Before you can submit your application for an Amazon Seller Central account, you must choose an account that is either individual or professional. Many wannabe sellers get caught up on this question. It’s intimidating and overwhelming to make a decision that might affect the business that you haven’t even fully started yet. You’re not the first nor will you be the last to be confused by this option.
To help you figure out what will work best for your business goals, we’re going to break down the differences between an individual account and a professional account. We want you to have all the information so you can make the best decision for you, your family, and your business. So let’s get to it.
The Cost Difference Between Individual and Professional Accounts
Right off the bat, you’ll notice that an individual account is “free” while the professional account has a monthly fee of $39.99. We used quotes there because the individual account is really a pay-as-you-go situation, meaning that for every item that you sell, you will be charged $0.99. Yes, your goal is to make money with your business—not lose money—so you may think that the individual account is for you.
Let’s break it down.
A professional account pays $39.99 per month no matter how many items their company sells. If on average a professional account sells 100 items, then they’re only paying about $0.39 cents per item sold. If they sell more items, the average cost drops even lower. However, if a professional account sells 20 items per month, they end up paying $1.99 per item.
Meanwhile, an individual account pays $0.99 for every item sold no matter what. If the individual account sells 10 items in a month, then they’ll pay Amazon $9.90 in a month. That’s not bad, right? But say the individual account hits the jackpot of product and sells 50 units, they’ll end up paying $49.50 that month, which is $10 more than a professional account pays!
As you’re considering the goals of your Amazon Seller Central account, determine how many items you plan to sell throughout the month so that you’re making your money work as hard as you are!
Listing Products
When it comes to listing products for your business, the individual and professional accounts offer different options. For example, an individual account requires that you list each item individually, but with a professional account, you can use 3rd party services to batch list your products and print your labels. Inventory Lab is the standard that most Amazon sellers use. You can get a free trial here: bit.ly/HustleIL. Inventory Lab also comes with a free subscription to Scoutify 2, the scanning app we strongly prefer to use when out sourcing for products.
Another thing to know about listing products is that an individual account cannot list never-before-listed items to Amazon. While this is fine if you only ever want to deal with retail arbitrage and FBA listing if you want to list a new product, you’ll want to have a professional account.
Restricted Categories
Amazon has a number of ways that it works to ensure the quality of the items sent to customers. One of the ways it does this is to have restricted or gated categories for products. Yes, this can be annoying!
For the most part, individual accounts will never have the opportunity to gain access to these categories whereas professional accounts can eventually level up to selling in these restricted categories as they gain trust.
Professional accounts have the possibility to sell in the following categories, whereas individual accounts cannot:
- Automotive
- Beauty products
- Clothing and accessories
- Collectible coins
- Collectibles (books, entertainment, historical and advertising, and sports)
- Fine art
- Health and personal care
- Jewelry
- Luggage and travel accessories
- Powersports
- Shoes, handbags, and sunglasses
- Video, DVD, and Blu-Ray
- Watches
- Wine
Buy Box
You know when you’re on Amazon, and you click “add to cart” or “buy now”, selecting the presented option? Yeah, that’s the buy box. Most buyers don’t realize that they can check other sellers, and they just buy the first thing presented to them in the buy box.
When a seller holds the buy box, inventory will fly off of Amazon’s warehouse shelves. That’s what you want. While Amazon keeps its buy box algorithm private, here’s the thing to know: officially, according to Amazon, your items are only eligible for the buy box if you have a professional Seller Central account. While this is often true, we have known instances where individual sellers have won the buy box. However, officially, you are much less likely to get the buy box as an individual seller.
Other Possible Features with the Professional Account
It shouldn’t be surprising that the professional Amazon Seller Central account comes with more features than the “free” individual account. The professional account includes access to cost-per-click (CPC) advertising, possible sales tax collection, sponsored products, inventory reports, data feeds, marketplace web services, and third-party services.
Finally, as you’re trying to figure out which account will benefit your business best, here are a few questions to ask yourself about your goals.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- How much do you plan to sell?
- What type of products do you want to sell?
- What kind of features and services do you want from Amazon?
Do not fear. If you choose an individual or professional account and it’s not matching your business, you can switch. Here’s how: log in to your account, click “Account Info” under Settings, jump to the Your Services section, click “Manage,” and select “Upgrade” to go from individual to professional or opt for “Downgrade” to go from professional to individual. You can change your account at any time, and the change is effective immediately.
Okay, so we know this is a lot of information to take in, and you might not be certain on which account is for you. It is overwhelming to make decisions for something when you’re not sure how things are going to go! Since we’ve been where you are, we decided to create an easy-to-follow video in our beginner kick-start that lays it all out for you step by step.
Also, if you are just starting out, be sure to take advantage of our awesome, positive Facebook community of online sellers at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HustleBuddies/, as well as our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/HustleBuddiesOfficial. Below is Nate’s video on 4 things beginning sellers often ask!
