amazon Professional Seller account. You can only synchronize your Ecwid store inventory with Amazon if you have a Professional seller account, which unlocks API access and allows synchronization with external storefronts.
Your store complies with Amazon Selling Policies, and your products meet the marketplace requirements.
You do not sell handmade goods. Amazon has a separate marketplace called Amazon Handmade. You can’t add product offers there using third-party services — you have to create them directly in your Amazon Handmade account.
Your country is white-listed by Amazon to sell from.
You have assigned your products EAN, UPC, ISBN, or GTIN codes. These codes are needed to list your products on Amazon, and you can add them as product attributes in an Ecwid store.

Step 1. Connect Your Amazon Account

To connect your Ecwid store to Amazon, you need to install one of the following apps from the Ecwid App Market:

The apps vary in price and features, including the ability to connect with other marketplaces. Do your research and choose the app that works best for you.

Every app has its way of linking your Ecwid store to Amazon, but don’t worry, it’s pretty easy! Our step-by-step instructions in the Ecwid Help Center will walk you through the process for each app:

Connect your Ecwid store to Amazon via M2E Multichannel Connect
Connect your Ecwid store to Amazon via Channable
Connect your Ecwid store to Amazon via Koongo.

Step 2. List Your Products on Amazon

Product listing contains information about your product, including its title, images, description, price, and barcode (UPC/EAN/ISBN/GTIN).

To list products from your Ecwid catalog on Amazon via the M2E Multichannel Connect app, you have to create the inventory feed. Here’s how to do that.

The same goes for the Koongo app. To list products from your Ecwid catalog on Amazon, you have to create the inventory feed. Using the Inventory Loader feed is recommended since it automatically matches items from your Ecwid online catalog to existing items and categories on Amazon. Here are the instructions.

The process for the Channable app is a bit different. To start listing your products on Amazon, you have to create and set up four parameters. Here’s how to do that.

Step 3. Process Orders from Amazon

Another great thing about connecting your Ecwid store to Amazon via the apps above is the inventory sync. This means your product stock is synchronized between your Amazon and Ecwid accounts, preventing you from overselling.

When your product is bought on Amazon, a new order will appear in your Ecwid admin. You will find it on the Orders page. Like with other new orders, you will get a notification about a new order with an email or a push notification in the Ecwid mobile app for iOS or Android.

Orders from Amazon will have a marketplace logo on their page:

Learn more about processing orders from Amazon in our Help Center. Here’s how to process orders from Amazon via each app:

Process orders from Amazon via M2E Multichannel Connect
Process orders from Amazon via Channable
Process orders from Amazon via Koongo.

Making Your First Sale on Amazon

Once your products are on Amazon, it’s time to get busy attracting new customers.

Try Advertising

Investing some money in ads on Amazon is an excellent way to up your sales. You may fail with your first campaign, but don’t let that scare you away. Soon, you will master the hard-won skill of effective advertising, and reap its sweet rewards. The key is to start slow and speed up gradually as you get the hang of it.

Bonus tip: running a deal or adding a coupon to your ad will raise your chances of winning over a customer.

Amazon offers four advertising solutions accessible through Seller Central:

Sponsored products. Ads for individual products that appear on search results pages and product detail pages.
Sponsored brands. This option showcases your brand and product portfolio on search results. These ads feature your brand logo, a custom headline, and up to three of your products.
Sponsored display. This self-service option allows you to show your ads on the customer journey across Amazon and outside of it on partner’s websites.
Sponsored TV. This option allows you to show your ads to viewers of Amazon’s streaming services. (Sponsored TV is available to sellers enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry.)

Play with Prices

Remember, prices are the most significant purchasing driver for 88% of Amazon shoppers. Keep an eye on the market to stay competitive.

It’s important to remember that not every product will sell on Amazon. And the products that sell best can have some pretty steep competition. If you’ve never sold on Amazon and you’re not sure if your products are quite the right fit, it might be a good idea to test your niche first.

Here’s what we suggest:

Upload just one product that you think will sell.
Set a competitive price that’s a bit lower than average for Amazon. This might not be profitable initially, but it will allow you to evaluate demand for your product or niche within the marketplace.

Alternatively, you can raise prices to include shipping, thus offering free shipping on the storefront. This can be a strong motivation for customers to buy, even if your prices seem slightly higher than your competitors because of it.

Run a Sale

Time-limited discounts, buy one get one free, low stock — all of these are excellent ways to persuade your customers to make a purchase. Everyone loves to save money, so these classic moves can help you to sell on Amazon successfully.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve made your first sale on Amazon, you can officially call yourself an Amazon seller. But even celebrating this glorious event, you probably realize that this is just the beginning. You have a journey ahead. Millions of potential customers wait for you to find them and fill their lives with fun, excitement, and comfort — depending on the products you sell.

What’s your next step to success? These are a few things you can focus on.

Collect Customer Reviews

As an ecommerce seller, you probably already know the importance of reviews. The value of honest, detailed 5-star reviews from a confirmed purchase works for selling on Amazon better than anywhere else. 66% of customers name Amazon as the most important place to research new products, and reviews are among the most critical consumer research points because they help a potential consumer learn candidly about a product and gain confidence in its value.

Reviews are essential for sellers too. They serve as a critical feedback source that can help you improve your products, shopping experience, or any other aspect of the interaction between the buyer and the seller.

You’re not alone in your quest for reviews! Amazon can help. They have an Amazon Early Reviewer Program (ERP) that encourages customers who have purchased a product from you to share their experience.

Go Prime

Prime members are the most profitable customers. There are 100,000,000 of them, and each spends an average of $1,000 a year on Amazon. If you want to turn them into loyal customers, you need to opt-in for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

Register Your Brand

If you sell a private label and haven’t registered a trademark yet, consider registering your brand. Otherwise, you’re missing out on some exciting features that will help you stand out and grow your business.

You can register your trademark on your own by applying to your local Trademark Office or using the Amazon Brand Registry service. It’s free and not only helps protect your intellectual property but also unlocks tools like A+ Content and the Brand Dashboard on Seller Central.

With A+ Content, you can add rich media content to your Amazon store page and product detail pages to increase both traffic and sales.

Other perks that go with Brand Registry:

Brand analytics. You’ll be able to track the way customers interact with your brand: search terms, demographics, and more.
Manage your experiments. Run experiments like A/B testing to see what content drives more sales.
Virtual bundles. Sell bundles of complementary FBA items without packaging them together.

Learn more about Brand Registry benefits.

Brand Registry is available for sellers with:

A Professional selling account
An active registered trademark that appears on your products or packaging
The ability to verify yourself as the rights owner or authorized agent for the trademark.

Sell on Amazon Business

If you have a Professional seller account, you can offer Amazon Business customers an exceptional shopping experience, such as bulk pricing and business pricing. Besides standard selling fees, there’s no additional cost to selling in the Amazon Business store.

Amazon Business is the B2B marketplace on Amazon, which provides B2B opportunities. Signing up to Amazon Business enables you to provide special business pricing or quantity discounts to businesses purchasing from Amazon.

Although you will sell your goods at a lower price, the volume of sales may go up beyond your expectations. This option works best for companies that are capable of uninterrupted production for large quantities of their inventory.

Scale Your Business Worldwide

With Amazon, it’s easy to expand your business internationally and sell your products to hundreds of millions of Amazon shoppers globally.

You can reach consumers from Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Japan, and Australia. The Middle East, Turkey, Singapore, and Brazil are among the destinations yet to come.

Here’s the list of available destinations.

Interested? Follow the Amazon guide to learn How to start selling worldwide.

Helpful Resources for Selling on Amazon

Ecwid’s no stranger to selling on Amazon, and we’ve written some meaty articles over the years to help small businesses be successful. If you’re looking for a little extra help, check out these resources to get some essential wisdom for Amazon beginners:

Amazon Strategies and Reviews — on this podcast, we discuss building trust with new customers on Amazon.
Multichannel Selling Explained: Expanding to Big & Niche Marketplaces — tune in to this podcast to learn how to have a strong presence on several marketplaces at once.

Other Marketplaces Connected to Your Ecwid Store

While Amazon is never short on opportunities, Ecwid can be integrated with even more marketplaces, like Google Shopping and eBay, to help you get the most out of your online store. Check out the list of available marketplaces you can connect your Ecwid store to.

In Closing

If you were thinking of selling on Amazon but always waiting for the perfect time — putting it off might be the worst decision of your business life.

With millions of shoppers, strong trust in the platform, and customer-centric ideology, Amazon is the best place to find new potential customers and expand your ecommerce business.

It can take some time, effort, and money to start selling on Amazon effectively, but it can be worth the investment. Many mature merchants wish they had entered the game earlier.

Amazon is a very competitive place — hundreds of thousands of merchants selling millions and millions of products. So you will have to be smart to stand out, and use all the marketing tools Amazon can offer. But, again, the potential profit is absolutely worth trying.

Start selling on Amazon today with Ecwid. Sync your Amazon Pro account with an online store to manage both sales channels in a single admin and save time without losing effectiveness. If you don’t have an Ecwid store, what are you waiting for? Get one today — it takes just a couple of clicks.

Do You Want to Learn More about Selling on Amazon?

About The Author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.