How to Open an Amazon Seller Account, Step by Step
Your seller account is the first thing every Amazon business needs. It takes a few hours of forms and a few days of waiting. Here’s what to have ready, every step of the sign-up, and how my own account is set up for wholesale.
Go to sell.amazon.com, pick a selling plan and fill in five steps: business information, seller information, billing, your store, and identity verification. Have your ID, a recent bank statement or utility bill, a bank account and a credit card ready. Amazon then checks your identity, often with a short video call, and that usually takes three business days or less. For wholesale, pick the Professional plan and set up your LLC and EIN first.
Every student I coach goes through this sign-up early on, and the same few details trip people up. Almost all of them come down to information that doesn’t match. Get that right and the whole thing is just paperwork.
Individual or Professional plan?
Amazon has two selling plans. Individual has no monthly fee but charges $0.99 for every item you sell. Professional is $39.99 a month plus selling fees, with no per-item charge. You can switch or cancel your plan any time after you register.
For wholesale, go Professional from day one. You buy in cases, so you’ll pass 40 sales a month quickly, and it’s the plan with the tools volume sellers use, like bulk listing and reports. The rest of the fees are in every Amazon FBA fee explained.
What you need before you start
- An email address for the account. Use your business email.
- A government-issued ID, like a passport or driver’s license.
- Proof of address from the last 180 days, like a bank statement or utility bill.
- A bank account for your payouts, with its routing number.
- A credit card that can be charged internationally.
- A phone number.
- Your business and tax details. For an LLC: the legal name, address and EIN, exactly as on your papers.
For wholesale, open the seller account after your LLC is formed and you have the EIN and a business bank account. That’s the order I give my students, so the account is set up under the business from the start. Here’s how to get the LLC and EIN.
Stuck somewhere in the sign-up or verification? Book a free call and we’ll go through it together.
How to sign up, step by step
Start at sell.amazon.com, choose your plan and create your login. Then Amazon walks you through five steps:
- Business information. Where your business is, what type it is, and its legal name, address and phone number. For an LLC, type it exactly as it appears on your formation papers.
- Seller information. Your details as the main contact, with your ID.
- Billing information. The credit card Amazon charges for the plan and fees, and the bank account where it sends your payouts.
- Store and product information. Your store name and a few questions about what you plan to sell.
- Identity verification. Upload your ID and proof of address, then confirm it’s really you. More on that below.
How Amazon verifies your identity
This is the step people worry about, and it’s simpler than it sounds. You upload a government-issued ID and proof of your address dated within the last 180 days. Then you either take a photo of your face with your ID, or join a short video call with an Amazon associate and show the same original documents. Amazon says verification usually takes three business days or less.
Two things get people stuck:
- Details that don’t match. The name and address you typed must match your documents exactly, down to the suite number.
- Bad scans. Amazon wants clear color scans or photos that show all four corners. No screenshots, nothing blurry or cropped.
What your account looks like once it’s live
Once you’re verified, everything about your account sits in Seller Central under Settings, Account Info. Here’s mine:
Notice the four countries. Amazon groups the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil together as the Americas, under one plan. You don’t have to sell in all of them. I sell on the US marketplace.
Can you change your plan later?
Yes, any time. In Seller Central, go to Settings, Account Info, then Selling On Amazon under Manage Your Services, pick the other plan and apply the change.
Is there a separate Amazon wholesale seller account?
No. You sell wholesale through a normal Professional seller account. When people talk about opening a “wholesale account,” they usually mean an account with a distributor, so you can buy from them. That’s a different application, and I cover it in how to open an Amazon wholesale account. Living outside the US? Here’s how to sell on Amazon USA from another country.
Mistakes to avoid
- Picking Individual to save money. For wholesale you’ll pass 40 sales a month fast, and then Professional is cheaper anyway.
- Typing details differently. Your business name and address must match your documents exactly.
- Blurry or cropped documents. Show all four corners, and never upload a screenshot.
- Old proof of address. It has to be from the last 180 days.
- Registering before your LLC is ready. For wholesale, form the LLC and get the EIN first.
Once you’re verified, the next steps are a prep center and your first suppliers. The full order is in how to start Amazon wholesale.
How the model works, finding real suppliers, getting approved, checking the numbers, and placing your first order. Free, no credit card.